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NYT Article on Smart Apps for Stage Fright
A recent article in the Personal Tech section of the New York Times reviews a number of smartphone apps that supposedly help people deal with their stage fright. While the apps considered are interesting, none really get to the heart of the problem with stage fright and are of limited help.
Zayn Malik’s Stage Fright No Show
It was to be a triumphant moment as a solo artist fo former One Direction member Zayn Malik, but stage fright got in the way He had returned to the UK to appear at the Summertime Ball at Wembley Stadium along with Ariana Grande and Little Mix. At the last minute, though, nerves got the better of him, and he canceled his appearance.
Forthright
To his credit, Malik was forthright and even apologetic about why he bailed on his performance. He posted on Instagram:
To all those people who have been waiting to see me perform at the Capital Summertime Ball today. I flew into the UK last night to appear in my home country in front of my family, friends, and most importantly my UK fans.
Unfortunately, my anxiety that has haunted me throughout the last few months around live performances has gotten the better of me … with the magnitude of the event, I have suffered the worst anxiety of my career.
He went on to write, “I know those who suffer anxiety will understand, and I hope those who don’t can empathise with my situation.”
Why?
So, how is it that a veteran performer like Zayn Malik could experience such intense stage fright that he felt compelled to disappoint fans, renege on a contracted performance, and squander an important moment in his career?
Sadly, successful experience as a performer, even the sort of success Malik enjoyed with One Direction, doesn’t necessarily make one immune from stage fright.
With straightforward situations, acclimation often serves as an answer. You learn through experience that the source of your anxiety holds no real danger. When you do, your fear naturally melts away.
The Audience’s Judgment
Acclimation doesn’t tend to work with stage fright because the presence of an audience complicates things. Two criteria are at play when we experience stage fright. The first is that we do something in front of an audience. The second is that we are judged on it or at least feel we’re being judged.
And such judgment can often constitute a true threat. For Malik, it might be something like the audience deciding that he’s not as good of a performer solo as he was a member of One Direction (given what he says about his anxiety “throughout the last few months.” That could be a career-damaging judgment. It would also be quite understandable if he had such stage-fright inducing thoughts running through his head in the run up to the Summertime Ball.
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So, what do you think? Are you a fellow sufferer of anxiety who understands Malik’s dilemma? If not, do you at least empathize with it?
Anxiety Robs Australian Swimmers at Olympics
The Olympic Games in Rio should have provided Australian swimmers with lots of opportunities for glory. Going into the Games, there was even talk of them winning up to ten gold medals. The actual take turned out to be just a fraction of that.
Backstroke king Mitch Larkin took home one silver medal rather than two gold, freestyle star Cate Campbell came in sixth in 100m freestyle, and Cameron McEvoy came in worse at seventh in the men’s version of the same event. These provided the biggest disappointments for the Aussies, but there were others.
What happened to a team expected to do so much better?
Stage Fright
The head coach of the Australian team, Jacco Verhaeren, chalked up Campbell’s lackluster performance to nerves. He said the same about McEvoy. It was a candid admission.
It’s hard to find a different explanation for well-trained swimmers who had been the fastest in the world earlier in the year.
Is it possible that nerves could spell the difference between putting in a gold-medal performance and finishing as an also-ran? It seems plausible given that the separation in time between one swimmer and the next can be one one-hundredth of a second.
Fight, Flight or Flee
An online Yahoo Sports article about the Australian meltdown points out that both Campbell and McEvoy faltered at the beginning of their races. Campbell “flinched” and McEvoy “froze.” Both are classic symptoms of the fight, flight or freeze response associated with stage fright and other forms of performance anxiety, including the type of competition anxiety that athletes experience.
But why would the performance of Campbell and McEvoy be compromised by stage fright at the Olympics and not other competitions?
Three Criteria
As I explain in Understanding Stage Fright, three criteria are at play when performance anxiety strikes.
- You do something in front of others (an audience)
- They judge you on it (or at least you feel you’re being judged)
- The judgment constitutes some sort of threat
The first two of these criteria are certainly at play at the Olympics. Athletes perform for a worldwide audience of millions and judged on their performance down to the fraction of a second.
What varies from one athlete to the next is to what extent that judgment constitutes a threat (if you don’t do well). You can see in the relaxed demeanor of, say, a Usain Bolt before a race, that he feels no threat at all. Nor should he. After all, he’s proven time and again that he’s the fastest man on the planet.
For whatever reason, Campbell and McEvoy saw their races as constituting an elevated threat. And who can blame them? The hopes and dreams of an entire nation were riding on their backs in front of a worldwide audience.
Not Just Australian Swimmers
Competition anxiety likely plays a bigger role in determining the results at the Olympics than we realize. Television announcers occasionally make reference to it and a candid coach or athlete will sometimes fess up. However, it goes largely unrecognized, just as it does in other sporting events.
What do you think? Have you ever suffered from competition anxiety? Feel free to comment below.
Adele’s Fear of the Stage
No popular artist is bigger these days than the British singer-songwriter Adele, and few have been as open about their stage fright.
Rolling Stone
In a 2011 interview with Rolling Stone, Adele disclosed about her performance anxiety:
I’m scared of audiences. I get shitty scared. One show in Amsterdam, I was so nervous I escaped out the fire exit. I’ve thrown up a couple of times. Once in Brussels, I projectile-vomited on someone. I just gotta bear it. But I don’t like touring. I have anxiety attacks a lot.
In the same interview, Adele explained the reason behind her performance anxiety:
I mean, the thought of someone spending $20 to come and see me and saying ‘Oh, I prefer the record and she’s completely shattered the illusion’ really upsets me. It’s such a big deal that people come give me their time.
60 Minutes
Adele echoed the same thoughts in a 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper a year later:
Cooper: So how does it manifest itself?
Adele: It starts the minute I wake up. It I know I’ve got a live show, it starts…I mean I just try and just try and putter around and keep myself busy and stuff like that. And then I got to go down and sit down in the chair for a couple of hours, have my hair and makeup done. But it has gotten worse as I’ve become more successful. My nerves. Just because there’s a bit more pressure, and people are expecting a lot more for me.
Cooper: So what’s that fear?
Adele: That I’m not going to deliver. The people are going to enjoy it. That I’ll ruin their love for my songs by doing them live. I feel sick. I get a bit panicky.
Cooper: Have you ever thrown up?
Adele: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, a few times. Projectile.
Oscars
All of this admission of performance anxiety has resulted in somewhat of a public watch when it comes to Adele’s performances. For example, multiple news articles appeared about her attempts to combat her fears ahead of performing her title song from the James Bond movie Skyfall at the 2013 Oscars.
Some reports had her undergoing hypnotherapy in Los Angeles. Others had her studying Chinese Qi Gong breathing techniques. As for her rather lackluster performance that night, speculation ran to some sort of connection between it and performance anxiety.
Beta blockers?
To me, the lack of excitement in her performance suggests that she resorted to using a beta blocker. (Be sure to check out my post on beta blockers and stage fright.)
I’ll be sure to update this post as Adele’s ongoing stage fright saga plays out.
What do you think? Do you have sympathy for Adele and her battle with performance anxiety? Let us know by commenting below.
Stage Fright: What You Absolutely, Positively Need to Know
[cs_content][cs_section parallax=”false” separator_top_type=”none” separator_top_height=”50px” separator_top_angle_point=”50″ separator_bottom_type=”none” separator_bottom_height=”50px” separator_bottom_angle_point=”50″ style=”margin: 0px;padding: 0px 0px 45px;”][cs_row inner_container=”false” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”2/3″ style=”padding: 0px;”][x_custom_headline level=”h1″ looks_like=”h1″ accent=”false” style=”color: hsl(80, 100%, 29%);”]STAGE FRIGHT: What You Absolutely, Positively Need to Know[/x_custom_headline][x_custom_headline level=”h2″ looks_like=”h2″ accent=”false” style=”color: hsl(0, 0%, 40%);”]to find your way beyond it[/x_custom_headline][/cs_column][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/3″ style=”padding: 0px;”] [/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][cs_section parallax=”false” separator_top_type=”none” separator_top_height=”50px” separator_top_angle_point=”50″ separator_bottom_type=”none” separator_bottom_height=”50px” separator_bottom_angle_point=”50″ style=”margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px 0px;”][cs_row inner_container=”false” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”2/3″ style=”padding: 0px;”][cs_text]Do you sometimes think you’re alone in getting stage fright?
It can certainly feel that way since so many performers, public speakers, athletes, and others suffer in silence. But, trust me, you’re far from alone.
Studies show that something like 75% of both performers and public speakers suffer from this menace.
Even 70% of professional orchestra musicians experience such intense fright that it mars their playing.
So you’re certainly not alone in becoming anxious when you perform.
You’ll come to realize it’s really not such a big number once you understand the root causes of stage fright. In fact, its prevalence makes total sense.
Understanding the root causes of stage fright also helps you appreciate why there’s no one-and-done cure for your nervousness.[/cs_text][x_custom_headline level=”h2″ looks_like=”h3″ accent=”false”]Three Factors[/x_custom_headline][cs_text]Three factors are always at play when you experience stage fright. [/cs_text][cs_icon_list][cs_icon_list_item title=”You perform, speak, or compete in front of others (an audience).” type=”check” link_enabled=”false” link_url=”#” link_new_tab=”false”]You perform, speak, or compete in front of others (an audience).[/cs_icon_list_item][cs_icon_list_item title=”The audience somehow judges you.” type=”check” link_enabled=”false” link_url=”#” link_new_tab=”false”]The audience somehow judges you.[/cs_icon_list_item][cs_icon_list_item title=”The judgment constitutes some sort of threat.” type=”check” link_enabled=”false” link_url=”#” link_new_tab=”false”]The judgment constitutes some sort of threat.[/cs_icon_list_item][/cs_icon_list][cs_text]The first of these factors, you perform, spea, or compete in front of an audience others, is pretty much a no brainer.
The second factor, the audience somehow judges you also makes sense if you keep in mind that the judgment can be either formal or informal. How enthusiastically an audience applauds is a type of judgment.
The second factor still holds true even if the audience doesn’t actually judge you, as long as you feel you’re being judged.
Stage fright hinges most on the third factor, the judgment constitutes some sort of threat. Despite being central to stage fright, it often goes unrecognized.
Nevertheless, you get nervous when you perform, speak, or compete because you’re somehow threatened by the audience’s judgment of you.
So, just remember this simple equation:[/cs_text][cs_text class=”cs-ta-center” style=”color: #649600;”]
Stage Fright = Audience + Judgment + Threat[/cs_text][cs_text class=”cs-ta-left”]This formula helps explain why there’s no one-and-done cure for the anxiety you experience as a performer.[/cs_text][/cs_column][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/3″ style=”padding: 0px;”][x_image type=”none” src=”https://goodbyebutterflies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/standing-Fish-to-the-left-bust.png” alt=”” link=”false” href=”#” title=”” target=”” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover” info_content=”” style=”display: block;margin: auto;width: 70%;”][x_blockquote cite=”” type=”center”]Dr. David Lee Fish
educator, performer, author
& stage fright authority[/x_blockquote][x_gap size=”150px”][x_promo image=”https://stagefrightsolution.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/5DS-screens.png” alt=”” style=”margin-left: 5%;width: 90%;”]The Way Beyond Your Stage Fright In just 5 days! Don’t let anxiety sabotage your next performance, presentation, or competition. [button type=”flat” shape=”rounded” size=”large” href=”https://stagefrightsolution.com/5-day/” circle=”true” block=”true” title=”Example”]Tell Me More![/button]
[/x_promo][/cs_column][/cs_row][cs_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/1″ style=”padding: 0px;”][x_raw_content][/x_raw_content][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section]
History of Stage Fright in the Performing Arts
Stage fright—also known as performance anxiety—has been part of the performing arts for ages. Even seasoned actors, musicians, and public speakers can experience it. This phenomenon causes intense fear and nervousness before or during a performance. Here, we explore the history of stage fright, notable instances, and its impact on performing arts.
Ancient Beginnings: Stage Fright in Ancient Greece and Rome
The roots of stage fright trace back to ancient times. The earliest performances in ancient Greece and Rome involved large audiences. Consequently, the pressure to perform well was immense. Greek tragedies and comedies, performed in amphitheaters, could hold thousands of spectators. Actors needed to project their voices and emotions convincingly. Ancient texts suggest they experienced nervousness and anxiety, similar to today’s performers.
Ancient Greek Theater For more on ancient Greek theater, visit the Ancient History Encyclopedia.
The Shakespearean Era: Stage Fright on the Elizabethan Stage
During the Renaissance, stage fright was still common among performers. William Shakespeare‘s plays were performed in bustling theaters like the Globe. Thus, audience expectations were high. Despite their talent, actors often feared forgetting lines or failing to engage the crowd. Some would resort to drinking alcohol to calm their nerves before going on stage.
Learn more about Shakespearean theater at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
19th Century: The Rise of Celebrity Culture and Stage Fright
In the 19th century, celebrity culture in the performing arts rose significantly. Famous actors and musicians like Sarah Bernhardt and Franz Liszt were adored by fans. However, this adoration came with heightened expectations and pressures. Franz Liszt, a virtuoso pianist, suffered from severe stage fright. Despite his talent, he often felt anxious before performances, worrying about living up to his reputation. This era highlighted a paradox: the more celebrated the performer, the greater the anxiety.
For insights on Franz Liszt’s career, check out the Franz Liszt Society.
20th Century: Psychological Insights into Stage Fright
In the 20th century, psychology began shedding light on stage fright’s causes and effects. Sigmund Freud and other psychologists explored the human mind’s response to fear and anxiety. Performers like Laurence Olivier, one of the greatest actors of the 20th century, openly discussed their struggles. Despite his commanding presence on stage, Olivier experienced intense anxiety before performances. He even required medication to manage his symptoms.
Learn more about performance anxiety from the American Psychological Association.
Modern Times: Stage Fright in Contemporary Performers
Today, stage fright remains a universal experience. Even globally recognized artists like Adele and Barbra Streisand have spoken about their struggles. Adele has admitted to vomiting before some shows due to nerves. Barbra Streisand took a long hiatus from live performances after forgetting the lyrics to a song during a concert in 1967. This incident profoundly affected her.
For more about famous performers and their experiences with stage fright, visit Psychology Today.
The Impact of Stage Fright on the Performing Arts
Stage fright significantly impacts the performing arts. While it can be debilitating, it has led to greater understanding and support for performers. Many artists have developed methods for coping with stage fright, such as mindfulness and breathing exercises or seeking professional therapy. This ongoing dialogue helps demystify the condition and fosters a supportive environment within the arts community.
Notable Instances and Anecdotes of Stage Fright
- Sarah Bernhardt: Known as “The Divine Sarah,” she was one of the most famous actresses of the 19th century. Despite her fame, she often experienced stage fright, managing it by focusing intensely on her character and performance.
- Lucille Ball: The beloved star of “I Love Lucy” dealt with severe stage fright throughout her career. She often felt physically ill before performances but used her humor and professionalism to push through.
- Bette Midler: The multi-talented performer has openly discussed her battles with stage fright. She once said, “I get stage fright and gremlins that make me nervous, but I always try to look on the bright side and keep going.”
Conclusion: Embracing Stage Fright in the Performing Arts
Stage fright has been part of the performing arts for centuries. It affects everyone from ancient Greek actors to modern-day superstars. Understanding its history helps us appreciate the bravery and resilience of performers. While stage fright can be a formidable obstacle, ongoing conversations about it have led to better support systems. As we continue to explore this phenomenon, we can foster a more compassionate environment for performers everywhere.
