James Lee Stanley

Patter Between Songs

A couple of weeks ago I was at a show and noticed how unengaging the between song patter was from the fellow on stage. 

Fortunately, he had a self deprecating sense of humor that got him out before it actually got boring, but it made me realize that as an artist, you need to pay as much attention to what you are saying between songs as you do to the songs themselves.

I come from the tradition of talking to the audience between songs and all the people that I emulate are people who were successful doing that.   I like to make people laugh and I think it makes for a more rounded performance;   more entertaining and more engaging. 

Nothing turns me off more than a performer just wagging on and on and  not saying anything I am interested in or entertained by.   If you don’t care about entertaining, then perhaps you should not be in the spotlight.   I am not saying that everyone has to be Robin Williams (www.robinwilliams.com), just that if you are going to talk, make it entertaining...somehow.

One of the mistakes this fellow made was to talk about his CD between every song.   He hammered us with the fact that he had a CD for sale and I noticed at the merch table that he seemed to sell his CD’s to people that already knew and loved him.  He didn't seem to sell to any new people and you have to to that  to grow; to spread the gospel of your music.

I believe that if you hammer strangers over and over about your CD, it turns them off.

I make my CD sales pitch before the last song and I have made the pitch as funny as I know how.   And it works.  I almost always do half the house.   If  I could only move into the amphitheatre with those kinds of statistics.

The best way to tell how you are doing with your patter and your set is to record it and listen to it on the way home.  

And by the way, when you are recording make certain that you get the audience on the recording as well.  That way you can actually hear what their reactions to your  patter are.    You can’t tell if something is funny or not, if you don’t hear the laughter after the punch line.

As you listen to yourself, see if you can shorten the set ups.   There is a thing I call the comedic balance.  The set up cannot be bigger than the punchline or the joke/story just lies there.   The painful shaggy dog story, if you will.

Figure out what really matters in what you are saying; figure out what moves the story or joke or whatever along, and what doesn’t, just let go.    You can tell the same story but with more brevity.   This is more effective and keeps your audience engaged.

And you needn’t talk after every song.   Unless you are really funny, it just slows the show done and demonstrates that you are an amateur.    This is not a good look for anyone.