Train your mind to look at audiences not only with your eyes, but also with intuition and imagination. This will allow you to see what your eyes cannot: souls. In fact, the act of gathering together heightens the vibrations of everyone’s soul and makes it easier to connect and unite. Crowds queue for shows seeking this sensation of heightened awareness and collective unconscious that they secretly know exists in an audience, but many performers are unaware of this, or refuse to integrate this level of consciousness. When you listen to the universe and your audience’s soul, you create the purple end of the rainbow – a very powerful color.
Like the dots I drew in the S of the word Soul, there are invisible connections which will let you form the 8, or infinity loop, with your audience. Listen for these connections even before you perform or speak. Purple begins with introverted introspection. It is Timeless and can be found by listening to your intuition, instincts, and being receptive as you prepare your speech and perform. Synchnonicity will happen to help you connect. Look for it. The words and images your brain receives are the same as those your audience is receiving prior to your show. Put them in your speech. If they resonate with you, they will resonate with the crowd.
Recently, I had a humorous speech to deliver and during the journey to the event I had the idea to use the words “yellow underwear” in my speech. When I gave my speech, I pointed to a well-known audience member and I declared that we had the same habit of wearing “kinky yellow underwear”. I got a laugh with this stupid remark which came from my imagination. However, the real purple connection came later when the same person was called to the stage to chair a part of the show. The audience roared in delight when he revealed to everyone that he was in fact wearing bright yellow underwear. I was off the stage and sitting in the audience when this “purple” connection happened, and yet it was my best line of the night.
Purple speakers are those who instinctively know what the audience wants to hear. They choose topics and subjects which resonate. They express what the audience is thinking or has in mind. Audiences love these speakers because they let people feel they are voicing their opinions publicly. Purple speakers have an awareness and empathy for their audience and listen to reactions. They use silence to connect and let their audience reflect. They are able to spontaneously flow with the audience or give the impression they do.
The best comedians all understand the power of purple. They add touches of interaction with the crowd to give well-crafted and seasoned performances the feel that they are improvised and told for the first time. Night after night, Judah Friedlander entertains by just reacting to questions from the audience. He knows audiences and has stock answers prepared, and yet is so hilarious because of his purple ability to work the crowd. The night I saw his show he singled out my stupid laugh and got a roar of approval by stating what everyone else was thinking – my laugh is ridiculous. A funny purple connection made by listening to his audience.
In his Masterclass “Usher teaches the Art of Performance“, the multi-talented star sets out his very purple rules for captivating an audience: read the room, trust your instincts, listen to the moment, leave room for magic. As an example, he shares what he calls the “outer body experience ” he experienced as he instinctively decided to walk down the stairs to touch Michael Jackson’s casket. He explains he could feel “electricty shoot through his body” from the audience as he expressed exactly what everyone felt and wanted to do in the audience and sitting behind their TVs at home. Watch Usher sing Gone Too Soon and notice how he uses purple pauses and silences to maximize his connection to all those souls he can feel around him.
To recap: Purple is the color of imagination, instinct, intuition, synchronicity, listening, silences, empathy to audience, collective unconscious, and revision. Purple speakers are receptive, adapt to audiences, and constantly revise after a performance to make better connections. Purple is Timeless. Inspiration can be received before, during, and after a performance or speech. Purple unites audiences in an infinity loop with speaker and creates a bond which is memorable and even unbreakable.