{"id":296,"date":"2016-11-27T23:36:10","date_gmt":"2016-11-27T21:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/speaktherainbow.com\/?p=296"},"modified":"2016-12-01T22:42:45","modified_gmt":"2016-12-01T20:42:45","slug":"what-the-audience-wants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/speaktherainbow.com\/index.php\/2016\/11\/27\/what-the-audience-wants\/","title":{"rendered":"10 things an audience wants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"53ec53a1b5d1f_large\"\u00a0I woke up motivated to get to grips with the<\/strong> all important question we need to answer: What do audiences want?<\/p>\n

I grabbed a coffee and googled 80-year-old comedian with ukulele<\/strong>. Weird choice, right? The ukulele is hardly the instrument you imagine when thinking about what an audience wants. Yet I have performed at comedy nights with D’yan Forest<\/a>, an 82-year-old woman, who steals the show with her ukulele and bawdy songs. I have also seen a Toastmaster friend repeatedly win over audiences using a ukulele as a prop. And I’ll never forget how he rocked a room of 250 Toastmasters from all over Europe with his ukulele speech to win the District 59 Humor contest.<\/p>\n

My google search for D’yan Forest brought up – surprise, surprise- another ukulele player who naturally captured my attention: the 12- year-old Grace Vanderwaal<\/a> whose overnight success began with her first performance on America’s Got Talent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These three diverse examples of unexpected success prove that anything is possible, anything goes, as long as you satisfy the audience’s desire for 10 things. Audiences want:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. to be taken seriously<\/li>\n
  2. to connect<\/li>\n
  3. something to happen<\/li>\n
  4. emotions<\/li>\n
  5. energy<\/li>\n
  6. joy<\/li>\n
  7. hope<\/li>\n
  8. vision<\/li>\n
  9. depth<\/li>\n
  10. soul<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The first three points come from Hugh Mackay’s book What Makes Us Tick? The 10 Desires That Drive Us.<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>I learnt about the performance implications of Mackay’s ideas during an improvisation workshop called Beyond Creativity<\/em> given in Paris last summer by Australian Nick Byrne<\/a>. Through a series of bizarre, non-verbal and verbal activities we demonstated to ourselves that audiences react to drivers that performers use. Essentially audiences are led by these drivers to fill in the details in their own minds and give the show or speech their own meaning<\/em><\/strong>. Read that again as it offers a HUGE revelation.<\/p>\n

    The concept of drivers was the game changer for me and I expanded on Mackay’s ideas to make my \u00a0speak the rainbow theory that colorful connections are possible using the drivers of emotions, energy, joy, hope, vision, depth, and soul. Need proof?<\/p>\n

    Watch Grace Vanderwaal’s first performance on America’s Got Talent and notice how the jury begins by asking her questions to know if she<\/em> takes them seriously<\/strong>. Then notice how both jury and audience are waiting for something to happen<\/strong>. Enjoy her amazing performance and then watch it again analyzing how, from the moment she steps on stage, Grace connects <\/strong>with the audience\u00a0by creating all the rainbow colors.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n