Stop Stage Anxiety With These 3 Pantomime Secrets
Ed Darling
5 min read
What you’ll learn:
- How to feel relaxed and spontaneous while speaking.
- A real life story from a client we worked with.
- How to transform mishaps into memorable moments.
Stage anxiety? It's behind you!
Ridiculous costumes, slapstick comedy and adult innuendos.
Can pantomime really teach us anything about speaking in public?
After performing in hundreds of theatres and pantomime shows, I’ve witnessed the dreaded “stage fright” many times.
It’s a problem that plagues the professional world too – making pitches and presentations a nightmare for many.
I CAN’T promise that adding a “cream-pie to the face” routine will improve your next board meeting (it might liven things up?)
But I CAN promise these 3 theatrical secrets will help you to feel calm, composed and present the next time you have to “perform”.
Let the show begin…
Balance professionalism with playfulness.
Pantomime might seem an easy craft compared to traditional theatre, but it takes skill & preparation.
For the absurd characters and chaotic scenes to actually work, every moment must be carefully choreographed.
Entrances and exits marked.
Stage positioning planned.
It’s only from this diligence in the rehearsal process that the actors are then free to have fun and improvise during the performance.
This spontaneity is what makes pantomime so enjoyable to watch – knowing that anything could happen on the night.
Actors understand the importance of this balance between professionalism in rehearsals, and playfulness on stage.
But what about stage anxiety when public speaking?
Anxious speakers tend to get this balance completely wrong.
Firstly, they often fail to put in enough rehearsal time beforehand.
It’s easy to understand why – when the thought of stepping on stage fills you with dread, you don’t want to think about your topic, slides or stories.
So you end up procrastinating until the last minute.
Then, when the day comes and you’re faced with an expectant audience – any idea of enjoyment goes right out the window.
Instead, it becomes a bitter battle to bottle up the nerves and “look professional” while your insides are churning.
The result?
Presentations that are painful for the speaker, and painful for their audience!
There’s a common misconception that to enjoy yourself would somehow show a lack of professionalism.
But on the contrary, whether you’re in a theatre or a meeting room – all audiences appreciate a touch of humour and personality.
If you enjoy speaking, they’ll enjoy listening.
(If your presentations are data-heavy or technical, it’s even more important to strike this balance.)
From stage anxiety to boardroom brilliance.
Last year I worked with a great marketing director who was preparing to give a presentation to the board.
He wanted to talk about the history and journey of the business.
Done the typical way, this would have been just another dry power-point.
Instead, we decided to dive into the speech using the metaphor of human evolution to talk about the company’s progression – from “early man” to “hunter gatherers” and finally “advanced civilization”.
For my client, this meant taking a leap of faith.
Would the company execs appreciate this novel approach?
Well, not only did his bold choice make everyone sit-up and listen — it allowed the whole presentation to become more humorous, playful and memorable.
The whole thing went down a treat… even with the most “professional” colleagues.
Up next, what about when things go wrong…?
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Transform misshaps into memorable moments.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from 150+ pantomime shows, it’s that things WILL go wrong.
I’ve experienced first-hand:
- Microphones stopping mid-performance.
- Critical sound effects not playing.
- Actors forget their lines as the room falls silent.
- Once, the actual set fell down around me mid-show while the entire audience (and cast) broke into fits of laughter.
In traditional theatre, any of these would be an embarrassing mess.
But in pantomime, it becomes the BEST part – why?
Because the actors learn to roll with these chaotic situations, and if something goes terribly wrong, they never try to hide it.
In fact, they actually draw attention to the problem and make even more fun of it.
This is the secret to transform misshaps into memorable moments.
Can this help stage anxiety in the professional world?
Anxious speakers treat presentations as if they’re deathly-serious.
God forbid they forget a line, drop their notes, or have an issue with their slides.
But are any of these really catastrophic?
We worry that in a professional setting people would be quick to judge. But generally, people’s judgement is based on how you react.
If you feel desperately embarrassed by losing your train of thought, your audience will feel that awkwardness too.
If you carry on without worrying about it, so will they!
Better still, if you can draw attention to a mishap and make fun of it with some self-deprecating humour, your audience will respect you even more.
Here’s an example of Elon Musk attempting to play off a live mishap with humour.
Could he have handled it better?
Hopefully nothing quite so awkward will happen to you when speaking in public.
But when mistakes happen (and they will) be ready to transform them into memorable moments by reacting with humour and nonchalance.
Reduce your stage anxiety by sharing the lime-light.
Audience engagement is important to public speaking.
But Pantomime takes it to whole new levels.
…Oh yes it does!
(Last one, promise.)
In pantomime, the audience gets to shout out catch-phrases, communicate directly with the performers and sometimes even get up on the stage themselves.
It means the audience is as much a part of the show as the performers.
Your objective when speaking in public may be primarily to educate or inspire, rather than to entertain.
But all of these first require you to engage.
Stage anxiety disperses when you involve your audience.
Nervous speakers often view presentations as a “monologue” they have to recite.
All the pressure and attention is on them.
Is it any wonder they feel the surge of stage anxiety?
Instead, take the pressure off yourself by allowing your audience to share in some of that lime-light.
See yourself as the director of the show.
Someone who leads the conversation and finds opportunities to get everyone involved.
In doing so, you can create a powerful sense of shared experience for your audience, while alleviating some of the pressure on yourself.
People love listening to an engaging speaker, but they love even more to be involved.
Use these theatrical secrets to calm your own stage anxiety.
The next time you’re speaking professionally, remember it’s not all spread-sheets and serious business.
People are people – we all want novelty, we all want fun, we all want to be engaged.
Use these Pantomime secrets to start enjoying your time on stage, rather than fearing it.
- Balance professionalism with playfulness to feel more relaxed and spontaneous.
- Dispel anxiety by transforming mishaps into memorable moments.
- Relieve the pressure by involving your audience in a shared experience.
More than anything, Pantomime has taught me to take things less seriously and stop needing everything to be perfect.
So let go of your expectations.
Enjoy the experience as it plays out.
& remember — all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.