2/14/24 The One Thing You Should Never Forget to Bring on Stage

I had a chance to see a wonderful new doc about Jerry Lee Lewis last night called Trouble in Mind. It was a flood of conflicting emotions as we watch him perform and hear him speak in interviews—we see the strengths, the faults, the hypocrisies, the faith.

And it made me think about what it is that attracts us to performers. What is that charisma? What is the fascination that works like a magnet on our attention?

I was reminded of something the great dancer Anna Sokolow said in a class I was lucky enough to take with her many, many years ago. She said, “The most important thing you bring to the stage is energy.”

When you watch Jerry Lee, you don’t think, “Oh, he’s the greatest virtuoso pianist to ever play the instrument.” You marvel at how crazed he is, how 100% he is committed to the music, physically, vocally, emotionally.

You wonder, what is the source of that blaze of energy?

Jerry Lee didn’t want to just play a gig and get paid. He wanted you to see THE GREATEST SHOW YOU’VE EVER SEEN IN YOUR LIFE. All caps.

And we all want to see the greatest show we’ve ever seen in our lives, right? That’s why we buy tickets to see our favorite performers when they come to town.

But what would make anyone have the gumption to think that they were capable of delivering the greatest show ever? And this was a guy who played over 300 dates a year at that manic energy level.

It takes a kind of ego that is almost beyond a day-to-day ego. It requires a kind of messianic complex.

And that can be problematic. We’ve seen lots of examples of that going south in people like Kanye and others.

But if you think of all the great performers in music, the arts, in sports, and even in business and other fields, you’ll find that they all have a kind of commitment to what they’re doing that is unshakable. They believe in themselves because they believe they are special. That they have a gift that no one else has.

That sense of being inherently special speaks to the most instinctive level of our consciousness—that we are the most important thing in the world to us. It’s the bone-deep understanding that we are inherently special because we are a complete, discreet living being, and everything else is simply not us.

And that isn’t necessarily in direct conflict with humility. You can acknowledge others who are great, but when it comes to what you do—you are the best. You are the best YOU in the world. It’s not even debatable, because you are the only you in the world.

And it’s that commitment to the idea that you are special—you are THE BEST IN THE WORLD EVER at being you—that’s what fuels that blaze of energy. (Well, that and some whiskey in Jerry Lee’s case.)

Thelonious Monk said it best. “A genius is the one most like himself.”

You don’t have to believe you’re the best at your instrument in the whole world.

That’s because you’re the only one in the world who plays your instrument like you. And performers like Jerry Lee Lewis prove to us that we are all good enough, we are all special and we can all deliver the greatest show any one has ever seen, and not just another gig.

All we need to bring is energy.

Groove on,
--Tracy






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