All language subtitles for Masterclass Steve Martin Teaches Comedy - 14. Nerves, Hecklers, and Bombing

I want to be clear about stage anxiety

or stage fright.

It's mostly what you'd call excitement.

So, it's not real anxiety. real anxiety

will take you off the stage because

it's it's free floating. It's not you're

not saying I'm nervous because of the

show. You're feeling something

otherworldly with real anxiety. So

distinguish between just nerves which I

get too, you know, get which I really

just call excitement. It's not it's no

longer anxiety. I did have anxiety in my

life and the only thing that got over

that was understanding what it was and

time and um

so you know embrace your nerves and just

know that it's really part of it. That's

an easy thing to say and not an easy

thing to do because then I would never

be nervous but I still do get nervous.

you just wanting to do well or kicking

yourself if you blew a line somehow.

When you think about it,

you're going out in a very vulnerable

situation. It's very natural to have

nerves.

Never look at the audience.

Look over their heads. Look somewhere

else. look into the darkness maybe

occasionally because what you're going

to see is people not laughing. I

remember being in an arena. I was

talking about this with Jerry Seinfeld

the other day, you know, playing for

18,000 people and I'd hear the biggest

laugh I've ever heard and I'd look out

in the audience and be one out of 20

laughing, you know, because there's

people there's people being thoughtful,

too. They're watching it. I've been to

plays

where I I was aware I wasn't laughing,

but I thought it was really funny and I

loved it afterwards. And we talk about

that all that all the time in theater.

It's like you think the audience is dead

and then at the end they leap to their

feet with the biggest roar that you've

had that week. I had a really fine agent

in the 70s named Marty Klein. Talked

about him before. And I'd come off and

I'd say, "God, it was fantastic night.

It was fantastic." And he would say,

"It's okay." I go really and then

another night I'd do what I shot thought

was an average show and he'd come up and

say that was one of the most special

shows. So you don't know what people are

thinking what's going on out there. You

might be killing them and there's, you

know, 10 people going, I hate this.

Ostensibly, you hear them not laughing.

So, you think you lost them, but if you

don't ever acknowledge that you lost

them, they may not know that that you

lost them or you think you lost them. I

I used to think

uh by the way, at the time, a ticket

price was $10. I'd say, "These people

paid $10 to see this. I've got to

deliver. I can't be lax. I want to go

out there and make it worth their while.

And that's another way to look at your

performance. Say, I have an obligation

here. So,

don't undercut yourself by thinking this

is a terrible audience.

Deliver, you know, deliver.

Vegas is a great place to play now. You

go there, they have beautiful theaters,

uh, in rows, uh, aisles, seats, but in

the 70s, the 80s, the rooms were very

different. They were the big booths.

They tried to be VIP type booths and

people are sitting like this and they're

spread out. So, they never really

cohered as an audience. They were it was

like a group of individuals. And so

here's my impression

of what it was like to play the dinner

show uh in Las Vegas. I would be opening

say for Ann Margaret and you'd hear it's

it's the dinner so you'd be off stage

and you hear this

and say now

ladies and gentlemen

the comedy stylings of

Steve Martin.

there's there's there's nothing like it

when you're playing uh where where

people are eating because they're always

halfinter interested. So you can't

maintain uh you know a flow they're

going like this uh oh

then distraction and then oh what uh and

you can't blame them it's not their

fault. Uh it's just if you could avoid

the dinner show and and they stopped it

actually they stopped it and and now

it's a fantastic place to play. In fact,

one of my favorite theaters is in Las

Vegas.

What do you think about engagement with

the audience? And are there certain

points or where are those certain points

or like where's where are you letting

that wall break or bend in terms of uh

talking to the audience?

I wouldn't let them get in there.

Not at all.

Not at all. No. No. They're going to

screw you up if they start talking back.

I mean, you can if you do that joke,

let's say that's an example of a joke

and I've really enjoyed this audience,

not you, or did it at the top, I could

tell I like this audience except for

you. This stupid joke probably done a

million times. Don't give them that

opening because it's it's it's not a

party. You're in charge. I I I I'm uh

some people can do it successfully, but

you know, the the I I think uh if you

think of the big comedians, it's a big

shutdown. It's it's them and they're

watching and they're not part of it.

They paid to see you.

Uh you didn't pay to see them.

Uh and they're not as good as you are.

You know, they're just not. And every

once in a while, somebody gets a line.

You don't you don't want to encourage

that talking. When I would uh uh be

performing, I I could smell trouble. I I

would do either two things. I'd just

start getting into the mic so they

couldn't even be heard talking and keep

talking and don't let break that

sentence until you feel them done. Um,

don't don't look at a heckler.

Don't engage them. Make them feel

stupid. Uh, usually the audience will

shut them up maybe. I don't know how

things are today. Um, another thing I

did was talk start talking very quietly

like this. And then I found out that the

audience would go sh, you know, the

persons who's talking. But unless you're

making, you know, unless you're making

it a party intentionally, that's

different. You know, that could be a

style. Um,

anybody else or go eat? What do you

think? I'm not that hungry.

I feel sorry for uh some younger

comedians who don't get to bomb,

you know, for years and years and years.

In Amy Schumer's uh autobiography, she

talks about bombing,

you know, but she had the uh and I did

too, the camaraderie of other people

doing the same thing. and you you can

sort of uh socialize your anxieties away

because everybody's having a communal

experience. But the best thing to do is

not rely on your material and rely on

your personality because your

personality is always working. Your

personality doesn't require laughs.

um your say position of your comedy, the

the place it starts from doesn't rely on

laughs. It's going to be funny

even if nobody's laughing. And that's

ideally what you're shooting for is that

you can survive no laughs and still

somebody's going to say that guy's funny

or she was funny. The value in bombing,

of course, is is uh knowing how your

material works on the worst of nights. I

wouldn't I mean, unless you're quitting

the business, say, "Wow, I'm bombing

really badly. Good night, everybody."

You know,