Thread: Performers - playing to your strengths or playing it safe?

Hi everyone,
There was a really interesting thread being discussed on here last week about a 'sad' act, I meant to put my question in on that one but rather than bogart that thread I am starting my own so please excuse me if there is a little crossover subject-wise.

The act that I am currently, very slowly, working on has a sad theme and (probably) no strip . There are a lot of great acts out there with no stripping in them and for this particular narrative stripping would be neither neccessary nor would it really make sense. So I'm not to worried about the no- stripping bit - although if in working on my act it morphs into something where strip becomes neccessary/improves the act then so be it.

However - I am a bit worried about my sad theme. The more I am ploughing into this the more I am feeling a really strong temptation to try and combine the sad theme with a little humour. I feel that some of the conventions of playing the act totally straight would mean it would be harder to follow for the audience. If there is some element of humour despite the sad theme, I feel it would be easier and would fit better to be a little less abstract. In a totally straight, sad act it is more likely that obvious gestures and portrayals of emotion will look over-blown making it look unintentionally silly. Whereas in an act that mixes humour and sadness the same gestures seem to fit better.

I also feel that as a perfomer, playing a role with some humour to it comes more naturally to me - trying to create a clear narrative without such obvious devices can be really tricky for me.

So, if I choose to move towards combining humour and sadness am I playing to my strengths or just playing it safe? Do performers/audience goers feel that the comedic element will lessen the overall sadness of the piece to its detriment or that it might add something and make an act that could be quite heavy and pretentious a bit lighter and more accessible?
Any thoughts or comments on this are appreciated... I really want this act to be something special but I don't want people to watch it not understand what's going on. Nor do I want to do something that ends up being too similar to my other acts just because I was nervous of trying something new.

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Play to your strengths, say I - if for no other reason than it gives you a head start. If, once you've worked it out, you find that you'd prefer to drop the humorous aspects, then do it. But sticking to what you know at first will probably make it easier to flesh out the concept.

I think that having a comedic element would work very well in creating contrast. If the act is sad all the way through it could end up being a little unaccessible - whereas adding in touches of comedy will make the sadness all the more poignant in contrast. This would work especially well if you start off with comedic elements and then build up to a sad finish. Or you could try going down the black comedy route, for something a bit different?

Hi Emerald,

I'd say that playing to your strengths is playing it safe.

If you want your performance to be the best it can be, then only play to your strengths. This doesn't mean to say, don't experiment - by all means! You may discover some new abilities or perhaps incidentally hone others.

Burlesque by nature should have a sense of humour so if the act was devoid of any humour (even dark) it would probably not be a burlesque - as it doesn't send anything up. Performance art however, can be pretty much anything though so it depends on who you are performing for.

Perhaps it's always good to ask, who am I performing this act for? A burlesque audience? An avant-garde audience or is it perhaps even for myself?

Trust your instinct and as you say, let it morph. The best acts are organically refined over time - when good performers listen to good feedback.

I think it would be interesting to see a 'sad' act. There are a lot of humourous acts out (which you do fantastically Emerald) and I think it would be a great contrast at an event and I imagine it would stand out. Also I love acts with little or no stripping as they often are more focused on a story line or movements of the performer.

I'm also planning a sad act but I don't think I have enough of a stage presence to pull it off! xxxx

Thanks for the advice guys! I was finding it a little difficult to convey exactly what I wanted to without injecting a little humour. Now that I am considering combining a sad theme with a few lighter-hearted touches it makes the whole thing seem much more do-able.
Plus! After reading the posts on here I had a genius idea of how to finish the act which would never have worked if the act was totally straight... but in a weird way although my big finish is kind of funny (to me anyway) it is also the ultimate tragic ending.

Thanks so much for the support and advice, I was beginning to feel like I was hitting a bit of a wall with this act but listening to people's comments and deciding to work with my strengths instead of totally away from them has given me a new burst of enthusiasm about this act.

Now I just have to get my driving test out of the way (prefferably by passing it!) so I can start ploughing money into costuming!