When Things Go Wrong

One of the things any performer (for lack of a better term; this could apply to speakers, singers, actors, etc.) must learn is how to react professionally when inevitable mistakes push their way into a presentation. In many cases it just means glossing over the error in such a way that the fact that there was a mistake at all is lost on the vast majority of the audience. In music, for instance, it's proceeding with confidence and without losing composure or giving any indication that there was something going on out of the ordinary.

Of course, there are those catastrophic blunders that are unavoidably obvious, and in that case a quick wit's about the best thing to diffuse the awkwardness. Let's just say that I wouldn't do very well in a case like that.

Another twist on this, though, is when you're speaking to a group of people. You're on the spot, of course, forced to carry the conversation for the duration of your talk or lecture or musical performance. Because of this, everything you do is spotlighted, but often it seems that it's spotlighted by you, the speaker, even more than your audience. I say this because when something goes wrong (say technology malfunctions or you get mixed up in trying to explain something difficult, or ...) the natural tendency of the speaker is to get flustered. The tendency of the audience is to yawn. It doesn't matter to them, they're not going to hold it against you. Unless, perhaps, you lose composure. Then they might get embarrassed or annoyed.

But I think this holds true for most any performance-type situation: mistakes are magnified by that person who makes them. It's really ok, the audience doesn't really care (even if they mention it to you afterward). They care more about how you do overall. If you stumble all over yourself the whole time or sing out of tune consistently, then they'll go away with a negative impression. But not because of an isolated mistake or two.