Many people tremble when they have to perform in public. Sweating palms, trembling hands, quivering voice, hammering heart, stomach in knots... (you know the feeling, right? Then read on, because this article is for you!)

After many years in the business, performers have practically no stage-fright, or if they do, it is kind of an optimal one... you know, the famous special vibe and all that. But sometimes, very rarely, we do have an unexplicable stage-fright, and as we are not accustomed to the feeling, we have a tendency to not handle it well. But there is a solution!

It happened to me a few years back: after twenty years of performing and doing magic, my hands trembled violently during a stage competition. It was so bad that I literally threw my props away during my first manipulation act. And the worst thing is this: I had no idea that I had a bad case of stage-fright. It only dawned on me a second before starting my show, but then I could do nothing about it. See paragraph above.

At the beginning of my second act, I found the vibe, and all went well from then on, but the fault of the first act ensured that I only won a second place that day (the fact that there was no winner awarded did not sweeten the deal...). I thought a lot about this day, and about ways I could have overcome my stage-fright (the one I'd never encountered before during my two decades as a performer). Was it the profesional setting that made me so nervous? When it was not my first competition?!

I really don't know.

But (pay attention, because it might come handy one day) I learned that in cases like this, you have to imagine the prominent members of your audience (ex. jury, dear, jury) in their undies -> not because you do not respect them, but because it is a funny image that might dissolve the tension, and because it reminds us that they are people too, and Langoliers that come to eat us alive. Yep, that's it:).

Now it's your turn! How do you handle your stage fright before a business or stage performance, if you have it? Oh, and if you've already tried the undies-method would you please drop me a note just to let me know how it went?:)

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