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Thread: Stage presence

  1. #1
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    Default Stage presence

    I'm hoping this fits in this category...

    My pet peeve is when musicians either talk low between songs with inside jokes or halfway talk between the crowd and the band...

    Keeping folks enjoying themselves is paramount to performance.

    So, what are some of the great one liners that got your crowds loose and laughing?

    Someone has as their signature, "May I have some more talent in my monitors?"

    Brilliant!

    Any others?
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    Default Re: Stage presence

    One I like to use now and then is, "Anyone here familiar with <insert artist name>... no? In that case, we wrote this next tune, it's called <insert song title>.

    Some good banjo jokes go over pretty well too.
    Krishot A5

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    Registered User stratman62's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stage presence

    my best so far.

    No matter how much he tunes that thing, it's still gonna sound like a banjo.
    dwight in NC

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    Default Re: Stage presence

    Phillip,
    Personally, I think the thing is to be relaxed on stage. I don't think one-liners generally go over well, because they come across as rehearsed. I'd rather see the band act natural, and tell some jokes that were inside and went over my head, than do "canned" banter.

    But since you're asking, here's some thoughts,

    When coming back from a break "Calling all musicians to the stage...and Bob (or other member of your band).

    Banjo jokes are always good.

    Comments on the song are appreciated. The banjo player in our band often introduces Little Maggie by saying it's a song about a farm girl gone bad....I sometimes chime in "that's just the way we like 'em"

  5. #5
    Registered User John Flynn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stage presence

    "We've had some requests from the audience...but we're gonna' keep playin' anyway."

    "A lady in the audience asked if we could play 'Somewhere Else'...but we don't know that one, so we're gonna play (name of the next tune) for her instead."

    "We're gonna play a waltz right now and dedicate it a fiddle player we know. Sadly, he got addicted to playing waltzes and had to go into a three-step program."

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    Default Re: Stage presence

    A little dry maybe, but I do appreciate it when the band gives credit to the composer (with exceptions made for the above joke), and any pertinent history.

    A pet peeve of mine is when the band refers to "a song by ______" when the person so credited merely recorded the song.
    Bobby Bill

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    Default Re: Stage presence

    The last time I saw 3TO and Mountain Heart, they did that inside joke thing way too much. To contrast, Allen Mills and the Lost&Found never do that.

    A good one Ralph does: 'Maybe some of you have seen that movie, O Brother, Where Ya At?" Another one he used to do was when introducing 2, he would say "Now girls, this young man is single, never been murdered"

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    Default Re: Stage presence

    Blake Williams ...Bill Monroe's banja picker for a decade or so told this funny one while introducing one of the members of his band Williams & Clark Expedition. I thought it was pretty funy. It goes something like this....

    Folks, this here is (insert name). He's a wonderful fella. Just bought himself a new house and one of his neighbors gave him a toilet brush for a house warming gift. A couple weeks later the neighbor asked him how he liked that toilet brush and (insert name) said "fine I guess but I'm thinking about switching back to paper"
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    Default Re: Stage presence



    Blake is a funny guy. He introduced Bobby Clark as from Oklahoma, where it is so windy, when the wind stops, all the people fall down.

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    Default Re: Stage presence

    Quote Originally Posted by hattio View Post
    Phillip,
    Personally, I think the thing is to be relaxed on stage. I don't think one-liners generally go over well, because they come across as rehearsed. I'd rather see the band act natural, and tell some jokes that were inside and went over my head, than do "canned" banter.
    Oh, I agree completely. A relaxed presence can deliver 'canned' banter much more effectively than a uneasy or apprehensive person could.
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    Registered User Tracy Ballinger's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stage presence

    Doyle Lawson & Dailey & Vincent both ask the audience to raise their hands if anyone is seeing them for the first time. They comment on seeing a few hands, and then say, "Ya'll need to get out more!"

    Doyle Lawson's banjo player has adapted the aforementioned 'toilet brush' story to fit their bass player, Carl. I laughed at Carl until I cried the first time I ever heard him! I loved it when he asked Doyle a question about his very sparkly coat: "I bet that thang sure makes a racket in the dryer, don't it?!"

    Tracy

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    Default Re: Stage presence

    Who's been at the festival all 4 days?

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    Default Re: Stage presence

    Towards the end of the set, Doyle thanked the folks for coming out and said: "If you liked what you heard, remember we're Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver....if you didn't, we're J.D. Crowe and the New South".

  14. #14

    Default Re: Stage presence

    How about:


    "I hear a lot of chit-chat out there... cut that chit out. "

    or:

    "Let's bring up the banjer picker to sing one, now.
    He's gonna sing an old one called 'Some Old Day.'
    Our Banjo player is the only guy I know who can play Scruggs and sing Flatt."


    In my opinion - in the world of Bluegrass (at least in the last 25 years) the best banter I've seen would have to be from John Duffy of the Seldom Scene - a band who basically used their tunes as a bridge to the next joke for each to tell about a fellow band mate. Duffy was the undisputed Master.

    A close second would be some of the old Bluegrass Allstar sessions with Tony Rice, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck and Jerry Douglas - with a close third/tie going to live banter from Strength in Numbers or the Bluegrass Sessions....

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    Default Re: Stage presence

    I frequently look at whomever finished singing (say they just finished a Hank Williams song) and say "By golly, you sounded just like Hank when you sang that." The answer comes back "Hank Williams?" and I answer "No, Hank Gymnowski, a guy I used to play guitar with in high school".

    The other thing I've been using for years is my write in candidacy for Governor of New Jersey. After the last election I stood up in front of about 400 people and publicly thanked the 3 people that wrote me in for Governor. It's timeless in NJ, we have way too many bad politicians to make fun of.

    James King and Nuthin' Fancy both handle the stage banter thing well.
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    Default Re: Stage presence

    We didn't get much sleep last night. The women kept banging on motel room door all night long. We finally had to get up and let 'em out. - John Duffy
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    Default Re: Stage presence

    I used to use this one that I made up (okay, go ahead and use it - just give me credit) when introducing members of the band, example: "Now here's John on upright bass, he sings baritone and lately he's been singing falsetto as he just got a new falsetta teeth".
    Sometimes I crack myself up.
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    Default Re: Stage presence

    I used to work with a woman who sang a lot of Bonnie Raitt songs -- Nancy Lee Park, who was and is a great musician and put up with all my smart-a*s stage hoopla for ten years. I used to say that Nancy wanted to be a second Bonnie Raitt, or, for short, just second-raitt.

    And she still played with me for a decade. Lovely person, Nancy Lee.
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    Default Re: Stage presence

    Quote Originally Posted by jbrwky View Post
    We didn't get much sleep last night. The women kept banging on motel room door all night long. We finally had to get up and let 'em out. - John Duffy

    another Duffey-ism:

    And on guitar is The Voice, John Starling. John is a physician, specializing in Ear, Nose and Wallet.

  20. #20
    Handle Of Science UnityGain's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stage presence

    I always like the old line, "now I'm going to play you a song that sounds a little somthing like this.... well, actually it sounds exactly like this..."

    I dont care about stage banter as long as its not excessive, I just can't stand noodling between songs. If you need to make changes to your amp settings or something, ok, I understand, but otherwise dont play anything between songs. Some people in my band do it, it drives me nuts and I think its really bad form.
    Gotta start sometime, might as well be now...

  21. #21
    Registered User Tom C's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stage presence

    I have a recording and the person introduces Dolye as the person who plays the little guitar and sings like a girl.

    Or when they says.. "I'd like to introduce the band...." and everyone in the band introduces themselves to each other.

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    mandolin slinger Steve Ostrander's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stage presence

    Corny jokes and BG seem to go together like...well, like corny jokes and BG.
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    Default Re: Stage presence

    I saw the McCoury boys this year, and after a song Del started tuning his guitar. While he was doing it he looked to the boys and said "I'm think I'm a little sharp." And then truned to the crowd and asked, "Do I look sharp?"
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    Default Re: Stage presence

    And now we're gonna play an original tune called <insert well known song title> ....and gives the audience and band time to look confused... by <well known author>

    A singer in one of my old groups used to do this and it was funny since he was a great straight man.
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    Mike Parks woodwizard's Avatar
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    Default Re: Stage presence

    Norman Blake was introducing a song he wrote and was fixing to play for everyone and mentioned that it was on one of his CD's that had sold well under 2 million copies. I thought it was pretty funny.
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