I make my living in the performance arts. Which is not confined to singing, dancing, comedy or making a goddam fool out of yourself in general. I’m your corner man. If one more CEO tells me they don’t use teleprompters because it takes the feeling out of a presentation, I will give them a noogie.

Look at any back shot of one of your favorite concerts and you will see they have a teleprompter staring at them in the puss. That goes for Springsteen, Fogerty, Allman, Henley, (a master lyricist in his own right,) and anyone else who wants to keep their shit together in front of 40,000 people.

It reminds me of when I auditioned for bands and told them I studied music at Berklee College of Music. “You mean you can read this shit? We don’t don’t need freaks like you around, we play with feeling only”. Feeling, as in feeling around in the dark.

I recently had the lead guitar player for Jon Butcher Axis tell me the same thing. What a crock of horse shit. If you can’t speak and articulate the language how do you put a band together? A Presentation? A concert? An act?

I could go on and on with many more forms of denial. The thing is, once you don’t have to worry about where the words come from, you are free to emote. Put your heart into it. This is where I make my contribution. I’ve been on both sides of the stage, the camera and the microphone and have the scars to prove it.

There’s a lot of things going on in your audience (including hecklers, snoozers, and the terminally distracted) and you need to be dead bang sure of your message. But pulling it off successfully, takes practice and stagecraft. That’s what separates you rookies from the pros.

Have thy shit shit together if you want to be anybody someday. We all have a voice but learning how and when to use it successfully takes careful preparation. Otherwise get at the back of the line, loser.

Don’t bring that music school, teleprompter thing up to me again. You don’t know what you’re talking about.

You’re not a natural. No one is.