Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The thing I fail to do is fully comprehend what's given back to me by the audience. You would think you would be a performer partly so you could feel all the appreciation or adulation, but I haven't quite managed that yet.
I was the family alien. Both my parents are quite creative, but I was... appalling... always putting on little shows. I was rather a shy child, not a natural performer, but there was a performative edge to everything I did.
I believe that classical music comes through listening and practice, and it can be fun both for the singer or performer and the listener or audience, as long as the performer is taught to recognise the pulse of the audience.
I started performing in 1950 at the age of 16 when I joined the Burton Lester's Midgets as a performer. Shortly after, I became a DJ with Mecca Organization before joining Billy Smart's Circus as a clown and shadow Ringmaster.
There's certain elements involved in pro wrestling that aren't solely down to the performer. There's only so much I can do. I've kind of stopped beating myself up about things not working out the way I want them to every time.
I understand marketing. I understand licensing. I understand the business side of our business. That comes from paying attention and wanting to do better, not just as an in-ring performer but as someone who loves the industry.
I was a shy kid, but somehow I knew I would make it as a performer. I'd always be telling my mum that I was going to be a famous singer. In my school yearbooks I would write, 'Remember me when I'm famous.' I knew I had a gift.
You know the circus performer who spins the plates in the air you know, and he'll spin six or seven plates in the air? Acting sometimes is kind of that guy spinning all those plates in the air but in your head and in your body.
And at the same time, you are of course a performer, but it's very important that you understand that your role as a performer is to get the best performance from those wonderful colleagues that you have the chance to work with.
My size has helped make me an amazing performer too. The cliche of the Funny Fat Friend: I absolutely was that character - I am that character... It's a complicated bag of tools I acquired, and I've put them all to work onstage.
When I came to WWE - I got signed when I was 23. When I was on 'SmackDown' roster, the main roster, I was 24. I wasn't ready for those responsibilities. I wasn't - I wasn't seasoned enough as a wrestler, as an in-ring performer.
We are always full of the types of people who retire or die. But they are never saying 'This guy is really unbelievable; we're alive to witness an exceptional performer.' I think we should recognise that while we are still racing.
I was ballet dancing at four, playing piano by six, and doing commercials by 12. When I was 21, I was on the number one live comedy show in Puerto Rico. I told my parents, 'I'm going to New York to become a performer.' And I left.
I always give credit to Scotty 2 Hotty. He is an amazing teacher. I was in his class for, I want to say three months and I learned so much and he helped me grow, not only as a performer, but as a person. He was always there for me.
Zumbao' is a word that is not commonly used in mainstream America or even mainstream Latino America. For me, I needed a word that describes me as a performer, as an artist and that is just me wilding out and being crazy. I'm Zumbao.
I've been a performer for a long time, but I really don't have any dancing experience. I did some of the musicals in high school, and I was in the glee club for a little while just to try and gain some skills... I was not good at it.
I was always drawn to the blues. Alberta Hunter at the Cookery was a life-changing experience. I only wanted to get enriched as a performer as I got older, to have an audience which got older, too, and would come to see me when I'm 80.
My introduction of Whitney was that if there's going to be one performer for the next generation who combined the beauty and lyric phrasing of a Lena Horne with those Gospel fiery roots of an Aretha Franklin, it would be Whitney Houston.
Performance-wise, you really need to be down in the trenches; you need to do the hard work, for a lot of reasons: To build yourself as a performer, to get a sense of the audience, to work hard and to wonder, 'Do I really want to do this?'
Sometimes I'll watch a music video of a great performer like Beyonce and try to follow her choreography. Yeah, maybe I look ridiculous, but dancing gets your energy up a lot better than running on a treadmill or pedaling a stationary bike.
I don't think I realized right away that I was switching from being a fan into being a performer. I've always tried to maintain that duality, because I think fandom is a way of being porous and curious, but it did feel like a step forward.
A lot of athletes have star quality, but they just can't perform in front of a camera. So no matter how good-looking you are, no matter what kind of presence you have, you still have to be able to be a convincing performer to become a star.
In '92, I got my first Broadway show as a performer - 'Crazy for You.' I was in the ensemble. In fact, I was in eight Broadway shows as a dancer. Seven of them were original shows. That's how I learned to create something from the ground up.
My primary instinct as an actor is not the big transformation. It's thrilling if a performer can do that well, but that's not me. Often with actors, it's a case of witnessing a big party piece but wondering afterwards, where's the substance?
I think the purpose of a piece of music is significant when it actually lives in somebody else. A composer puts down a code, and a performer can activate the code in somebody else. Once it lives in somebody else, it can live in others as well.
I first came across Langhorne Slim when I saw him play live, and he's an incredibly infectious performer. The way he works the crowd is mind-blowing. You can listen to his music without really listening to his lyrics, but it pays off if you do.
My mother wasn't rich, and I never seen my father. I was a street performer. I've been shot. And now I'm known around the world, and I've touched a lot of people with my music. That's one of the great testimonies that's gonna go down in history.
The greatest thing about being in a band, and the strength of having companionship and collaboration, is also the thing that makes a band break up because then you begin to feel confined. Like, who am I as an individual, as a writer, as a performer?
My parents inspire me every day. They are both incredible people that I love and look up to every day. Industry wise, I love what Justin Timberlake has done with his career. He's truly an idol to me, not only as a performer, but as a person as well.
I have worked really hard to reach where I am - I worked hard on my Hindi and diction because I am a Parsi and Hindi is not my strong point, and I've also learnt Tamil and Telugu because I want to get my lines right. I want to be known as a performer.
Growing up, all I did was work and vacation, but I loved it, no one pushed me into anything. The thing was I developed no special skills. I don't have any resentment because I am a performer and I've always felt that, but it did take its toll socially.
I think there's always been a little performer in me. But having a family that are Jamaican immigrants, having this idea that, 'Oh, that's what you're going to do for a living?' seems kind of out of reach and not a reality. It's like, 'get a real job.'
What a costume designer does is a cross between magic and camouflage. We create the illusion of changing the actors into what they are not. We ask the public to believe that every time they see a performer on the screen, he's become a different person.
I want to change how people perceived me when I came over here, change how the people perceive South-East Asians or Middle Eastern or Muslim or Hindu or whatever their identity is. I want them to just let that go and treat the performer as a performer.
I love everything about Asuka, and everyone loves Asuka. She's an amazing performer, worker, mother, and friend. Genuinely, she is the best. I can see myself growing and learning so much with her. She's done it all, and she's the toughest woman I know.
I'm not really a musician. I'm a performer, and I love rock n' roll. I've embraced rock n' roll because it encompasses all the things I'm interested in: poetry, revolution, sexuality, political activism - all of these things can be found in rock n' roll.
I tried to do a puppet show on the streets, and I wasn't a very good street performer. But I found that I could stand in one place in Central Park and bounce a soap bubble on my arm, and I didn't have to gather a crowd for the puppet show. I had a crowd.
I was rejected by every agent in Australia when I was starting out. No one would represent me, because I didn't fit into a particular box, and I wasn't a trained musician or performer, but history has perhaps proven that perhaps I have something to give.
One thing that I am becoming to learn is that you've got to have patience and wait your turn in this game. I feel like I am progressing as an artist, as a writer and as a performer and I know that there will be that one moment that will change everything.
I work with amazing organisations: I work with I'm A Performer With Disability, and I work with a clinic which tries to get opportunities for people with disabilities to work in the film and TV industry, and we're making strides, and they're making strides.
I loved all fantasy, and I always thought that the ideal job as a performer and an entertainer would be to take on a mythical character, you know? Make someone up. Give them a voice, a mannerism, whatever. I always thought that that was the coolest way to do.
Well, once you've resigned yourself to the fact that you are the more mature pop performer and you're past the age you ever thought you would do it, you might as well do it as long as you can. As long as I can still lift a microphone, then I'll do it, you know.
Why does an iPhone cost only a couple hundred dollars? Because, as the stage performer Mike Daisey depicted in an arresting one-man show called 'The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,' Apple's shiniest products are made by a shadowy company in China called Foxconn.
Variety shows didn't disappear; it was the caliber of the artists, the classic vaudevillians that have passed on. They are gone, so there's a different caliber performer that's come along that hasn't had the time to work in the small clubs and get the experience.
Prince is the ultimate performer. Prince is that dude that's going to get on stage by himself, if he need to, but hold you in the palm of his hand. Like, you can't take your eyes off the man when he's on stage, and he could just be sitting there playing his guitar.
The truth of the matter is that Dusty Rhodes helped put more money in my pocket than anybody I've ever wrestled. In his time he was the most charismatic and talented performer in the business, and I know he doesn't look like it, but he was a pretty good athlete too.
When I was three, I lived in Florida, and my mom took me to see the touring production of 'Cats.' And I was, like, absolutely silent - which for a 3-year-old never happens - and I turned to her and said, 'I need to do this.' That's when I started my performer journey.
The cardinal rule for any performer is that they should know themselves before they enter the spotlight, and I didn't. I was just Neil and I did what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to get married, so I got married. I was supposed to get a job, so I looked for work.
I definitely am a performer, and there are different styles of stand-up; I mean, some people are writers and they get onstage to get jokes out, and that's definitely not what I do. I like to just go up and, if I'm telling a story about someone, I'll play his or her part.
Canadian comedians are generally more well-rounded... They have to do a lot more. In order to have a career in this country, you have to do everything. And in the States you can narrow-cast, you can be just a sitcom performer or a stand-up comedian or a sketch performer.