Risking Stupid

Here's something I've often thought about. Risking looking stupid. When you are on stage and playing in front of many people often, you really become aware of this. Or at least I really become aware of this! If I'm itchy somewhere, scratching it discreetly can be a challenge or just trying not to scratch it at all can be a challenge. Jumping around the stage to try to pump up the crowd while not screwing up what you're playing and also trying not to look stupid is also challenging. Something has to give. For me, I just don't bother jumping around the stage because then I don't need to worry about looking stupid and nothing gets screwed up. Or maybe by not jumping around stage and just standing there I look stupid!?!. I don't know. Well, now I feel stupid!
OK so here's why I bring this up. In response to a comment from my first blog, this may be why people would rather tell you things and give advice rather than ask questions and admit things they don't know. None of us want to look stupid. At the risk of looking stupid I'm going to say that when we do risk looking stupid that's when we open ourselves up to the greatest learning potential. I think this is true for my life.
I haven't acted much but I remember when I was involved in my highschool musical. I just had to not give a crap about what people were thinking and basically make a fool of myself. When I did that my drama instructor was always happiest with my performance. I remember finding that kind of freeing. I think spending some time with a real acting coach or instructor could be a real freeing experience. It would help me get out of my protective shell that I'm afraid of leaving.
I'm going to try to do that here too. There's a lot of stuff I don't know and when I tell you, you might think, man what an idiot! But I'm going to resolve to not care. I will look stupid in hopes of becoming smarter and more open and honest. It may take a while before I'm willing to do this on stage. There's the whole "cool" factor to deal with there but I suppose that's another blog.

Glenn