Spotting Fakers

Since I started writing this blog, I’ve spent an awful lot of time thinking about authentic performance.  What is it?  How does it work?  Is it necessary, or can you get away without it?  My mind churns on these questions almost constantly.  So when I get a chance to watch a whole bunch of performers in a short period of time, I always learn something interesting.

This past week I was at the International Convention of the Barbershop Harmony Society in Anaheim, California.  When I wasn’t at Disneyland with my kids or performing on stage myself, I was watching the competitions.  The fifty best barbershop quartets in the world were invited to compete, and I probably saw thirty quartets sing at least two songs each.  After a while I noticed some patterns.

For example, random movement is really starting to bother me, and almost every quartet on the stage had some of this going on.  No doubt you’ve seen it yourself – repetitive facial expressions and gestures, extraneous movements… you have to ask yourself, where did that hand move come from?  Why does that guy’s smile always look the same?

The answer of course is that they’re not really thinking about the story.  They’re executing a combination of unconscious performance habits and canned, planned moves.  Watch for it and you’ll notice it everywhere.  It will drive you crazy!  As a human being, you are an exquisite machine for spotting a lie, and that means anything that doesn’t quite fit – anything incongruous – like when someone says “I’m fine” with a voice that says “I’m angry” or sings the words “I love you” with a vocal quality that comes straight out of a domestic squabble.

This is not rocket science!  So it surprises me that audiences are so accepting of performances that are faked.  Maybe they just don’t know what they’re missing!  I figure if people start demanding more, performers will follow.  So start watching for fakers, and be honest with them.