UNKNOWN: 0:00

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01: 0:17

Welcome to another episode, the place where we talk about kids ministry and take a peek behind the scenes. We try to share a little bit of what we've learned that works for us and some of our failures so you can avoid them. We release a new episode every Friday, and this is your backstage pass to see the magic or disaster that happens behind the scenes of our kids ministry. I'm your host, Gabe Baker, and today I'm joined by Brother Brent. How's it going? Going very well, sir. How are you? I'm good. Excellent. Finally got you back in here back in here it's been it's been a moment been a little bit yeah so all right well what are we talking about today

SPEAKER_00: 0:53

oh boy we have a topic on stage presence

SPEAKER_01: 0:57

stage presence and now this is not the kind of presence like that you give out at christmas correct yeah this is the presence like you know we're in god's presence yes so stage presence um so there's some people who seem like they're born to be on stage and then there's others that struggle and fumble with their words, you know, kind of fumble around. So in our Sunday school, we use a stage in like the theater sense quite a bit. So we have a large rotating staff, volunteers that it's really great to have such a large group. But one of the disadvantages is that not everybody gets the experience that they need to thrive on stage because they're not in week in, week out, back to back. And so today that's kind of what we want to discuss is just some of those attributes of having stage presence and some of the contributing factors. And maybe, I don't know, maybe we can help somebody today who doesn't feel comfortable on stage yet.

SPEAKER_00: 1:59

Exactly. You know, I was just thinking here while you were talking, if you had asked me, you know, just say 15 years ago, 20 years ago to be in Sunday school, like I helped out in Sunday school a long time ago because I was kind of always the, there was such an Yeah, yeah. Or asked me to be in science school to do some of the things we do. No, no, I don't want to look silly. I don't want to fumble or make a mistake or look stupid, you know. And it's just funny how, I mean, not everyone, but you look back and it's like, wow, why did I care? Like, who cares what, you know, there's that saying, you know. Now I can't even think of it, but it'll come back to me. They're just saying like, you know, wow, I cannot think of the saying now. Well,

SPEAKER_01: 3:13

maybe, I don't know if this is what you're talking about, but Seth Godin talks about the lizard brain and basically like our fight or flight. Yes. And like, what's the worst that can happen? Exactly. You think through it, like what really is the worst

SPEAKER_00: 3:25

that can happen? You're your own worst critic in a sense, like, you know, who cares? And, you know, half the time these kids, if we mess up, they're really, don't even know probably yeah a lot of times they don't

SPEAKER_01: 3:37

know or if they do they're very forgiving yeah they just it's you know it goes to comedy

SPEAKER_00: 3:42

or whatever yeah a minute later or whatever the next scene sort of speak is it's already gone it's like oh well i just told i mean there's been times we've totally butchered something and it's like wow that was not even remotely close to what we had planned or yeah or rehearsed or anything and it's like yeah absolutely yeah well okay that's the

SPEAKER_01: 4:01

what do i say the magic or disaster

SPEAKER_00: 4:03

that's the disaster portion exactly exactly But it is like that. It's like, you know, now, you know. Yeah. Those back then, 10, 15 years ago, younger. Yeah. We were like, no, I don't want to do that. I don't want to look stupid. I don't want to do this. Well, and a

SPEAKER_01: 4:16

lot of different dynamics. The age is probably the big one. Right. The immaturity and the age. But also you were newer to our church. Yes. Because you moved here and got married and everything. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:30

It would have been really weird, I'm sure. Yeah. I didn't know anybody. And it was like, okay. I don't know who you are, but okay.

SPEAKER_01: 4:36

Well, I remember years ago, I don't know if I've told this story before, but years ago, your wife had told me that you would do really well in Sunday school and that you probably would like to be in Sunday school, but you were scared to death that if you got in Sunday school, you would have to act in the heart of

SPEAKER_00: 4:58

Christmas. She never mentioned that to me. That's good. It's probably true, but yeah, well, as we know. that is the case.

SPEAKER_01: 5:09

Well, and so, yeah, so last year, weren't you, you were a couple of characters or a character or something. You were a main part though. I remember

SPEAKER_00: 5:16

you did one of the, one of the skits.

SPEAKER_01: 5:19

You're a shepherd, right? Oh yeah. You and me. Yeah. Yeah. We did the, cause it was, it was one of the parts that Joey, brother Joey Boggs had done and he had hurt his foot. And so he was on a knee scooter. He was still in the program, but he was on a knee scooter.

SPEAKER_00: 5:35

So, a little bit more limited in his role.

SPEAKER_01: 5:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 5:38

Really had to work around him, unfortunately. Yeah, you took on

SPEAKER_01: 5:42

a

SPEAKER_00: 5:42

major role there. That's funny because I think the last... Yeah, four years, five years, somewhere like that. I've done more like help backstage and then it was on running some of the tech stuff. Tech stuff, yeah. Cameras. Cameras. And then, yeah, just been doing more of that. But now it makes me wonder, okay, what's going to happen next Christmas here? Might use another Englishman. Exactly, yeah. Man, if that'd be the case, I'm going to really have to work on that. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_01: 6:16

Yeah, when you first got into Sunday school I think I even told your wife I was really tempted because it was like when you first started I think and I was really tempted to come to you and be like hey so we need an actor in the heart of Christmas just to get your reaction

SPEAKER_00: 6:34

no I might have scared the scared the snot out of me if that happened I don't know I mean even so it's still like nervous but like compared to like had I not been in Sunday school and you had come to me this past Heart of Christmas, I don't know what, like how I, I've probably been terrified, honestly. Well, and that's a

SPEAKER_01: 6:58

great, I mean, that's not totally what this podcast, this episode is about, but that is a great point is I do feel like, you know, we joke about, we take credit for Brother Joey Boggs and Brother Brian Critcher. They're both evangelists and they were both in Sunday school. And so we joke that we take credit for their, you know, being on the evangelistic field. But I do think that people gain experience in Sunday school as, you know, staff, volunteer staff. And even though it's quote unquote, just kids, they get that experience of being in a microphone, being in front of people. They might be little people, but they're in front of people. And I mean, the thing is, is people get nervous in Sunday school all the time. They get nervous, you know, especially first time and they get more used to it. But what what a great place to break in. If you are going to go on to, you know, I don't, I don't feel like Sunday school is just a stepping stone. There's right. There's people that stay in Sunday school, but, um, what a great place to, you know, learn how to, I mean, even, it even goes as far as like music. And I mean, Adrian, my son, he plays drums in church. Well, I mean, he plays

SPEAKER_00: 8:10

all kinds of music in church. I don't know what he doesn't play. Yeah. Guitar, I guess. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 8:14

Yeah. But he, he was playing drums. I don't know, five or six. Interesting. I didn't know that, yeah. He was playing drums in Sunday School. I have videos of him playing, you know, different

SPEAKER_00: 8:25

songs. Yeah, no, totally. I mean, it's... Like you said, it's not a stepping stone to speak, but it has, I think, probably... opened other people up that maybe had they not yeah where what would they be doing where would they be going like I mean yeah like you said brother Joey and it is a great

SPEAKER_01: 8:47

place like you know we talked about Heart of Christmas and for those that don't know just really quick Heart of Christmas is one of our big huge outreach events huge for us but it's a big outreach event at Christmas time that we you know it's a ticketed event and we put on production and everything so it is a great place Sunday school is a great place to vet people for something like that too. You kind of learn like, okay,

SPEAKER_00: 9:13

they would be good at this, but they're not so good at serious stuff. They'd be very good at the backstage, moving props.

SPEAKER_01: 9:23

It's true. So we kind of covered some of it, but in my notes here, what I have is when the person on stage is nervous, it makes everybody nervous. It gets everybody on edge. And so people even kids in fact maybe more so sometimes kids can sense nervousness you know and so like and i think it's displayed in a couple ways i think it's one it's displayed in the like i said in the opening the fumbling words and stuff but i think it's also displayed in like uh we're going to talk about practice but it's displayed in like uh sounding like a robot you know because you know your lines so well right you stick it to the lines and just you know it

SPEAKER_00: 10:05

can be Yeah, because you're so nervous you don't

SPEAKER_01: 10:09

have any freedom.

SPEAKER_00: 10:10

Yeah, I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but yeah, I know I'm trying to picture something that's happened at Sunday school or something. I can't think of anything, but there are those... Yeah, it goes to the inexperience, I guess, or the, you know, inexperience and nervous. Lack of confidence and inexperience, yeah. You can tell when someone hasn't or doesn't feel comfortable up there where the, like you said, staff, other staff or the kids noticing it. And yeah, it's, I wouldn't say it's a bad thing. I think it's natural to have that. Obviously, to be in something for so long and still have that is probably not a good thing. Um, I don't know if that happens, but having

SPEAKER_01: 10:53

a little bit of nurse is healthy. Like, yeah. So like I've, I've mentioned this before, but I'm a, by nature, a backstage person. And when I say that a lot, so many people that have known me for the past, you know, five or so years or maybe a little more are like, well, yeah, right. Because I'm on stage so much, but yeah. That's the experience part is I've been on stage enough that I have the experience being on stage. So when it comes to like Heart of Christmas, somebody was asking me just not too long ago, actually, if I got nervous. And so what happens every year is it's usually Joey and I are together because we open the event every time. And so Joey and I are usually together kind of last minute, maybe some lines going over or just getting ready or getting our coats on or whatever. And right before I get really nervous and he does too. But I, I like, I think he gets nervous maybe a little bit further cause I'm always busy right up to the moment, you know? And so just a few minutes, you know, five, 15 minutes, maybe before the event, I'm like, I get super nervous the first night.

SPEAKER_00: 12:05

Yeah. And like you said, that it's, it's a, it's a good thing. I'm like you said, I'm pretty sure. I don't know. Yeah. Why it wouldn't be if, if you didn't have the nerve. even this a little bit not nervous like to the point of like you're panicking and turns into absolute chaos but like just a little bit of butterflies there's always a chance of something happening you know it's the same as you know you're getting ready for vacation and hey I know when we're leaving Saturday and it's like okay I know I'm probably not going to sleep good Friday night because now everything's going over in my head okay what did I forget what do we have everything we need you know for Unfortunately, it's, we're still, you know, anything we forgot, you can pick back up or you can get if you need it that bad. And so, that's going to help calm. But it's just part of the process. I remember just as a kid, you know, the excitement of going on a trip. Yeah. Like you're, it is nerves, so it's nervous. Yeah. But it's not like, I don't know what's going to happen. Yeah. You know, and like there's, I think sometimes nervousness is like a You're so nervous. Are you okay? Are you going to be okay? It's not always a bad thing. Like nerves are natural. Right, right. We're full of nerves, right?

SPEAKER_01: 13:24

Well, I heard– I can't remember his name now. I credit him, but he's a guy that talks about speaking. Man, I can't remember his name. But he made a really good point about that is he said– he talked about the symptoms. And so he's talking about symptoms of nerves. And I'm not going to get this exactly right, but something like– Shortness of breath, sweaty hands, a tad bit shaky. And then he's like, what are the symptoms of being super excited about something? Right. Yeah. Shortness of breath, sweaty hands, a little bit shaky. And he's like, he was like, you know, turn the switch in your brain to, I'm not nervous. I'm excited. And I just thought, wow, that's really good. You know, you walk out on stage and I'll have to try that this year. Hearty Christmas. Flip it around. I'm not nervous. I'm excited. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00: 14:15

Which is true. It's true. Because once you get, again, I'm sure there's perfect shows where everything just goes beyond perfect. Yeah. And most times, like we say at the heart of Christmas time and whatnot, the littlest, like I think there was, I can't even think of what. Yeah, little mistakes. There's little mistakes or, oh, I forgot this little part in this line or whatever, but the show just kind of went on. Nobody knows. No one knows. You know, maybe you're the person you're having dialogue with or whatever, you know, bastard, those running the show that are. you know, they know, but I mean, I remember like how to go out there or people are asking and it's like, well, everything you wouldn't know it, but everything went pretty good. There was this little mess up with a mic that we had to scramble around. There's no perfect show. So to be nervous of like, you know, Oh, I hope everything goes, goes well. Well,

SPEAKER_01: 15:05

and that's the thing is like, is learning to roll with it. And okay. So was it last year? Yeah. I can't remember if it was last year or the year before. I think it was last year, the computer that we were using to run the lights during, not during a practice, but during a, well, during a tech practice crashed. Yeah, so I think that was

SPEAKER_00: 15:33

the last year. Was that last

SPEAKER_01: 15:35

year? Yeah. So we were like, in fact, I remember.

SPEAKER_00: 15:39

I think it froze, everything like just froze and it just like crashed. So Pastor

SPEAKER_01: 15:43

came up to the booth. We were kind of doing tech practices and we had just finished something. And he comes up and he's like, hey, so if the computer crashes and it crashed right then,

SPEAKER_00: 15:55

right then. I don't remember that, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:58

So we came up with a contingency. Yep. And so Joey, the whole program, he had these wires in his pocket. And so the plan was if worst case, if it crashed and we couldn't get it back online in time and the lights were going nuts or something. Then we were going to do, it was going to be ad lib, but we did kind of come up with a little bit. He was going to pull these wires out of his pocket and be like, well, I was trying to fix some, you know, whatever. I didn't know this. Yeah. So we had this contingency in case

SPEAKER_00: 16:32

the, you know, it crashed. Yeah. I think, I think that the crash happened after our first, like, so we have the two nights. I thought it was the second day. I could be wrong. And it was like not long before. It wasn't very long before

SPEAKER_01: 16:46

the event.

SPEAKER_00: 16:46

I do remember that. The event. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 16:47

Yeah. Yeah, you're right. It

SPEAKER_00: 16:59

might have been the second

SPEAKER_01: 17:09

night. comedy a lot yep kids love comedy yeah it's easy and it is easy and so the comedic characters are some of the most fun and and they're the probably the easiest to play i like to be the dunce character because then you can mess up you know you're supposed to you're supposed to mess

SPEAKER_02: 17:37

up

SPEAKER_01: 17:38

so um but this is also this is a great way uh i think to get over stage fright

SPEAKER_00: 17:46

yes

SPEAKER_01: 17:47

um you know and So like we have a lot of younger actors and I'm bad about throwing people into the fire. I'm trying to do better, but I'm bad about that of like, just go out there and do it, you know? And I forget that I've been doing this for 20 years. Right. So. Whoops. So I'm trying to get better about that, but that is a great way I think is the comedy part of it, you know, and I, I've talked so often on, on the podcast about, you know, not overdoing comedy or, or trying to be able to do serious stuff too, but that's That's a place where somebody's like, okay, just go out there and be a bumbling idiot or whatever. Or like in calisthenics, we'll have the drill sergeant and then we'll have somebody come out that doesn't know how to do the exercises. So I think that's like a great avenue, I

SPEAKER_00: 18:34

guess. Yes, that's a good starting point for maybe someone, like you said, who is nervous, who does struggle. Just go out there and be... Be a goofball. Yeah. You don't have to be serious. You don't have to remember everything perfectly. Go out there and just roll with it. We'll roll with it. Yeah, that is something you have to do.

SPEAKER_01: 18:56

So, I remember one time when, I can't remember, it might have been Brother Aaron, but we were doing, I think it was a spy theme, in fact, a long time ago down in Fellowship Hall. And I remember he had to be like a cool cop. Like, you know, um, so I'm going to spy or something, you know, like, and, uh, I remember him telling, and I can't remember his brother Aaron for sure. I think it was, but I remember him telling me that it was actually really difficult because it was like, he felt like a dork trying to be, trying to be so cool, you know? And so he wasn't, and he plays a really good dunce, you know, and stuff. And he's just a good actor all around. But yeah, I remember him saying like, it's hard to be this character because I I like,

SPEAKER_00: 19:44

it feels almost like less acting, you know? Yeah. Like it's, yeah, no, I get that for

SPEAKER_01: 19:50

sure. It's kind of, I guess in one way it's easier to over act by being a comedy dunce or whatever that just trips and falls and whatever, you know? So that kind of leads into the next thing is actor versus teacher. And when I say teacher, what I kind of mean is, I mean like somebody that's either teaching a lesson or talking to the kids, you know, not just talking on stage to another actor, but talking to the kids about what are even narrating a Bible story or something. Um, so it's, It's often easier for people to be an actor because you can hide behind the

SPEAKER_00: 20:31

character. Yeah, it is, 100%. It's kind of

SPEAKER_01: 20:35

like going back to the Heart of Christmas event. I am behind a character the whole time, you know, or I play a few characters, but I'm behind characters. And so I'm like, I'm the Englishman. So we were talking, I don't know, a couple of years ago. So at our Forward Conference, I somehow now became the announcement guy. And so I'm up there. And it's getting a little bit better now, but I get really nervous. Right. And go up there, you know, to do

SPEAKER_00: 21:04

all the announcements. And it's almost comical because it's like, here's Gabe who has done Sunday school. Yeah. Done Heart of Christmas since I don't even know how long. It's, well, I mean. 2008. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And it's like, what do you mean you're nervous? Like, that's just the same, more or less the same church people that come to our events or part of our church.

SPEAKER_01: 21:27

Yeah. But I, yeah. And I still get nervous. And like I said, it's getting a little better. But one of the things I was, I was talking to, I think it's Sister Burgess about it or something. And I was like, it's because I'm not hiding behind a character. I got to be me. Yep. You know, and so I suppose I could do the announcements in an English accent. Everyone would be like, um, what? Whoops. So, yeah. Just let it slip out a little bit. So I think most of the time it's easier for people like, like in the Sunday school realm or whatever, to be an actor, like I said, and to be comedy. But then there is a flip side, and I think it's more often the way, you know, it's easier to be an actor. But there is a flip side sometimes, and I think pastor would fall into this category, our pastor, is some people are so used to the preaching and speaking, even public speaking, as themself, that now the actor part is really uncomfortable. Yes. They feel silly or out of sorts.

SPEAKER_00: 22:30

Yeah, they don't know.

SPEAKER_01: 22:33

Yeah, so I think not that pastor couldn't do it. No. But he would be way more comfortable. He comes into Sunday school. Oh, you finally got the bug. I got the bug. Good. I was afraid I was going to inhale that thing. So he would be way more comfortable just coming up and speaking to the kids or preaching even than he would like, here, put the scotch on.

SPEAKER_00: 22:54

Yeah, and there are those, not even just pastors, but there are those people that are are like that in our in our in our staff yeah i feel like i mean not like an extreme one way or the other but there are those that that maybe struggle with the acting portion more. And, and, and it's, and it's, it can be a struggle a bit to, to work with that. Yeah. As another actor, like you're trying to do a scene or, or tell a story and it's very. Yeah. You can feel it. You can feel it. You can. It's not like awful, but you can feel it. Yeah. It's not such a natural flow of like, Hey, we're doing this. This is a story. This is how this is kind of going. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we've talked about it before. And there's

SPEAKER_01: 23:43

some like, and I, I, what I try to do is I try to push people, um, to, you know, there's some people that I'm just like, okay, we're not going to have them do that. I would like, it'd be great for everybody to be all well-rounded, do every job and stuff, but it's not just not going to happen. No, not with a staff of like 30 people. Um, and so, but like, I'll call, I'll call him out just cause I don't think you care, but Brennan, uh, so Brennan, Brennan's incredible. I mean, like it, he can be a dunce. He can be a dramatic actor. Yes. He plays music. He's just, he's phenomenal. Yep. And so I don't know how long ago now it's been maybe three years or something, but I started pushing him to like, not all the time, but once in a while he teaches the lesson. And I remember first time he was just like, Oh, what? Oh no. You know, cause it goes back to this thing where he's used to being an actor. Yeah, not preachers.

SPEAKER_00: 25:12

Yeah, not preacher serious. Like, hey, you know, but like you have to... You have to tell a lesson. You have to talk to the kids to a degree or a point that you're getting, like, are you guys paying attention? Like, this is the Bible story that we're talking about. This is how it's going to look in your life or how it should be in your life. Yeah, teaching the concepts and the lessons. It's serious, but it's like, yeah, it's, oh man, it's just, yeah. It's a totally different dynamic.

SPEAKER_01: 25:41

Yeah, it's a completely different dynamic altogether. And like Steve, Brother Arner, he's one that does really well. Like Steve, you know, of course, he's got a really deep voice and everything and just his persona. He's older, I think, than all of our staff put together. No, I'm just kidding. Sorry, Steve. No, he, but he, he is one, he does really good. He, most of the time we, you know, I'll do the lesson turned over for Ultra Call and he usually leads that. And he does a really great job and he can teach a lesson and just, that seems like his wheelhouse, but he's a great actor when we, you know, when he has a character or something, I mean, he's talked about it, like getting into the character and being the character. And so, uh, we, I mean, man, we have a lot of talented people, you know, that there are, that can do that. And so I, I want to continue to like help push people, you know, to absolutely. And try to give them the tools

SPEAKER_00: 26:46

to, yeah. Yeah. You know, to, I mean, I haven't done a lesson to speak of here. I don't know the last time. It's not very often that I do. But, you know, compared to when I first started, which we still have to get to the bottom of that when I first came. Yeah. There's some conflict. It's going to be 10 years from now. Yeah, you

SPEAKER_01: 27:07

still know.

SPEAKER_00: 27:07

Yeah. But like if you were to have thrown... okay, acting is one thing, but then to throw a lesson right at me, it would have probably been a disaster. I'd be like, no, I don't want to do Sunday school anymore. Like, no, count me out. But now it's like.

SPEAKER_01: 27:23

Well, I've had you lead praise before.

SPEAKER_00: 27:25

Yep. Lead praise. Yeah. I've done altar call. I mean, I'm pretty sure I've done pretty much everything. Prayer requests, all that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 27:33

We got to get you on QLab. I know Brennan said he wants to learn QLab. QLab is our sound effects and soundtracks. See, I might be real nervous doing that yeah totally butcher it but well I you know I told I told Brennan I am going to teach him how and I want to I was like but he's way too valuable on stage to to in you know yeah so yeah all right well the next thing that I have is practice makes perfect and so or as I taught a lesson one time is that is perfect practice makes perfect but there you go the best way to perform well in improv And this sounds like an oxymoron and it kind of is, but the best way to perform well on improv or ad lib is to practice it. And so the premise there, and I know it's an oxymoron because ad lib is ad lib. It's not a script. Improv is coming up with something on the fly, but we practice. And when you have that foundation of like, okay, I've been here before. You know, okay, we just did this this morning, earlier. And so I know, even though I might say this whole line, or even take it in a totally different direction, it's the premise or the concept is familiar. We're on the same page. We know where we're going. So now it gives us the, like, freedom to ad-lib. Yes. You know, it gives us the freedom to improv. We've

SPEAKER_00: 29:08

practiced, so now it's, like, you can't... dare I say, if you were to not practice, I'd just go up there and we're just going to wing it. We're just going to improv the whole thing. Yeah. It's probably not going to turn out very well. It might, there might be, it was okay. But even with practice, like you said, practice improv, it's still, it kind of goes hand in hand. You can't.

UNKNOWN: 29:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 29:32

Yeah. You can't have no practice. No

SPEAKER_01: 29:34

practice. Yeah. It's kind of like if you did like maybe another example and we're kind of talking about lines, but this is also something we have done. We've done it both ways, by the way. You know, let's be real. We talk about the magic or disaster. We have very, very often, probably 50-50 even, we have just gone with it and ad-libbed and sometimes it's worked and sometimes it's flopped.

SPEAKER_02: 30:01

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 30:02

Yeah. like a sword fight. We don't, We don't often choreograph a whole sword fight. No, we don't. But when we practice a sword fight, even if it's not like, okay, you're going to hit this way and turn this way, it's not choreographed, but we practice it and we do a general what's called blocking, which is like where we're kind of going to be in the room, in the space, not necessarily all the details like we would do at an event like Heart of Christmas. Right. But we just kind of block it generally like, okay, well, I'm going to go off the stage. And then that way they can come in over here or whatever. When we do that, then when we get there, the sword fight is probably going to be twice as long as it was in practice and going to be way more involved and way cooler.

SPEAKER_00: 30:49

And can totally be a disaster. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 30:52

But if we have practiced that, then we're all on the same page and everybody, all the actors kind of know, oh yeah, I'm going to go this way. Unless we forget, which we do sometimes.

SPEAKER_00: 31:02

Sometimes we'll do. And then we'll get midway through it and like we're running toward to each other it's like no you're supposed to go that way yeah and then sometimes we plan it like that so hey the guards are going to chase you but all of a sudden you're going to turn around and start chasing them yeah and you know again we don't rehearse at all we'll sometimes we'll we'll do our practice and then we'll be you know go inside praise you know prayer praise come back out and then in the meantime you've thought of stuff at least I have yeah or whatnot and then we'll get together and be like hey instead of doing this why don't you do this and I'll do that and stuff like that And that

SPEAKER_01: 31:36

goes back to the beauty of that foundation. Because you did that this morning, you now, you're thinking about

SPEAKER_00: 31:42

it and you're like, oh. The wheels are turning. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 31:45

Yeah. And that's, yeah, we've done that so many times. And a lot of times in practice, we will just be going over the script and somebody will come up with an idea. Brother Keech is good for this. It's like, hey, how about if we do this? Or how about you say this? Or whatever. And we'll come up with that. And it's kind of like a pre-ad lib. It's almost like we're ad-libbing in practice so that now we have something solid, you know, that we can use that has a good payoff, you know, instead of just depending on the, in the moment.

SPEAKER_00: 32:17

Right. Yeah. If we were just to, you know, just thinking out loud here, but if we were just to follow the script, like how we have it, our format and everything, and just do it, you know. Rigid. Rigid. It would. It would come across so rigid. Yeah. And I think, one, as actors and the staff, we would just be like bored. We would be. Right.

SPEAKER_01: 32:37

Well, and I think

SPEAKER_00: 32:38

going, so like. And not to mention kids too. Yeah, exactly. They would

SPEAKER_01: 32:42

be like, what? Bringing it back full circle back to, you know, stage presence is I'm trying to think of, you know, maybe like if we can be any help at all, not that we've arrived or anything, but if we can be of any help at all to somebody that's inexperienced or just feels nervous on stage all the time, like I can never do that or whatever. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I think for us, I think we can do better if we do the practice. And then if you drop down and you take somebody that's inexperienced and gets nervous on stage, if you can practice, so you feel, and practice in the room if you can, in the same room that you're going to be doing it in, then you feel like you've been there before. And so it's a little bit easier. And the more nervous you are, the more detailed your practice should be. Right. You know, the Like we have so many staff that we've done it for years and we can ad lib anything, it seems like. And so the practice doesn't have to be all that detailed. Right. And a lot of times in our practice, our practice is about half as long as our actual Sunday school. Right. And so.

SPEAKER_00: 34:19

Most times we don't have to practice what we call plan of salvation. Right. Exactly. Yeah. We don't practice

SPEAKER_01: 34:26

each segment.

SPEAKER_00: 34:27

Yeah. It's the plan of salvation. It hasn't changed. Yeah. Now how we go about doing it. So we don't typically have to sit there and spend five minutes practicing that. We'll generally skip to, you know, our story, our surrounding parts of that. And

SPEAKER_01: 34:40

that's what I was going to say is like we'll focus on like something maybe has a lot of moving parts because we do a lot of interactivity. So it's like, hey, you're going to grab 10 kids and you're going to grab seven kids. Yeah, we did that a couple weeks back. Yeah. And so when we're doing something like that and it's in the middle of the story, there's a lot of moving parts and we want it to be smooth and not be like okay what were we doing again and so we'll practice that in in that we block it you know we'll walk through it and say okay no you're gonna go over here because often in practice we'll be like somebody will be standing somewhere like no you're sitting over there and now when we get to the real thing they're in the right spot

SPEAKER_00: 35:19

you know and even if with that we still mess up sometimes oh yeah yeah absolutely there's been many times i can't think of off the top of my head but i can picture them like oh or what stories they were and it's like oh we totally butchered that he just totally skip this whole section of the story and the actors are in the back going like what's going on or uh i can't even think there's been a couple and i think it was one not too long ago yes yeah and it was like it was almost it was comical but again the kids didn't know any different it was just like okay

SPEAKER_01: 35:45

what was it that uh steve did uh oh oh yes yes yes it was um it was the rich fool the one that wanted to build bigger barns and remember the prophet comes i don't know if you were up here but the The prophet comes and says, you know, you fool, God will require your soul tonight or whatever, because instead of giving to the poor, all this stuff. Anyway, so he like... That was the end of the story. Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 36:14

I don't think I was up here

SPEAKER_01: 36:15

for this one. But then he was like, I can't remember even what he did, but he added like a whole thing, like the death. He added the whole death scene. And we're like, what's he doing? We heard him in the mic. We're like, what is he doing? The story's over. I was getting ready to go out and do wrap up. That's awesome. He's like adding a whole, he's like, no, no. That's good. But yeah, so we have a lot of ad lib because just we do have the experience, not that we're like just super great or anything but um but i would suggest that the the more nervous you are or the less experience you have the more detailed your practice

SPEAKER_00: 36:53

right

SPEAKER_01: 36:54

um and then the final we're running out of time but the final bullet i have is remember your purpose so and and this can help with nervousness is instead of like getting up on stage and worrying about how cool you look or don't look remember the purpose of what you're doing you're trying to convey you know, we're kind of in general talking about Bible stories right now, but you're trying to convey this concept or this story or whatever it is. And so remember that you're trying to help this audience of Sunday school kids. And it doesn't matter how cool they think you are. It matters that they get the message. You know, if you're Jesus dying on the cross, it doesn't matter how cool or whatever you look yeah it matters that they get it like that they feel the impact of that story and i think you know i i've used that method kind of in in speaking is instead of worrying about me um because you can get really nervous you can get all locked up with that but instead i'm like how can i help somebody today

SPEAKER_00: 38:03

right

SPEAKER_01: 38:04

and if you can focus on that it totally changes the nerve i mean doesn't doesn't take the nerves away but it totally changes the idea

SPEAKER_00: 38:11

yes Yes, I agree.

SPEAKER_01: 38:14

All right. Well, just a recap really quick is, uh, just remember when the person on stage is nervous, everybody feels it and it puts everybody on edge. And so you want to try to get, get past that. And then, um, like don't get up on stage and they're like, I'm so nervous.

SPEAKER_00: 38:31

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 38:32

You know, just, uh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 38:34

Yeah. That's not good.

SPEAKER_01: 38:35

And then, uh, the different types of stage presence, again, comedy is, uh, and don't get, you know, I will say this as a as a caveat is don't get locked into comedy right because it's too it's super easy

SPEAKER_00: 38:48

it's super easy to do that yeah there are many times and it's like okay yeah this should be serious you know if it was all comedy it'd be no problem i'm pretty sure like no one would come back here and have a problem going out and doing a bit

SPEAKER_01: 38:59

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 39:00

yeah so yeah but it

SPEAKER_01: 39:01

wouldn't be as impactful

SPEAKER_00: 39:02

exactly you wouldn't have and so

SPEAKER_01: 39:03

there's definitely a great use of comedy you know and i like it but yeah so but use it as a tool it's a great way to train transition into you know getting over your nervousness of being on stage and then the actor versus teacher I guess really it's just something to be aware of you know that there is a difference between being an actor and being a teacher it might be something you work up to right and it could be flip-flop like I said about pictures yeah it goes that both ways yeah exactly and then practice makes perfect the more you practice the more nervous you are the more you should practice and then Remember your purpose. Remember what you're doing and why you're doing it. All right. Well, I think that's a wrap. That's a wrap for today.