Imperfect Storytelling Is Powerful Storytelling
Except from: (My Best Tips for Storytellers — Tip #15)
As I watched the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, I found myself wondering if Jennifer Lopez and Shakira were lip-syncing their performance.
It sure looked like it.
I turned to the internet for answers and discovered that most Super Bowl halftime performers lip sync at least some of their acts. So, too, does the person singing the national anthem.
The NFL actually recommends it.
There was also a great deal of backlash online about this practice. Earlier in the week, Lady Gaga even warned Shakira and Lopez that she "didn't want to see any lip syncing," and fans traditionally despise the practice.
I attended a Britney Spears concert years ago, and that entire show was lip-synced.
I hated every minute of it.
I found myself wondering:
Would fans prefer a sonically flawless performance that is pre-recorded and lip-synced, or would they prefer a performance that is far from perfect but performed live?
I think they would almost always prefer the latter because the latter allows for authenticity and vulnerability. It’s real. We like to watch live events because the performer is putting their soul on the line. Whether it's a football player, a comic, or a trapeze artist, that person is performing live, and anything could happen.
Performing live requires expertise and skill and courage.
It’s the courage we admire most.
As human beings, we are drawn to vulnerability and the bravery it requires — the willingness to put everything on the line in a public way.
I think the same thing about storytelling.
When a storyteller takes the stage and shares a bit of her life, the audience is drawn to the vulnerability on display.
This is one of many reasons why I advise storytellers not to memorize their stories word-for-word.
Audiences do not want word callers reciting perfectly memorized lines.
They do not want monologists. They want to feel like the storyteller is speaking from the heart.
This is why we tell stories without notes, and it's why there is such an enormous difference between a writer reading a story to an audience and a storyteller telling a story to an audience.
Reading is easy.
Telling is hard.
Audiences don’t expect you to be unprepared, but they also don’t want to think the storyteller is simply reciting 847 perfectly memorized words.
Audiences do not want perfection.
They want something real.
In fact, imperfection in storytelling is a beautiful thing. It’s a signal to the audience that the storyteller is speaking from the heart and not from a script.
Just think about that Super Bowl halftime show:
Did you love that sonically pure performance?
Or would you have preferred to hear those performers sing live — risking mistakes — with all of the imperfections that a live performance would’ve surely contained?
Sonic perfection belongs on the radio.
Not on the stage.
The same is true for storytelling.
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