Al Lewis Quotes

I love storytelling and I love just relating directly to an audience. That's why we do theatre, it's because we love contact with the audience. We love the fact that the audience will change us. The way the audience responds makes us change our performance.

There's nothing like performing for a live audience.

There is nothing to compare with the instantaneous feedback a singer gets from the people sitting in front of him. That is where it all comes together - all the rehearsing and working to get everything just exactly right.

There's nothing like spending an evening with an audience every night.

There is no buzz like performing for a live audience.

Performing live is easy in front of an audience.

The stage is one place where you come face to face with your audience, unlike cinemas where you cannot see the applause or the booing by the audience.

I feed off the audience a lot, their energy.

I like to see other bands, and I like to hear their songs, but I really like it when they engage the audience.

The music comes alive when you actually perform it in front of a crowd.

I think more obvious to others, is that I'm most vulnerable on stage. Even though I know which songs I'm going to play, I try and keep it loose and base my stage time more on what the audience is requesting of me.

There's a side to being in a band that some people embrace and some don't: the fact that you're performing and you care about how it comes across.

Music - you need the give and take from the audience, the feeling of attention. It's not about me: it's about the music itself.

If I do a piece in my living room, if I practice it - and I have the tapes to prove this - it's not going to be as good as doing the same piece in front of an audience.

It wasn't so much that I was all alone on stage, but it was the realization of how much you need the response-you need the audience to tell you where to go.

I don't really like doing big stand-up. Whenever I do theaters, I don't like 'em. I don't think they're right for stand-up. I've seen people in theaters, and it just doesn't work, because you're talking to the guy next to you the whole time.

I think as a standup performer you have to feel the audience. So the audience kind of dictates what they get, you know?

One of the main reasons for wanting to perform live again was to have contact with that audience.

When I'm writing, I'm thinking about how the songs are going to play live. Fifty bars of rap don't translate onstage. No matter how potent the music, you lose the crowd. They want a hook; they want to sing your stuff back to you.

Theatre is more exciting in the sense that you can actually see the audience in the eye. You know there are no takes and retakes. You have one chance to do your job... and you better do it well!

But I always communicate with the audience. I never pretend like I'm just in my bedroom making a track. The whole point of doing a gig is, like, a feedback thing between you and the audience.

The audience plays a huge part in how a piece will actually form. They really allow the performers to walk a tightrope in a way that never seems to happen in the privacy of your own four walls. I'm listening to the audience, and they're listening to me.

When you're onstage, you're acutely aware of the reaction of a particular group of people, because it's like a wave.

There's nothing like walking out and watching the people get turned on. Nothing in the world could replace it.

When you are in the studio, you don't have anybody to feed off of; meanwhile, when you are playing live, you interact with people and you feel the energy in the room. When the crowd is going crazy, that definitely impacts your vocal performance. I prefer to sing live.