James Laughlin Quotes

Reading a poem aloud to an audience is gestural as much as precise.

Written poetry is different. Best thing is to see it in performance first, then read it. Performance is more provocative.

I would love to do more on the stage; having actual contact with the audience is great. You can give them a good seeing to!

And some poets are far better read off the page because they're very bad speakers. I'm thinking of one in particular whom I won't name, a good poet, and he reads in such a dry, boring way, your eyes start drooping.

In my case, performance is part of the medium. Sometimes I feel that it's my main medium, and that the presentation of my poems on the page is secondary.

As rewarding as a good film role can be, there is just nothing like getting up on a stage and taking an audience for a ride.

Feeling emotionally connected to a song, and accumulating every bit of the moment's energy to sing out to the audience is what I believe makes a great performer.

Many performance poets seem to believe that yelling a poem makes it comprehensible. They are wrong.

That's one of the good things about music. You get to do it live, where you can touch the people and interact with them.

I just think, certainly for live music it should look as good as it sounds.

I've been doing magic since I was five years old, and when I was trying to get acting gigs, I found I could make a good living at it. It's great to kind of shake the cobwebs off and get the feeling of a live audience again. I love close-up magic, the card stuff, the coin stuff, the really up-close David Blaine stuff.

Spoken word poetry is the art of performance poetry. I tell people it involves creating poetry that doesn't just want to sit on paper, that something about it demands it be heard out loud or witnessed in person.

I've asked to go back into theaters and smaller venues because to me, in smaller venues I can really demonstrate my commitment to quality. Theaters are great containers for music.

What is a good performance? It lies in the hands and head of a performer... the shortest way between two people is not a straight line.

I love playing the Hard Rocks; they've got a great stage, great lighting, great sound, and not so humongous; its more intimate, so we love playing theaters and clubs where the audience has a really good chance to see and hear the group and where the acoustics are good. I like it when we can hear what we're doing.

Anything you can do to get more people to come to your live shows is good, because that's where you can really do what you do. Everyone's on the same page, and you don't have to win strangers over as much.

My family were great story-tellers. My mum was one of 12 and they were all fighting to tell stories. You have to tell a good tale or no one is going to listen. You have to make it entertaining and interesting. That's how I learned to tell stories.

There's such a freewheeling nature to 'Second City,' and the greatest thing about 'Second City' was having a sophisticated audience night after night who appreciated what it was. They knew it wasn't all going to be great when you improvised, so they were very forgiving that way.

That's why I love doing live theater more than anything: You get an immediate reaction, whether it's good or bad.

What I like to do is just make good music, good movies, hopefully perform a good show full of energy and just have some fun.

Stadium rock and commercial rock are the opposite of what poetry needs. An audience of around 200 is ideal for poetry.

Theater is just so much more satisfying than film or television just because you deliver the whole thing from start to finish in one evening, and you can tell if people have enjoyed it or not. That's great to do every night to go in front of a full room of people and tell the story. There's nothing like that really.

Reading a piece of poetry with no beat in front of 20 people is way more challenging than rocking for 10,000 people.

I believe a great performer is someone who sounds just as great live as they do in the studio and vice versa. They should know how to work the stage.

Genre-spanning is the effort to make the live show interesting. It's also a great way to challenge yourself as a writer.