Michael Rapino Quotes

I saw Tina Turner do 'Proud Mary' on TV, and it was so electrifying and such a unique experience. I remember crying out of excitement, and I knew that I wanted to be a performer and make people feel excited and moved, and that's why I gravitated towards it.

I think that theater is a unique way to communicate with people as they gather together with other people they may not even know. It creates a sense of shared community for the time of the performance that hopefully carries over into other aspects of the audience's life because they have shared this experience together.

It's such a rare and rewarding thing to be in control of space and time for two hours a night, to go through a journey and take the audience along. There's nothing quite like it.

Our show doesn't rely on the typical whistles and bells, and smoke and mirrors. It relies mostly on the music.

I like doing theaters. I like being up close and personal with the fans. It's really cool.

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 think my first experience of art, or the joy in making art, was playing the horn at some high-school dance or bar mitzvah or wedding, looking at a roomful of people moving their bodies around in time to what I was doing. There was a piano player, a bass player, a drummer, and my breath making the melody.

It's new and different every night. The charge you get from a good audience is like nothing else.

You know, it's recently come into focus for me why I want to be an actor: It's because of the connection I feel to people.

It's quite rare for a group of people to come together for a live event that isn't loud music. A live event that enables thinking to take place, to take place collectively. It's unique to theatre. It's a quality I never want to see diminished.

Theater is a space where you cross over from everyday life, because there are real people in that moment moving in front of you - you're being invited to believe in a story and cross that bridge.

People come to my shows on purpose as opposed to coming to a 'comedy show.' Which was always my goal.

San Francisco has always been my favorite booing city. I don't mean the people boo louder or longer, but there is a very special intimacy. When they boo you, you know they mean you. Music, that's what it is to me. One time in Kezar Stadium they gave me a standing boo.

The energy of live theater is indescribable. You are just in the moment for an hour and a half.

I think 2014 for me is going to give me the possibility to do even bigger things than anyone has done. I want to change the party scene - like, stop just being a DJ with lights, a big LED screen, and oh-look-at-me speakers. There's way more to a party, and I think everyone knows it. I want to make it special.

I had seen 'Pillowman' in London and loved it. Being part of something that I, as an audience member, would like to be part of was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had.

There's nothing like the buzz of live theater. You put it out there and receive an instant reaction: laughing, crying, yelling, applauding.

People don't come to my concerts because they know the program. They come because they love the atmosphere and because they know that when I offer them a program it will be a night they never forget.

Once in awhile, there's stuff that makes me say, That's what theatre's about. It has to be a human event on the stage, and that doesn't happen very often.

I love the immediacy of an audience being there and reacting. I'm spoiled, having grown up in theater.

I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.

I love giving the energy and getting the energy back. There is nothing like it.

I feel like so much of what we give on stage is a musical gift to our fans, but we also wanna bring more depth to our shows if we can and do something empowering.

When you can tailor your act, you want it to be about yourself but also about the people in the room and the experience you guys are having in that moment; it is really a special thing.

Anyone can enjoy a wrestling match, but it's how you feel about that person that takes it to another level.