Paul F. Tompkins Quotes

When I got on stage, I would have a rush of adrenaline; everybody gets it. Normally after the first night it becomes more controllable, and as long as I could ride the wave, I was still in charge.

I still get a little nervous before performing. You don't want to forget a lyric; you don't want to make a mistake. I still get butterflies. You can try to judge an audience, but you can only really judge things by the applause.

I had gigged so much from the age of 11 to 20 that I got to a stage where I actually got less nervous the bigger the gig. But you need those butterflies: they make you feel alive.

I will say that, I, being a Jew, experience unease before I go onstage; and after I go onstage, and in general. But luckily the forty-five minutes to an hour that I'm onstage I usually forget everything else and I just press play.

When you go on a stage, before you go on a stage you're really scared and you're really frightened. You don't know what to do. "Why did I say yes to this?" But once you're on the stage you think, "Okay."

I love to be nervous before a scene.

I always felt like my future was at stake every time I stepped on stage and that was kind of hair-raising. At some point I just went, don't be frightened, you can't do anything wrong, it's your show.

I'd never experienced stress before I did stand-up, and it was a massive shock to my system, this thing of waking up, and the nerves of, 'You're on stage tonight.'

Backstage, I get sleepy, and want to curl up and snooze. I never get nervous, whatever the event. I feel quite detached until I walk on stage, and then some gear inside me clicks and off I go like a wind up doll.

And when I perform on my own tour, I have to talk myself into going out on that stage every single night.

As for the stage fright, it never goes away. When I'm waiting in the wings to go on, it's agony every single time but I stay focused and I know that once I'm on stage it'll be fine; I'll be in my happy little bubble.

I get so nervous before I go onstage - beyond butterflies!

I am always scared before going on stage; this is the fear which makes me do well.

If I have a gig in the evening, I get 'the doom' at about 5 P.M., when I think I'm getting flu.

I still get really nervous, though, before each performance. It kind of hits about 15 minutes before we go onstage - sometimes I don't even want to go on. But once I'm onstage I'm fine.

You want to have butterflies in your stomach, because if you don't, if you walk out onstage complacent, that's not a good thing.

It's the adrenaline rush you only get from being in front of an audience. It's addictive.

There's some anxiety the 30 minutes before the show starts. But once you step on stage and face the people, everything goes away, and you have fun and enjoy the audience.

I know really, really famous people who are terrified every time they walk on to a stage.

I go through insanity before a show. It's not really a process but it's like absolute mortal fear.

I'm never not nervous before going onstage. Like... what if I fall on my face?

Sometimes I get butterflies before I get up on stage.

There's a ton of nerves for every fight I've been in; it doesn't matter if it was my debut.

Even on TV appearances or big shows, I don't know if I've ever been as nervous as I was my first time doing stand-up. I just remember getting offstage and sitting down, and my right knee was just shaking from the adrenaline.

My nerves before a gig got worse; I had terrible bad nerves all the time. Once we started... I was fine.