Jimmy Webb Quotes

Performing doesn't come that naturally to me, even though I've done it for years.

I'm not a natural performer: I have a natural stage fright.

It's quite pretentious, really, isn't it? The notion the audience is going to be interested in you for an hour and a half. Think too much about that and anxiety takes over.

I love being onstage. As I've gotten older, it terrifies me more and more, which is interesting.

I think I'm getting more and more experience playing on big stages, and I think that's going to help me with everything.

Playing in front of a crowd is something you learn. You accept it and then you start to relish it.

When I started out in stand-up, I was already used to speaking in front of people, how to project, control my voice - a lot of learning curves I had overcome.

Stand-up is not something that you're good at right away. You have to do it a ton. But, I think I got to shave a year off because I didn't have to get over stage fright.

There's no better way to learn something than to learn it in front of an audience. Your terror drives you.

It feels like the more I'm out there in the public eye, the more criticism I get. You need to have confidence - that's what it takes to walk out there and sing a song in front of a huge group of people.

In general, I'm pretty shy and nervous about a lot of things. For me to get on stage for the first time took so many times at an open mic before I finally got on stage and did it.

Nobody was listening when I learned how to play music. But there's something about being on stage, talking to the audience, looking at them and smiling, that's always been difficult for me. I'm a lot more comfortable now, but there are still moments of awkwardness.

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.

If I was going onstage, of course I would talk about it. How could I not?

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.

It took me years to actually get comfortable on the stage. I prefer the intimacy of screen; it comes easier to me. In theater, you have to be louder and bigger - that was harder for many years in my teens. But now I've conquered that. I eat up the stage. I love it.

I don't get stage fright, I actually love the energy, I love the spontaneity, I love the adrenaline you get in front of a live audience, it actually really works for me.

The first time I got up in front of an audience was terror, abject terror, which continued for another four or five years. There still is, a little bit.

There's no hope of me becoming completely relaxed on stage. If I did, I'd sit down and doze off.

I don't really feel any different when I get up on stage.

Once I get out onstage, it's the same sort of basic production that it is anywhere else. But I might be a little bit aware that there might be people I know out there, who wondered where I was.

I don't feel nervous or fearful when I'm on stage.

When you get onstage, you can see everyone in the audience's face, down to the detail. You can see who may or may not be yawning.

The more you perform and get out there, I guess the more practice you have at it and the better you are and the more comfortable you are on stage.

I'm not comfortable singing in front of people yet. That's going to take another 100 performances.