I've been playing live since I was in sixth grade.
Every time I went on stage I was so terrified I almost threw up.
There's a picture of me as a little girl, and I'm waiting to go onstage, and I am biting the last bit of nail I have left on my finger.
The biggest problem for people who get really, really nervous when they perform live is that you think everybody's looking at you.
I don't crave applause. I'm not one of those guys who comes alive on stage. I'm much more alive at home, I think.
I've been performing since I was a child; my mother would have to pull me aside and tell me that I wasn't onstage. I was a cheerleader, president of choir, and in the school play.
Waving to the Queen after singing Amazing Grace at Buckingham Palace, that was pretty cool.
I love playing live, and doing big TV shows are exciting.
Especially with music, people want confidence.
I believe in the city as a natural human environment, but we must humanize it. It's art that will re-define public space in the 21st Century. We can make our cities diverse, inspirational places by putting art, dance and performance in all its forms into the matrix of street life.
Experience has shown me that standing by oneself reading from one's book isn't especially compelling - unless you're David Sedaris.
Frontmen come alive when they come onstage.
I think that dancing has helped or prepared me, in a number of different ways, for the film industry, especially with controlling your nerves when you walk into an audition because you're on stage from a young age.
I've had inquiries for things like TV show 'Splash,' where people go out in front of the whole nation in a bikini. But I think bikinis are just for the beach.
My first couple shows, I figured I should be playing the guitar and singing. That felt weird, but I got good at it pretty quick, and I learned my songs and how to play them.
I'd be on stage in Ireland performing for thousands of people and just not believing in what I'm doing at all. And it hurt, it hurt badly. I knew every day that I couldn't continue this way.
The first time I got onstage was when I was about 5 years old. It was at a church social, and I had a poem to recite.
The first time I sang in front of an audience, I was about 14 - it was at my guitar school's showcase, and there were about 30 people there. I was so nervous, but I did it.
I will not do festivals. The thought of an audience that big frightens the life out of me.
But even so, I still get nervous before I go onstage.
I love being able to perform in front of people. I like potentially making a difference in somebody's day or somebody's life.
I'm an entertainer - that's what I do.
I'm extremely happy, but I don't do love songs for the most part. It feels weird; that's such a personal thing to me. I'd rather live that in my real life and play a different character outside of that.
Well, I think that there is a connection between being a lawyer and a doctor and an actor. They kind of, in some ways, have the same appeal, I suppose.
When I did 'Guffman,' it was terrifying. I didn't know what to say. I started talking, and it just came out.
