Quotes About Performance

Each person if he was lucky found the place where he could shine, and the person he could shine on. At Cranley Gardens Johnny had been audience, to Evert, to Ivan, to the whole clever, memoir-swapping gang. But with Pat he was a closely attended performer - he was funny, almost articulate, and rich in things worth saying.

The world's a stage, & everything else is Vaudeville.

Good joke. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains...

You see, Evey, all the world's a stage. And everything else... ... is vaudeville.

See, as it happens, I've got a couple of front row tickets for the end of the universe. I thought it'd be best to use them now. I mean, you never know... There may not be a second performance.

Few kids seek to learn a skill specifically designed to impress people unless they feel less than impressive themselves.

Going into a game of tennis: If you go in determined to win, and then your opponent is playing better than you, you're probably going to get anxious and feel that you're failing. Whereas if you go in determined to play as well as you can, then it doesn't matter if your opponent is a bit better than you or if they start to win: you're not failing.

Performing the magic, for me, is not about convincing anyone I have amazing abilities. Its about providing a journey which comes to a place where the brain starts spinning. And of course, the best brains spin the most.

Jean-Eugne Robert-Houdin, the extraordinary father of modern conjuring, made the salient point that a magician is an actor playing the part of a magician. This is a very good description. However, an actor takes for granted how to create drama in every word, movement and look. The average magician is barely aware of its existence.

Some athletes use the mind to try and improve stamina and strength. Can I use my mind to take it away?

Its Derren Brown, its Derren Brown, its Derren Brown, its Derren Brown. Hes very kind, hell read your mind, even if youre blind, your thoughts hell find,

Derren Victor Brown

For me, the most enjoyable aspect of going out and performing is that I never know how susceptible people will be to my methods.

Magic means nothing. It has the potential to connect us to something wonderful, as does any performance, but it is not wonderful in itself, for it is inseparable from the particular performance in which it is experienced. A magician who is too fast, too slow, mumbles, shouts, smells, is unlikeable or incomprehensible will unavoidably taint his magic with his personal failings.

The desire to impress is an efficient means of bringing out ones least impressive qualities.

In magic, anyone with a shop-bought trick deck is a magician, and if people arent fooled they usually pretend to be, and they are understandably likely to mistake being fooled as a sign of being in the presence of an excellent magician.

Learning has to come from doing, not intellectualizing.

A world created by observation evokes insight, hence affection, for we see the hunger and fear of all beings. Life becomes a performance on a stage (ranga-bhoomi) aimed to nourish and comfort the other, while deriving nourishment and comfort from their delight. Krishna's performance (leela) leads to him being worshipped as Ranga-natha, lord of the stage. He never judges, so he sees no one as a victim. This is how he begins The Gita:

When my dad toured in '91, I think my first gig properly was the Tokyo Dome 50 000 people indoors. That was pretty scary. I was 12, or 13.

I was recording stuff with my dad when I was like five, six years old. I played with him on tour. I'd gone with him to Japan in '91, played some gigs, did a couple shows at the Albert Hall.

Jump, by Kris Kross, on whether there is jumping during the chorus and for how long.

two more women sat, ready to judge her. She thought of all the times she'd imagined her audition for Juilliard. The people in front of her were not Juilliard professors, but

A horse doesn't know whether the rider on his back wears a dress or pants away from the track.

I couldn't tell a joke if my life depended on it.