Second Live Performance Response- Zora Kesich
Second Live Performance Response
On Friday, June 17th, I went see a friend of mine perform at Masquerade– an Atlanta concert venue. The friend– Bockarie Amara, is an aspiring musical artist who specializes in rap music. This was not the first time I have seen him perform, but I have always considered him to be very talented and have high hopes that he will be successful in the musical world. This performance, I was particularly impressed by the improvements he has made since his past shows that even I, not being a musician, can recognize.
What struck me during the performance was the amount of charisma necessary to be on stage and perform for any amount of time, let alone having one’s own show entirely to oneself. The performer has to keep the audience engaged and try to hold their interest by showcasing a talent which I think would be extremely hard for myself. It made me think about how in much of traditional theater, there is a cast with multiple people and it is the joint job of everyone involved to maintain audience engagement. There may be some actors with larger roles than others who thus feel more pressure, but it seems less likely that they would feel alone in the role of keeping the audience engaged. The same is true musically with bands or other types of musical groups, e.g. dance teams. However, there are certain disciplines, e.g. spoken word, some types of music, solo dance, one man shows, etc., where one person in solely responsible for acquiring and maintaining the interest and energy of an audience. As I watched the show, I thought about what a difficult endeavor this would be for myself.
Another aspect I found interesting was how separate one’s persona on stage can be from the way one behaves in their personal life. In this case, since I knew the performer fairly well, I could easily compare and contrast some observable qualities. For instance, I know Bockarie as a very friendly but also very relaxed person. By this, I mean that he is not at all shy, but he doesn’t feel the need to be the loudest person in the room. However, when performing, he has to command attention and be the loudest person to him. This is a quality I don’t normally see from him in day to day life so it was interesting to observe. It made me think about whether or not many performers are similar in their personal lives to their onstage personas. My perception is that there are likely some similarities, but I imagine many performers are not known to command attention in their day to day lives.
Overall, I enjoyed the show and I was proud to see a friend doing what he loved and receiving such high praise for it.