Kurt Angle is an Olympic gold medalist, one of the greatest in-ring performers of all-time.
We shouldn’t feel restricted by our sexuality, and our sexuality doesn’t have to be a cultural choice. That’s an amazing variety of music within those five main performers.
Most people don’t think of actors and people like us that are performers and out in the world as introverts, but I like to know I can trust someone first.
I’ve always loved acting, even from when I was a child. But when I got on stage, I realised I couldn’t act my way out of a paper bag. I was wild and full of unharnessed energy, but I was around all these seasoned performers like Rita Cullis. It was as if they were all in slow motion.
Whitney Houston and Ella Fitzgerald are my musical mothers. I learned everything I know about true R&B, pop and jazz singing from these stunning performers and unparalleled musicians.
Today’s generation likes stand-up comedies in which the performers give their take on a number of subjects. Some of them are a taboo, but youngsters enjoy them. However, when we act in a drama, what is uppermost on our mind is the people’s perceptions and opinions.
Most performers are used to the highs and the lows. If you can let a low stop you, that would be a sad commentary.
When John and I were together, and this is about a week or two before our relationship ended, I remember him saying, ‘Do you think I should write with Paul again?’ I said, ‘Absolutely. You should because you want to. The two of you as solo performers are good, but together you can’t be beaten.’
People who aren’t complicated in real life come through as pretty bland on the screen. Most great performers are not very happy and well adjusted. Perhaps that’s the price they pay for being originals.
I look at old performers like James Brown: back in the day when you actually had to work hard to get poppin’. I look at all those types of performers. Even like Kid n’ Play and the Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff and Salt-N-Pepa. That era where they had to perform. You couldn’t just rap. It had to be an entire performance.
I still consider myself to be introverted, but everyone has a side of themselves that is amplified. Performers have to learn to tap into that, even if it’s not natural.
I will always remember this summer day in Paris, when I was to perform a great acrobatic move. I can still see myself stepping on the ring of a packed circus along real performers.
It bothers me when people say, ‘Oh, you’re so down to earth – for an actor.’ Even when they don’t say ‘for an actor,’ I feel like that’s the implication. Why are the standards so low for performers?
I had been on tour with people like Roy Orbison. I knew Bobby Darin, Sam Cooke. So many great performers.
My son has been known to throw a book at the television set when he called for me to come play and I was obviously busy in the box. But I’m told that children of television performers grow up thinking that all mommies or daddies work on TV and that it’s no big deal.
As long as I can get Bobby Heenan in my corner, then I’m a happy man because, to me, Bobby Heenan is one of the most underrated performers of all time. He’s in my top five of all time performers because I don’t think people realize just how good he was.
I wanted to break the idea of what male performers are supposed to show, what performances girl groups are supposed to show. I really wanted to break those labels, showing that dance is a form of art.
As for whether I am a ‘new age guru’, I am not at all. I help companies build employees who lead without a title and become high performers.
I think energy is the most important thing that we can give to people as performers. Anything else is a little bit pretentious. But energy is not.
When designing a workout program for high level performers, factors such as body type, previous training experience, and even pain tolerance come into play.
Pure entertainment is not an egotistical lady singing boring songs onstage for two hours and people in tuxes clapping whether they like it or not. It’s the real performers on the street who can hold people’s attention and keep them from walking away.
For a lot of pop performers, fame and celebrity is part of the job. But for singer-songwriters, no one really cares.
In 2003, I wrote a New York Times best-seller called ‘Shut Up & Sing,’ in which I criticized celebrities like the Dixie Chicks & Barbra Streisand who were trashing then-President George W. Bush. I have used a variation of that title for more than 15 years to respond to performers who sound off on politics.
It’s been a continuity right from the beginning – that longing to weave together perceptions, to affirm the richness of us as human beings both as performers and audience members.
I grew up in a great era of professional wrestling. WWF was just really coming into it’s own. The start of WrestleManias, the legendary performers like Macho Man, Hulk Hogan, Honky Tonk Man, Iron Sheik, Sgt. Slaughter.
Dance should not just divide people into audience and performers. Everyone should be a participant, whether going to classes or attending special events or rehearsals.
I get star-struck anytime I meet performers that I grew up watching and appreciating. I mean, it’s still incredibly surreal to me that I was a kid in San Antonio watching movies and then now I’m working with some of the people that were in those movies. I don’t think it’ll ever stop being surreal on some level.
I have more contact with people who consume, for lack of a better word, my product than any other performers.
I can’t think of a better bonding experience than to be able to sit on stage and to watch your fellow performers perform on stage every night.
Our job is to be performers and give everybody a great night where they can forget about their problems and the world’s problems, because they’re always going to be there. They were there since the beginning, and they’re going to be there until the end.
I actually think I suck. I think I’m one of the worst announcers, one of the worst performers there is. It blows my mind that I keep getting hired. But when I’m doing it, yeah, I’ll admit: No one can do it like I can.
But a large symphony orchestra basically is a repertory company and it has a very enormous repertoire and it is important for the performers to be able to know how to shift focus so that they instantly become part of the sound world that a particular repertoire demands.
