With Carl Stalling’s compositions, you hear the cartoon character’s temperament in every musical note.
What word needs to bleed? If the casual listener doesn’t have time now, they will remember and return later.
Why? I’ve continued to use what I learned as a sideshow talker in the work that I do today as a street magician, physical comedian, and even as a business owner.Carnival talkers have to compete with other alluring, time-proven distractions. Be adamantine, and get after that perfect score!a person's area of skill, knowledge, authority, or work.Dictionary.com Unabridged Then use this to practice.Actors learn over time how to mark up their script. Beckoning stuffed animals. Even though the act itself is very good, it’s too big in that context — kids become frightened and that’s the end of the performance. Flag. A smile can be like a switch for the JOY bulb.If there is an emotion that you want the listener to associate with your talk, you have to live it and breathe it into their subconscious.Think about the lighting in a theater: transitions of brightness and shadows evoke emotions in the audience. Although I’d lifted the spiels of masterful talkers, these were words of other shows and other times.We all tend to fall in love with our words. Of course, you won’t sing it when you deliver your pitch, but you can use this exercise to inform you of the ups and downs in your delivery.Singing your pitch can reveal places where a pause or change of volume can have a big impact.Look at the script of your words and pretend to assign a musical phrase to each one. You lose power and intelligibility. Your words must draw them along in the same way.Sideshow talkers are masters of cadence. A barker would often conduct a brief free show, introducing performers and describing acts to be given at the feature performance. She only has to be loud enough to be heard — her words, her subjects, and herself more colorful than all else combined. carnival barker. Donald Trump is a carnival barker; he won't stop asking for Obama's birth certificate. You can direct attention to an important idea you are about to convey with a simple, microsecond pause.It is also part of the the musicality of your delivery. Then I continue with the next word after a brief pause, and the next.Here’s some advice I got from a great talker: “Make the pauses big enough to drive a tractor through.”A great way to practice this is telling jokes. By the time she is through, there is no sign of Bugs’ twitching tail or carrot.There is an added benefit of fun to squeezing and unpacking your pitch into cartoon music. Big Circus Sideshow, founded by the late great showman Jim “JZ” Zajicek, had over 40 attractions under a red and yellow 100-foot circus tent. Look at their lyrics before listening to them craft them into something more. See Them Now!‘Talking the bannerline’ forced me to kill words. Neon, blinking lights. He was an Armless Wonder, a born freak, the top of the carny ladder, with a good job wherever he cared to look for one. Note that “energy” is not always volume — a whisper can have more impact than a shout. Professional barkers strongly disliked the term and instead referred to themselves as "talk… Decide on your bannerline— the essential selling points you’re trying to make. Have you ever channel hopped and found yourself spending mindless minutes watching a commercial for That something is the cadence and emotional rollercoaster the pitchman orchestrates.You can breath the same air as the top marketers in less than 30 days; if you are not 100% satisfied I will refund your investment and time. Which ones need to dance, which ones to crawl? © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
“Add music but don’t sing it,” was the advice of my favorite teacher.A simple tactic is to actually practice singing your talk, perhaps to the current song on the radio.
Use fluorescent highlighters for emotions and feelings. Some conditions and stipulations apply.You too can learn these secrets to create your own carnival ride of a pitch, replete with thrills and chills, laughter and drama, and fear and fun.Scripting is your secret weapon. I learned a lot during my first time as a “barker” in the sticky Texas mud on a carnival midway.My goal? Where will you breathe?