Technical brilliance isn’t enough
If Chris Bliss is anywhere near as good in person as he is in this video, I’d hire him in a heartbeat. I’m not a big fan of juggling, but this is amazing. And then I watched this guy Jason, who does the same moves except he does it with five balls instead of the three Bliss uses (thanks to Seth Godin for the pointers).
As I watched Jason juggle, it was obvious that he is fantastic at what he does. But I wouldn’t hire him for a corporate event. He’s just not engaging. He looks alternatively show-offy, bored, and angry. Bliss seems totally engaged in what he’s doing, excited about it, even a little worried. He pulls us into his experience through his showmanship and makes it ours. Jason seems to be doing it all for Jason.
Think about the difference, whether you’re hiring an act to wow your attendees or lining up speakers—are they there to show off their brilliance, or to make an experience the audience can share and engage with? I’d take the latter any day.
March 24th, 2006 at 5:32 pm
I’m in total agreement, Sue. I went into this subject in a longer treatise on my own blog (http://wsuccess.typepad.com/webinarblog/2006/03/the_art_of_ente.html) with some ideas about how to apply the lessons learned to your own presentation style. I concentrate on online meetings, but the message is powerful for F2F meetings as well.
March 24th, 2006 at 7:05 pm
Ken, thanks for nailing this down in your post (and for letting me know about the Webinar Blog—I just added you to my RSS feeds). I have a hard time saying exactly what it is that makes the difference when it comes to presenting, or juggling, or whatever you do, and your post helped me pinpoint it better.
March 26th, 2006 at 4:19 pm
I do not think that the two videos are comparable. Each has a different context. Jason was not performing for an audience or a talent scout. He was performing to prove a point (that juggling three balls is nothing to write home about). That is all.
I have elaborated further over here.
March 26th, 2006 at 7:10 pm
Yaakov, my point isn’t about comparing the two videos, the motivation behind making the videos, what each artist was trying to do, etc., etc. My point is that, if meeting planners want to wow their attendees, technical brilliance isn’t enough. That’s all.
That said, I would argue that Jason was performing for an audience, since this appears to have been filmed for release on the Internet. He may not have known how viral it would go, but I doubt he went to all that work just for himself and whoever taped his routine.
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