Steve Allen Interview: How to Deal with Mistakes in Comedy and Public Speaking:

Steve Allen Interview: How to Deal with Mistakes in Comedy and Public Speaking

This is a transcript of a telephone conversation between Art Nefsky, vocal coach and director of Showoffs Studio and Steve Allen, a comedian and TV personality who was the co-creator and first host of The Tonight Show.)

NEFSKY: Thank you very much for your response and the book you sent me. It was very generous of you. ALLEN: Oh, good. Hope it’s helpful. NEFSKY: Yes, it’s very helpful. I’m a big fan of your work. You’re a pioneer of comedy and TV talk shows. You’ve also written more than 8,500 songs and more than 50 books. How do you manage to be so creative and versatile? ALLEN: Well, thank you for your kind words. I guess I just have a lot of curiosity and enthusiasm for life. I like to explore different fields and genres and express myself in various ways. I also have a lot of discipline and persistence. I work hard and try to improve myself constantly. NEFSKY: That’s very inspiring. What I’ve attempted to do with my book is not just to show how to get over stage fright, but explore deeper and find out why people get it. I find that a lot of people are afraid of making mistakes, afraid of getting it wrong, the fear of judgment, and I wanted to hear from celebrities and public figures who have been successful in their business. Is there a time, let’s say in live television or radio, when there was something you wanted to do, but it came out as a mistake, and as a result turned into something better – or even a classic situation? ALLEN: In my case, I’m sure there must have been numerous instances over the last fifty years or so in TV where things went wrong either slightly or to an extended degree, but since I do comedy, all of those occasions were a big plus. Now that’s nice for me or any other comedians who have the gift of wit and can take advantage of some awkward or embarrassing situation. But of course, it’s not music to the ears of those who are running for congress or trying to affect public thought on significant social issues, because if their pants fall down, so to speak, they will be embarrassed. There’s just no way to disguise that reality by careful wording. NEFSKY: Then for now let’s deal with the aspiring entertainers, the public speakers, school presentations, that sort of thing rather than the political figures. In my classes I teach students how to make mistakes – how to allow themselves to make that mistake. ALLEN: That’s a good idea. First of all they will anyway, so they may as well address that reality. NEFSKY: Right, and it’s not so much the mistake itself, but how you cope with it. ALLEN: Sure. There’s a section in my book (I don’t know how relevant it is), it’s a sub-section of one of the late chapters called “When Things Go Wrong”. It describes one hysterically funny evening, when literally every single detail did go wrong, and the audience’s reaction… well those who were there that night still talk about it – and that’s over twenty-five years ago. It’s one of the funniest nights in their experience. That doesn’t mean that if something goes wrong  with one individual’s speech at a Kiwanis luncheon it will be so fondly remembered. There are quite a few points I make in my book that occur to me again as the years pass, where it’s just not as bad as a speaker thinks it is if he spills a glass of water, mispronounces a word or something of that sort. The audience, to tell the truth, really doesn’t give that much of a damn. In fact, as I’ve already suggested, sometimes something going wrong can be worked to your advantage. Of course, one of the things that helps people to be effective speakers is to somehow learn to be articulate, even if you’ve never made a speech in your life. There are more poor speakers now than ever before, possibly because the simple ability to communicate coherently has been disastrously eroded. One of my most effective comedy routines involves my doing a reading of the actual words of Lincoln’s Gettysberg address, but in between Mr. Lincoln’s immortal phrases (to show how stupid it sounds), I deliberately intrude the phrase “you know” after a good many of the phrases. There are so many young people today who can’t seem to say anything without constant “you knows” and “likes”. NEFSKY: In my book I include humor and I prefer more inspiring stories rather than “the steps to take”. I was wondering if there was another situation where something went disastrously wrong but turned out to be better. I remember a classic on a clip somewhere where you couldn’t stop laughing during an interview with Don Knotts. ALLEN: Oh yes! That was on The Tonight Show back in 1965. Don Knotts was promoting his movie The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, and he was telling me about a scene where he had to play the organ in a haunted house. He said that the organ was rigged with wires and tubes to make it look like blood was dripping from the keys. He said that he had to keep playing even though he was scared out of his wits. He said that he was so nervous that he started to sweat, and the sweat mixed with the fake blood and ran down his face. He said that he looked like a vampire who had just had a big meal. Well, I don’t know why, but that image just cracked me up. I started to laugh uncontrollably, and so did Don. We couldn’t stop laughing for several minutes. We were both in tears, and the audience was roaring with us. It was one of the funniest moments I ever had on TV. NEFSKY: That sounds hilarious! How did you recover from that? ALLEN : Well, we just had to wait until we calmed down a bit, and then we continued the interview as best as we could. But every time we looked at each other, we started to giggle again. It was very hard to keep a straight face. NEFSKY: Do you think that laughing at your own mistakes or mishaps makes you more likable or relatable to the audience? ALLEN: I think so. I think that laughing at yourself shows that you don’t take yourself too seriously, and that you have a sense of humor about life. I think that people appreciate that, especially in these troubled times. I think that laughter is one of the best medicines for the soul. NEFSKY: Well, thank you very much for your time and your insights, Mr. Allen. It’s been a pleasure talking to you. ALLEN: Thank you, Art. It’s been a pleasure for me too. Good luck with your book.