Snake Charming: Captivating an Audience of Any Age

In his debut Interintellect Salon, Peter Williams will explore on-stage performance to understand what it takes to dazzle and delight the toughest audiences and what lessons we can apply in our daily lives.

You’ve been planning this day for months. You meet your friends in the parking lot to all head in together. But Timmy is nowhere to be found. Ugh, he’s always late. Finally, you see the car speeding your way and at that moment the skies open. You race to the venue but there was no hope. Eventually you’ve found your section but all you can think about now is the drip…drip…drip rolling off of your seat to refill your left shoe. This place is packed. And hot. And humid. And you’re stuck sitting between your parents. Because you’re 5.

Who could possibly turn that experience around? Even the best opera singer, lecturer, concert pianist, or comic? No way. Maybe Hamilton, but barring that you aren’t passing any ‘adult’ content here.

“If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.” – Someone who must have been talking about performing in front of children

The ability to corral and unify an audience from toddlers to tweens, and their legal guardians, is a rare art. It takes a degree of engagement and multi-level, interactive play that few can achieve. It has to go beyond broadcasting a performance and into the daunting realm of creating a movement. Why is that?

Other questions we hope to explore:

• How much of this is a learnable skill vs. an intrinsic or developed talent?
• Is it better to have a stage presence you can turn ‘on’, or to always be yourself?
• What can we learn from these snake charmers that will translate to grown-up interaction?

In this Interintellect Salon, we’ll be exploring these questions and many more in hopes of emerging as better communicators with the confidence that we too can make it anywhere.

We hope you can join us. – Salon Host Peter Williams

Reading List:

https://daveruch.com/advice/how-to-engage-an-audience-concert/ – Read this first to set your mind for the videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CSxGHve60E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAHOvL87vcE

https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement/transcript

https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_how_to_speak_so_that_people_want_to_listen/transcript

Time Zones:

12:00 PM San Francisco

3:00 PM New York

7:00 PM London

Why not add the ii Calendar to your calendar?

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You will be sent a Zoom link for the Salon in your emailed ticket.

Apply for a student discount at hello@interintellect.com.

Find our online code of conduct here.