Shake The Fear Out

I must admit, the first time I ever spoke a show I was frightened beyond belief. 

  Flying the birds helps to quell stagefright_Marz, the Red-tailed Hawk is an old pro

Anyone who has ever performed before an audience knows that that first performance can be terrifying.  I have always had a terrible fear of public speaking.  In fact, I was so scared that before going out onto stage I have to violently shake my arms to “shake the fear out”. 

As Leah Tyndall discussed in her blog post recently, we all have our pre-show rituals that help to calm our nerves.  My arm shaking routine looks very silly and is slightly embarrassing, but when I walk out onto the stage all the fear flies away.  I was so scared for my first show, that for some unexplainable reason I even told the audience.  Thankfully, my audience for that show was terrific and very understanding.  I will always be grateful to them for it. 

I am also very grateful to the rest of the Stone Zoo Bird Show staff for all the support and encouragement they gave me, and frankly, for putting up with me while getting over my fear.  If it wasn't for the two Leahs on our Stone Zoo bird show staff, I would probably still be scared out of my mind when speaking in public. 

Even though I was frightened to be speaking in front of such a large audience, when the first bird comes out it all goes away.  Seeing the look on everyone’s face as the first bird flies over their heads makes me smile and reminds me why I do this.  And as adrenaline starts to rush through my veins, I can’t help but love being out there.  So I guess it’s fair to say that I have a love/hate relationship with public speaking. 

 Even birds get stagefright - just ask Sam, our Augur Buzzard

Sam, our Augur Buzzard, was also afraid of flying in front of a lot of people at first.  Watching Sam get over his fear of flying for a lot of people also helped me get over my fear.  I often thought to myself, “If this bird can be okay with it, I should be, too.”  Eventually Sam became one of our best fliers at the Stone Zoo Show, which always made me push myself harder to really want to be out there speaking for him. 

After the season at Stone Zoo ended and I was back at the sanctuary doing educational programs I had to take the next step for speaking shows--no backstage area where I could do my arm-shaking routine. 

My first encounter doing a WBS show without a backstage was in Kansas City at the Renaissance Faire.  We had a backstage, but we started the show with the speaker in the audience and a blind release of Stetson, a Harris’ Hawk.  This was a little hard for me because I couldn’t “shake the fear out” right before the show.  It did make it a little easier having Stetson there, for he is my favorite bird at the sanctuary.  We both instantly bonded while doing training sessions before the zoo show season started.  So while having him there helped me, I was still frightened before the show and at the start of the show. 

Luckily I had a great crew with me in KC—WBS staff member Trina Whitener and WBS volunteer Linda Tossing.  They were both very supportive of my public speaking jitters, so I want to send a great big thank you to them for all their encouragement. 

My last step in getting over my public speaking fear was recently at Lake of the Ozarks with WBS staff member Mike Zeloski.  There we didn't have any time at all between shows, kind of like a lightning round.  It was fast paced, and I loved it.  We had no backstage at all and no prep time, so there was no chance of “shaking the fear out” before the show.  After my first show I was too preoccupied with getting the next show started on time to really be scared at all. I love doing shows with Mike Z--he has so much knowledge and confidence when he speaks—and I think it transferred over to me a little.

After those three steps, I think and hope it is safe to say that I won’t be needing to “shake the fear out” anymore. 

So thank you to all the people and birds who helped me get over my fear of public speaking.

Submitted by Mike Cerutti, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist/Trainer

The Rookie Files: Stage Fright

Zoo show programs are exciting and wonderful to perform.

Zoo Shows combine education and showmanship into a form that people can appreciate and enjoy.  Zoo shows, though, do require you to perform on a stage in front of hundreds of people, and this can sometimes lead to stage fright.

Getting ready to go on-stage

All of us who participate in zoo show education programs have had stage fright, and usually it’s worst at the beginnings of our careers.  For some stage fright is brought on by crowds numbering close to a thousand and being alone on stage for the first time in months.  For others stage fright can be induced by as few as three people.  Sometimes it is more comforting to give a show to a large group, since this causes faces and background chatter to blend into the crowd. 

Regardless of the cause, we all have pre-show rituals to help deal with it.  I center myself right before I go onstage and obsessively check the battery pack of my microphone to make sure it is on and I am not going to run out of battery power.  Other speakers will shake out or stretch out their nervous energy before the show starts.  Some will sit quietly and meditate on their script.  There are also occasions of pre-show group singing and warm-up cheers.

However we manage to calm our nerves and jitters, once we do we are prepared for every situation--ad-libbing while a bird sits in a tree, dealing with an overenthusiastic volunteer we’ve called out of the audience, speaking in front of a group that is standing room only, and on one memorable occasion performing a ten minute monologue while trying to get a bird to return to the theater.

Detour plotting a detour

Humans are not the only ones who get stage fright during zoo show programs.  Birds--especially rookies--are sometimes overwhelmed by the sheer number of people in the audience. This usually results in the bird not doing its behavior at all or deciding to seek safety in a nearby tree. This is more common with the smaller birds, ones that are considered prey in the wild.

Detour, our American kestrel would often detour from his flight path if it took him too close to the audience. Instead he would perch on the roof and observe until he deemed it safe enough to come back down. As the smallest falcon species found in North America, I can understand his trepidation. 

Sam, our young Augur Buzzard was thrown for quite the loop the first time he popped up onto his entrance perch and found the formerly empty theater full of people--or, in his opinion, full of frightening, unfamiliar creatures. He immediately sought the safety of a tree and we went back to square one.  You see, when practicing for the first real show, our theater is almost always empty of people, so those birds that have never flown over people in theater bleachers can get stage fright the first time they experience people in the bleachers.

Sam needed to be re-started to condition him to a large audience

Just like with beginning speakers, we re-started Sam out small with audiences of 15-20 and worked our way back up to audiences in the hundreds. We also reworked his flight pattern, since from his point of view he was flying into potential danger. It also helped to walk him around the theater for several shows, allowing him time to get used to the audience and realize that they were not going to harm him.  After about a month of this Sam was flying, care free, over hundreds of people.

Stage fright is a problem that everyone has dealt with at one point or another. It can manifest through nervous energy, upset stomach or inability to speak. The key is to break it down, start out small, and work your way through the problem. Once you do you’ll find that there is nothing you cannot accomplish and no situation that you cannot handle. Birds have to be helped through this process in getting used to large groups of humans, but we do have a big advantage over them. We never think the audience is about to eat us!

Submitted by Leah Tyndall, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist/Trainer