One thing you have to do is address the “elephant in the room” when there is one. Last night I did a show with light attendance, which was due to an unusual situation. The show was in a big theater, and it was obvious that it was a light turn out.


I opened the show with a joke about it and it went over well and the show proceeded to do great. I think that when everyone notices something, you need to say something about it, you can’t pretend it doesn’t exist.


A good example was many years ago I saw the Amazing Kreskin perform. He had a light turn out, and he came out before the show, mentioned it, and invited the balcony to move to the floor. That gave him a more tightly packed audience, and really made the show better for him and the audience.


Whether it’s a light turn out, someone having a heart attack, whatever, if it’s on the audience’s mind, you need to address it.