There’s a lot you can learn by watching other acts. Last night I watched a saxophone player do a
show. He played two original songs and
the rest were cover songs. One thing
that I liked was the production value of his show. There were a lot of light cues, which added a
lot to the show.
The show was fun, the one thing I didn’t like was when he talked it sounded too scripted for me. It sounded like he’s done it a hundred times, and he probably has. The advantage of how he talked was it was very slow, thought out and easy to follow. The disadvantage it that it didn’t some off as remotely sincere.
The goal in talking in your show is for it to not sound robotic. For example, he would ask audience for a response and if no one interacted, he just moved on. He didn’t mention that “oh, no one from new jersey” then move on. It’s not living in the moment when the moment pops up that makes your show feel reel. Your response doesn’t have to be a joke, it just need to address whatever happens.
Somewhere there is a balance between being scripted and sounding natural.