We turn a tough political banquet into a playbook for presence. Two questions reshape the room: can you hear me and are you listening, with practical fixes for sound, engagement, and momentum.
• ocean and surfboard metaphor for crowd energy
• hearing versus listening as separate checks
• why sound checks and backup gear matter
• when crowd work fails and how to qualify targets
• laughter and silence as contagious signals
• shorten setups to fit noisy venues
• how to redirect focus toward willing listeners
• after action reports for accountability and growth
• parking lot encore to repair missed connections
• simple script to set boundaries without snark
Check me out. Peace.
Comedy
www.BenjaWelldone.com
IG: @BenjaWelldone
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Biz-Email: Benja@WelldoneComedy.com
#WARandLaughs
Episode Transcript
Commanding presence.
You know, I had a uh valuablelesson last night.
I did a comedy show, and um, youknow, the way that comedy really
works, and this is just mespeaking out loud, in my
opinion, is that the crowd iskind of like the ocean, and my
microphone is like a surfboard.
(00:21):
And the only way I can ride thatwave, the only way I can make
everybody laugh is I needeverybody's attention, and uh
they have to be receptive, whichare two different things.
Okay, if you're payingattention, but you're not in a
relaxed mood for me to be ableto uh absorb the information.
It's like have you ever tried tohave a conversation, a serious
(00:43):
conversation with somebody who'suh thinking about something else
or they are uh angry.
Uh try to try to have aconversation uh with your
girlfriend or wife or whoeveryou may have in your life or
boyfriend, husband, whatever,uh, about one thing when they're
mad about something else.
They're probably not going to bein the listening tone.
(01:06):
Um and uh I try to findaccountability in anything that
I can make better, becausethat's really, again, in the
army, we would call a uh afteraction report, which means
basically things that you dogood, things that you get bad
that you did bad, even if youdid awesome.
And the whole point is torecognize what you accomplished
(01:27):
and to also figure out what youcould have made better, even if,
even in a win, right?
So without getting caught up intoo many details, I realized
that there were people in theroom when I first started
speaking.
Uh, I like doing crowd work.
I like crowd work a whole lot.
And if I call on somebody andthis is valuable time and
they're not interested orthey're not paying attention or
(01:50):
something like that, okay.
Um, if they don't respond back,I can't respond to them because
then it becomes like a sidebarconversation.
That was one problem that I washaving.
I was doing crowd work and uhcertain people uh, you know,
just they they didn't want torespond.
So what do you do?
You adapt and overcome, right?
(02:10):
Apparently, there was anotherpart where uh people were
telling me after the show in theback that they could not hear me
at all.
So the lesson that I had learnedis very simple.
When you get on stage, or thiscould be me, regardless, just
figure it out if it's in yourown life, even better.
But two separate questions.
Uh, and it's kind of like uh atrigger and pulling the trigger.
(02:33):
And what I mean is this thefirst question is, can you hear
me?
That's number one, that's atrigger for getting their
attention.
Number two, are you listening?
Because listening and hearing istwo different things.
If I would have asked that, Iwould have known immediately who
my audience is in a crowd, andthis was a corporate event uh in
a crowd, and that could haveworked to my advantage instead
of trying to get people that arenot hearing, not listening, not
(02:56):
interested to participate.
So that's my lesson.
Um now the interesting thing isthat uh I I met a lot of great
politicians uh or potentiallygreat politicians, and I noticed
that um from I noticed that fromuh the silence and the messages
(03:22):
that they were trying.
So let me back up.
This was a um uh political, apolitical event that was also
supposed to have some levity toit, some humor and stuff.
So I was the levity.
Um and I'd say maybe there waslike crowd was like about there
was about like a hundred ofthem, uh not politicians, but
(03:43):
just attendees at this event.
And there were differentpoliticians saying why they
should be voted for and stufflike that.
And um, I had one of themcontact me last night, and uh,
and I had another politiciantell me um directly after the
show that he couldn't hear me,which is coming around full
circle, um that you need to fixthat situation.
(04:08):
And how could you fix thatsituation first off when you're
talking in a microphone aboutnot being heard?
Well, first off would be um do asound check before I failed to
do that.
I did not do that, and um, thatwas a learning lesson, and
that's important.
So I'm gonna do that from now onbecause I am a professional uh
and I aim to always please.
(04:29):
I can't trust somebody else'sequipment, which is why I also
have a backup speaker.
There could have beenadjustments that could have made
to that speaker, maybe, maybenot, but I have a backup speaker
that's stay charged, it'sportable, it's Bluetooth, I have
wireless, I have two extramicrophones, I am ready to play
ball.
But that's not going to help atall if my second problem, people
(04:51):
can't hear me, okay, or thosethat can hear me aren't
listening.
And it's also not a bad thing toactually have this group that
was sitting um at this nearbytable of when I started, um,
with their backs turned, havinga conversation and carrying on.
You know, that whole examplethat I gave about about the
(05:13):
ocean is that if the ocean isflat, if there's no waves, how
am I gonna surf?
You get what I'm saying?
So if if I'm trying that'swhat's fun about a comedy club,
but I think, and this was not acomedy club, uh, but I think
what's great about not doing notdoing comedy clubs is that you
(05:36):
get these lessons of different,it like it multiplies your stage
presence and your ability towork through problems and stuff
like that, that a comedy clubdoesn't have with its perfect,
you know, scenario and all thechairs are facing to the
audience.
This had a lot of dinner tablesand they were uh turning
different directions, but theones that wanted to listen all
(05:59):
turned, okay?
Um, but it's still important toI feel like laughter is
contagious, but also silence is.
And um, if you ever had asituation where there was like a
group of individuals and theysaid, Does anybody have any
problem with this?
If somebody has a problem withit, it only takes one to like
(06:22):
raise their hand.
Okay, and then two, and then ifthere is a problem, they might
do it.
But the thing is, until the thepressure of being able to um
raise your hand is a lot lesswhen a lot more have already
raised their hand, unless you'rethat first one, right?
Um, and my point is that silenceand laughter, it's kind of like
(06:43):
that too.
Um there's something that's kindof infectious that happens when
you have a group of people at acomedy show uh who are just uh
not laughing, and sometimessilence can even be disruptive.
But people, if they pay to bethere, or and this is just my
advice and also a learninglesson for myself, they're just
(07:04):
talking out loud, at leastacknowledge to the crowd that if
these people aren'tparticipating, that's fine.
But we're going to have a greatexperience without them.
And I don't think there'sanything wrong with that.
You know what I mean?
Because you're really justseparating uh the listeners from
the non-listeners, but they needto know that these people aren't
(07:24):
laughing, not because what I'msaying isn't funny.
They're not laughing becausethey're not listening.
You know, which and also gettingback to the uh physically
hearing, which is different thanum uh uh interpreting and
understanding the information,comedy is also something where
if you what I love aboutone-liner jokes is that they're
(07:46):
they're short, they're fast,it's begin and end, done.
Very simple, right?
However, the longer a joke goes,the more you have the crowd has
to listen to, which is why I tryto have all my jokes be very
short now.
Um but the more the longer thejoke is, typically speaking, the
(08:07):
uh you you have to listen andpay attention to it, to like the
setup and what's leading intoit, because otherwise the
punchline is not going to makesense.
So if you've ever had somebodywatch stand-up comedy, uh if
they were checking their phonewhile listening to jokes, they
might look up periodically andbe like, well, that's not that
wasn't that funny.
(08:28):
Maybe.
Um, but I'm a big believer thatyour um your attention is where
you're looking.
Meaning, if if I was having aconversation with somebody, if
they're looking at their phonewhile I'm talking to them,
they're not listening to me.
And that is two bigdistinctions, which is why I
come back to my first pointhearing versus listening, right?
(08:52):
Um find out if your crowd canhear you.
And if they can hear you, findout if they're listening.
Okay, because you need to knowwhen you're talking to a group
of people, uh, if they canactually hear you.
Uh and for those that can hear,if they aren't hearing you, you
gotta fix that problem.
(09:12):
And number two, again, fix thatwith a little uh sound check
before.
And number two, um, uhlistening.
If somebody doesn't want to, ifthey can hear but they're not
listening, okay, you need tofind out uh, do you even want to
listen?
Because if not, you can directyour attention away from them
(09:32):
and towards the people that wantto hear you more.
There are these tables that Iwas making laugh consistently,
and there was also like someconversations going on in the
back, and I guess that that's adefault as a result of uh uh not
being able to hear me.
Um so what I try to do is afterthe show, I tried to um uh for
the people that were telling methey couldn't hear me, uh I did
(09:54):
like an extra 10 minutes outsidein the parking lot, and they
really liked it, and I wasmaking them laugh, and it was
like a good time and stuff.
Um but uh yeah, so um my mybiggest dissatisfaction is um
not being able to um fulfillover over deliver and fulfill in
(10:17):
what I feel like I was obligatedto do um just by the means of
knowing that people couldn'thear me, uh, but the people that
could enjoyed it, the peoplethat were listening.
Uh and I take fullaccountability for um, you know,
part of getting better is tryingto find accountability in things
(10:39):
that you could have got that youcould have made better, right?
Um because that also means it'sin your control and it's in your
control to to improve, right?
So um, yeah, my biggest lessonslearned from that experience was
to find out uh if everybody canhear me, how can you resolve
that microphone check before yougo on, do it well before, like
(11:02):
an hour or two hours before.
That's number one.
Uh number two, if they'relistening, if they're not, uh
you have to find that out by uhtalking to those people that are
just having a sidebarconversation and to being
distracting to others or um ornot paying attention at all,
just so they're at least cutaway from the group to know that
(11:22):
hey, they're not a part of thisgroup, you know, if it could be
a public area or something likethat.
So um, yeah, if I could justwrap up and simplify that, that
would be the biggest lessonsthat I learned.
Um, those sidebar conversations.
Have you ever been in aclassroom and you're trying to
listen to teacher and some guybehind behind you or beside you
or church or whatever thecircumstance might may be is
(11:45):
having a sidebar conversation.
It's very distracting.
Um, especially when there'ssupposed to be one talker and
everybody else listening.
Um, yeah, those two distractionscan be uh silence from people
not paying attention, okay, whenthey should be laughing.
(12:06):
Uh, because again, they're justturned around, uninterested.
You try to do crowd work, youtry to do anything with them,
just like a teacher trying tocall on a student if you ask
them a question and the studentdoesn't want to participate.
Well, that that kind of throwsoff the teacher's um uh rhythm a
little bit.
But again, you have to adapt andovercome.
So, can you hear me?
(12:26):
Correct that with a microphonecheck.
Are you listening?
Okay, and separate those peoplethat either aren't listening or
that are having cyberconversations.
And you do that by calling themout individually, asking them to
please be quiet or to payattention.
If they're not going to payattention, now you know those
people that can't hear you arenot listening.
It may sound like what I'msaying is repetitive, there's a
(12:49):
lot going on, but there's a lotof good information, I think, in
what I'm saying.
And uh, as always, I'm leavingan imprint not just for me and
myself and my progression, butif anything that I'm saying to
you applies to you, even betterfor everybody.
We all get paid, we all win.
So thank you very much forlistening.
(13:11):
If you've made it up to thisfar, I do appreciate you.
And just remember, if you aregiving a public um speaking
engagement of any kind, you needto correct make those
corrections before they beforeyou waste your time and their
time as well.
Okay.
Um can you hear me?
Are you listening?
(13:31):
Two separate questions.
Very profound, very simple, veryeasy, and very informative.
I'm Benja well done.
Check me out.
Peace.
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