Having run a folk concert series for 27 years, I witnessed much the same thing, but only with a couple of artists. I think it's understandable that performers who spend most of the year on the road, often in second or third rate surroundings, go on autopilot after awhile. There is an extremely popular (or was extremely popular) performer I booked several times over the years who did "shows." That meant an almost identical set list, and memorized introductions. It gets pretty bad when you memorize "spontaneous" asides...

I also booked someone once (and only once) who taped every one of his performances so he could listen to them later, taking the jokes and "off-hand" comments he made that got the best response so that he could use them again. He was quite proud of his approach. He seemed to think that there was a perfect presentation that he could reach by honing every word that came out of his mouth. If he could ever reach that goal, he could do the whole evening, word for word and note for note. That approach seemingly is based on giving the audience what they want, yet at the same time ignores the individuality of audiences. As a performer, I reached the point where I only did an "idea" list, rather than a set list. After the first couple of songs, you start to get to know the audience of that night, and adjust your songs and introductions to fit them.

Performing is communicating. Once you start to standardize a performance, you minimize the communication.

As I say, I can understand this a little better (but don't like it) with performers who spend most of their year on the road. It's a hard grind, and it's no surprise that performers turn to alcohol to get them through. But, the "artist" who tape recorded his shows and memorized lines wasn't that heavily a traveled performer. He would have been better off trying to connect with the individual audience of that night rather than come up with a pre-packaged "show."

Jerry