It seems to me that both a good speaker and a good performer-whether that performer is a folk singer/musician or other kind of performing artist-has to have a good sense of his or her audience's mood-what it is and how to change it if need be for to his or her advantage.

The times when this ability ro sense and use yur audience's mood is needed the most is when the speaker {or the performer} has to deal with hecklers. Those unexpected occurances that are bound to occur sometimes test the mettle of both performers and speakers. And it seems to me that that is one time when your find out whether that speaker or performer is able to think quickly in unscripted ways. And in those unscripted moments, you also may see the real speaker, and singer/musician-unmasked, separated as he and she is from his or her rehearsed performance.

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Here's a recent example of Senator Barack Obama being heckled by group of young African American males at a rally in Florida:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ul8gPo4zwo

After speaking directly to the hecklers, Obama indicated that one of the group would have an opportunity to ask a question during the question & answer portion of the rally. Bottom line, Obama never completely lost control of the audience, and while he may not have won over those protestors, imo, Obama very effectively used that protest to keep the audience's enthusiasm for him, and perhaps even heightened their enthusiasm.

I'm sure many performers which that they had the skill that Barack Obama exhibited in that encounter.