Well, Mike - not quite. There's a huge difference between knowing something informally at home and going out in front of anything from 50 to 500 - or even 5,000 people - with all the extra tension and pressure and getting it so that it comes across absolutely tension-free and natural. To the point where the audience forgets you and gets right into the music. It's a different environment altogether - the roar of the greasepaint, the smell of the crowd, etc... I need to be relaxed - and to be so, I have to have complete confidence in my ability not to screw up, falter, forget the words - no matter what happens.

I don't think I ever make any estimate whatsoever of an audience's intelligence or knowledge of what they want - I just want to feel that I'm putting the piece across to them in the way that I intend. Of course, I generally know who my audience is - and choose material that I hope they'll like (and sometimes choose stuff which I might provoke!).