Slight creep here ... an anecdote about "carrying on as if you hadn't made a mistake" ...

I have a friend, Scott Smith, who is a seasoned performer, a fine musician as well as singer and songwriter. One piece of advice he's always given me is that if you make a mistake on stage, ignore it. Don't call attention to it 'cause most of the audience is unlikely to notice it, and those that do will respect your professionalism in carrying on.

So there I was, doing Stan Rogers' magnificent song "Lies" in public for the first time; an open stage folk club with Scott playing back-up for me. Now there's a line in the song where this woman's haggard appearance is explained that goes "Well after seven kids that's no surprise". Thing is, I'm prone to little mental short circuits on stage and sometimes I'll inadvertantly sing that line as "After twenty years that's no surprise". Fair enough, at least it doesn't significantly alter the meaning of the song.

Problem was, this time the mental blip happened in the middle of the line and I sung "After twenty-seven kids that's no surprise". And I started to carry on, thinking "oops" but not (visibly) reacting to my blunder. And then my friend Scott - Scott, the consummate professional - my FRIEND Scott; stops dead and says (into the mike), "Twenty-seven kids?! - that poor woman!". Naturally the place (including me) cracks up.

Once we all settled down, I finished off the song, but of course it just wasn't the same.

I made a point of doing the song (correctly) the next night at a different open stage. One of the points I'd like to make is that you can always turn something to your advantage. When I do "Lies" now, I always tell that story (AFTER the song 'though; to do it before the song would detract from it). And I add, "I like to think of things like this as 'character-building experiences'". You wouldn't believe how solidly the audience is on your side after that.