This is a bit of speculation based on what I've heard some famous people, mostly actors, comedians, and musicians admit to during candid interviews.

Many performers feel themselves under intense pressure when they're performing, or especially just prior to a performance. I'm sure most of the folks here on Mudcat who perform have felt this to a degree. Nervousness? Fear of getting out there in front of a bunch of people and making a complete ass of yourself? Outright stage fright? There are even a few people who are very good at what they do, but the first time they appeared before an audience, even if the performance came off well, found the experience so downright terrifying that they never did it again. That's a horrible feeling!

In the upper echelons in the performing arts, be it pop, folk, classical, acting, comedy, whatever, a very high level of perfection is expected. For the performer, ever time can be like walking a tight-rope without a net. On top of this, I don't think there is a performer in the world, no matter how seasoned and experienced, who doesn't have at least some feelings of inadequacy before walking on stage, felling that no matter how well-rehearsed they are, they're walking into a mine field of possible screw-ups. In these interviews, many performers confessed to having a nagging feeling that they are not really as good as their audiences thought they were, and that any minute, their public is going catch on to them and their career will be over.

Most performers probably have some thoughts along this line but manage not to let it bother them too much and fairly easily rise above it. But some don't. I heard that comedian Freddie Prinz ("Chico and The Man") felt so vulnerable to the possibility of people finding out that—as he thought—he didn't really have any talent at all, that he couldn't take it and, rather than "be exposed as a phony," he committed suicide.

I suspect that this kind of feeling has a lot to do with alcoholism and drug use among performers.

As I say, just speculating.

Don Firth