In recent years an awful lot of what I've done has been at street fairs and schools. Kids really enjoy the stories as much as the songs in a way. Without them they tend to drift and so I also use a lot of audience participation stuff too. Adult audiences are always up to some kind of trivia, humorous or otherwise as the song may warrant (not too many jokes on "Christmas in the Trenches are there?). But as others have said, reading an audience is important most of all and if you have experience in any type of thing that involves group presentations, you learn to do this. The many years I spent in National Accounts with Sun makes this easier for me and I'm generally more relaxed than folks who haven't had the "pleasure" (oy) of making a pitch on the 16th at General Motors or to those tight-asses at Firestone.

RE: Arlo----If Arlo didn't tell a ton of stories and and jokes, he wouldn't be Arlo and I'd feel let down by any performance that didn't include rambling tales about nothing. He is a great performer.......not to mention a fine picker.

Spaw