Actor vs. Entertainer: How to Engage in Crowd Work

December 19, 2024 | Rachel Frawley
Photo Credit: Grusho Anna / Shutterstock.com

Crowd work is something more often associated with comedians than actors. However there are many overlapping skill sets in the performing arts, and being able to engage a live audience directly is a valuable skill for any actor to have.

You don’t have to be doing stand-up for it to come in handy. Shakespeare and other classical works make ample use of soliloquies, which, depending on direction, may include breaking the fourth wall and engaging the audience in a (admittedly pretty one-sided) discussion of your character’s innermost thoughts and feelings.

Many comedic plays include elements of audience interaction, improvisation, or might call for a host/MC. While this can be intimidating for those who have never done it before, being able to work a room is something you can improve with practice. Here are some things to keep in mind.


Insights: What You Need to Know About Crowd Work

  • Create an onstage persona that’s a confident, engaging extension of yourself.
  • Select audience members for interaction carefully, aiming for those who are engaged but not overbearing.
  • Handle failures during crowd work with humor, and use them to learn and improve your performance.

Find Your ‘Entertainer’ Persona

Who is your “entertainer” you? If you’re the type of actor who is most comfortable inhabiting a character, but who abhors being yourself on stage, don’t despair. While you will often need to bring more of “you” to the table as an entertainer, it doesn’t necessarily mean the most vulnerable, private sides of you. Develop a persona that you genuinely resonate with.

Find the shiny, sparkly, “on” version of you. Find your gimmick, patter, schtick. What works for someone else likely won’t fit you as well, and it can take time to workshop and experiment before you find the version that both feels authentic and vibes with a crowd. There is so much room to play in the space between a separate, text-based character and your private self. It has to be a persona you can inhabit without memorized lines to keep you in the right lane, but it could and should feel a bit larger than life.

How to Choose Which Members of the Crowd to Work

Choose your target carefully. Whether you’re sourcing material from an audience member or pulling them on stage, developing a quick eye for who to call on will make a huge difference.

If audience participation is involved, it will help keep the pace up to choose someone accessible–if you call on someone in the middle of the fourth row, for example, be sure to have some patter ready to cover the time it takes them to crawl over everyone’s knees and make it up to the stage. The person who’s yelling loudest (or whose friends are) is likely going be a nightmare. This is often the person who wants to take control, is too tipsy, or both.

That said, you also want to avoid the person who is shut down and is trying to avoid engagement. It won’t be fun if they’re not having fun. The ideal person is often engaged, entertained, maybe a little giggly or shy but not outright reluctant.

The ideal person profile will also change depending on the nature of the bit. Having a sensitive ear for what bits suit certain genders better, certain ages, or other demographics, can save awkward moments later. Generally speaking, avoid punching down as a good first step.

Embrace Failure

When you’re speaking off the cuff, and riffing off strangers, you will inevitably fail. A bit will fall flat, you’ll stumble or say the wrong thing, or an audience member will go rogue and you’ll handle it poorly. It’s ok. Learning how to have fun with the failure, comment on it, and bring the audience back around to your side is all part of it. The better you can handle failure, the bigger risks you will take, and the bigger the payoff will be.

Read the Room

Every audience will have its personality. Listen to them and evolve with them. Certain audiences will be rowdier, more conservative, will need more reassurance, etc., etc. Don’t try to force yesterday’s bits on today’s audience.

Balance Your Authority

This one requires nuance. You want to be able to work and control the room without them feeling yelled at, talked down to, or alienated. Keep your metaphorical hand firm but flexible. Playfulness will buy you a lot of leeway.

Remember, it’s an agreement between you and the audience. You want to charm them without people pleasing and provide direction without micromanaging. This is where finding your onstage persona comes in handy–everyone’s version of taking charge looks a little different.

If you want to get more comfortable with crowd work, working on your improv skills will work wonders. If you can’t take improv classes, form a troupe or engage in other ways. Tabletop role-playing games, for example, can be a great, low-stakes way to practice your improv skills!

Maintaining the filters needed to keep different audiences comfortable and happy, while removing enough filters to keep your work spontaneous, is a delicate balance. But it’s certainly one that can be achieved with practice.

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