No matter what stage you’re on, when you’re performing, there’s always a special joy if you know someone in the audience. It makes everything more real. Maybe because there’s a witness. Someone there to hear the tree fall, so that the noise it makes matters.
A performance isn’t a performance without an audience anyways; otherwise, it’s a dress rehearsal. Part of the energy generated when performing live is connecting with the audience. But when you have a connection already–co-workers, classmates, family, those two random elderly ladies you met in the parking garage on the way to the concert–it turns the thrill of performing live up to an 11. Even if it’s those two elderly ladies who dutifully wave at you from their seats as if they’ve known you for decades.
But having your parents in the audience is always a special treat.
Especially if they drove for 12 hours to get there.
The Joys of JJFoley 