Britian’s Got Talent Reminds Me Of A Wet Thursday Night!

Watching the latest episode of Britain’s Got Talent, I was reminded of a Thursday night in East London many years ago, with a goal achievement twist…

I love watching Britain’s Got Talent, but to be honest it’s only the audition stages which draw me in, and it harks back to the days of live variety.

An act comes on in front of a packed theatre, and has 2 minutes to entertain them.
Singers, yes ok, there are lots of them, but it’s the variety acts that push my buttons.

The unexpected, where the audience had no idea what was coming, and is gripped as a whole. At the end the audience rises to it’s feet, almost involuntarily. It’s magical.

There are 3 judges at the front, but in fact it’s the audience that judges, because once an act grabs the audience like that, something happens which is hard to describe, and the judges cannot say ‘no’.

In the later studio stages of the series, that vital element of surprise has gone. Singers can just sing a different song, but for the so called ‘speciality’ act that relied on that surprise factor, they will never win.

Go back 60 years, and you could create a 2 minute speciality act, and work the live venues for 18 months, without doing the same venue twice. Here’s where my own story comes in…

No, I’m not going back 60 years, I’m only 44 as I write this! I am going back to my entertainment days though.

After several jobs in entertainment where I had learnt a huge amount, I continued to develop an act on the talent show circuit. This was years before the era of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and the like.

I had, over time, developed a 12 minute slot which I knew an audience would like, and I had learnt various tricks to turn things around if the audience didn’t like it!

I did a talent show on a wet Thursday night in East London, and the audience loved it.
I finished with the ‘Unicycle of Death’ and was feeling pleased with the reaction.
So was the booker who had staged the show, as he came up to me and said he wanted to book me.

‘I need you for Saturday,’ he said, ‘2 sets of 40 minutes.’

Remember I said earlier that in days gone by you could use a 12 minute act for 18 months? Well this chap wanted me to come up with over an hour’s extra material in 2 days – I felt like asking him which one of us was the comedy act…

Times change, so routes to goal achievement change. What worked once, may not work now.

Don’t get me wrong, the last few years has seen a rise in the live variety show, and someone *can* have a short act as part of that show.
Those slots are few and far between though, and it is not the same world as the old variety theatres, when bookers were crying out for enough acts to fill the demand.

Change is a part of life, and often we have no control over those changes. It just means we have to adapt.

I’ll enjoy the rest of the auditions, waiting for those speciality acts that grab me. While I do I’ll be reminded of how the goalposts of our, er, goals, can change.

Has the route to *your* goal achievement changed?

This concept combined with my own experience is the formula I follow in my book ‘Transform Your Life in 21 Days!’ Described as ‘motivational magic’, you can grab your copy right now – just click this link!

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