Dress for the Stage

One of the often overlooked aspects of performance is your dress, what you wear on the stage.

Like everything else I have talked about, there is no ‘right or wrong’; it's just better or worse. In this issue of the over-the-shoulder (OTS) series, I am going to lay out the guidelines I advise our TEDx speakers of when we approach the actual event.

The first thing I must emphasise is that I am not a fashionista. I wouldn’t have a clue what is fashionable and what isn’t. If I was asked to get on a big stage in front of an audience, I don’t know, and who doesn’t know me, I might ask for guidance on what to wear. If I appear in front of my audience, I will wear something that I like because that is part of my personality. It is part of who I am; I am not trying to be anyone. I am not in that scenario.

This might seem a little contradictory, but if you spend a little time thinking about it, you will see the sense in it. If it is not my audience, then I want to at least mostly conform to the norms of that audience, or I risk being ignored from the outset.

If it is my audience, I don’t want to appear to be trying to look like something I am not. That screams inauthenticity.

Making a Statement

Sometimes, you want to get on stage and make a statement with your appearance, create a point of difference or stand out somehow. I once spoke at a sales conference at an MLM I was involved with (don’t worry, I successfully exited all MLM cults). I took the stage to present in my Karate Gi (uniform). I had a message about “breaking through barriers”, and as part of that talk, I broke a couple of boards with my fists. (At least that was the plan - the tragic story is relayed elsewhere).

The point was that I was in the afternoon, and suit after suit had appeared on the stage, so I wanted to mix things up a bit, create some impact and be memorable.

I remember the first time I saw Frank Kern speak. I didn’t see him live, but I got a program from Rich Scheferen that included that year’s 2008 event video. Frank, as I recall, was dressed reasonably smartly, wearing jeans, but he took to the stage barefoot.

He mentioned that he felt comfortable barefoot. But I believe the greater motivation was that Frank was re-inventing his online persona at the time as the ‘surfer dude internet marketer’. He wanted to attract a certain type of client, and the barefoot stage appearance should repel the type of clients he didn’t want to deal with.

Dress for Your Audience

This brings up a great point: You are not dressing for yourself; you are dressing for your audience. This is why I include dress in the performance aspect of your talk.

Sometimes, you dress for the audience you have in front of you. For example, if you are doing an investment pitch in front of an audience of high-powered investment bankers, you may want to dress like them in a suit and tie. But delivering the same pitch to an Angel Investors club in Silicon Valley, you may want to dress less formally, but no less expensively.

Sometimes, like with Frank Kern, you are not dressing for the audience you have but for those in the audience you want—both to attract the people you want to attract and repel the rest.

Either way, the point is that you are dressing for your audience.

This then goes all the way back to the earliest stages of the Pitching Pyramid, understanding what you are trying to accomplish and who you want to accomplish that with. If you haven’t nailed those things down by now, what you wear will be the least of your worries.

Dress for the Stage

Most stages have some dressing or a background colour or curtain behind the speaker. Wearing the same colour as the background is slightly annoying for the audience and incredibly annoying for any videographer trying to capture your camera talk.

We have all seen the floating head scenario, in which a speaker wearing the same colour as the background (usually black) appears on the screen, and you see a floating head and hands.

I recommend that all speakers bring a secondary change of clothes to each event in case of accidents or clashes with the background or other speakers (if they are going on stage at the same time).

There is a reason that the crew in a theatre wears black shirts, jeans and shoes. They are not meant to be seen as they scurry about the stage. You, as the speaker, do need to be seen. I generally recommend a solid primary colour that contrasts nicely with the background.

Simple patterns may work, but be careful with patterns.

There is a term in filming Moiré (pronounced more-eh) in which a repetitive pattern, when moved slightly, creates the illusion of a larger movement. This happens with the naked eye, but the effect can be magnified uncomfortably by the filming process due to the camera's refresh rate. At worst, this can cause nausea for viewers. - Not how you want your talk to be remembered!

So, as a rule of thumb, I suggest avoiding patterns altogether.

Wiring Up Microphones

Often, when speaking on a live stage, you will be asked to wear a wireless microphone. Sometimes, this has a headset that unobtrusively hooks around the ear and juts out to one side of the face. Sometimes, this is a lavalier or lapel mic that clips to the clothing around four to six inches down from the chin.

Usually, these microphones are connected by wire to a transmitter that contains some power (batteries) and antenna. There are newer microphones with all-in-one microphones and transmitters that look like small black squares the size of a zippo lighter that clip to your lapel.

I mention all of this because you want to ensure you understand what sort of equipment is going to be used at your event so that you can dress and accessorise accordingly.

To be honest, men have a much easier time with this, as we are more likely to have a belt and pockets in any given clothing choice than women are. But the point is that I recommend that you choose an outfit with a belt. The belt can be as fashionable as you like, as long as it allows the stage hand to connect the mic pack to it at the back.

The other option is to carry the mic pack in your pocket. An inside jacket pocket is ideal, but any pocket will do in a pinch.

I don’t care to enumerate the number of times I have seen the stage hand have to attach a mic pack to a lady’s underwear because their clothing choice limited the options. This adds embarrassment and stress to an already stressful situation.

This is a good time to mention accessories.

Too much sparkling jewellery can be distracting for both live and video audiences. If in doubt, leave it out. It may not seem a big deal if you look in the mirror, but you must remember you are in bright spotlights on stage, and even a watch face will powerfully reflect at the audience. If you gesture a lot, as I do, then that combination of reflection and movement can be very distracting.

Another common issue is dangly earrings. They may be okay visually, but if you are using a wireless headset for your talk, these will interfere with the mic and create more noise. If you have earrings, I suggest sticking with studs for your talk.

Given all the advice I have shared here, the most important consideration is your comfort. The more comfortable you are in what you are wearing, the better. For this reason, you should practice your entire talk in the clothes you intend to wear at least a couple of times before the event.

Dress Rehearsal

I insist on a dress rehearsal before every TEDx that I work with. This is done the day before an all-day event or earlier in the day for an evening event. The stage is fully dressed, and the speakers are called in order, wearing precisely what they will be wearing at the event.

This dress rehearsal allows the event producers to test and refine their workflows for slides and any intro or sponsor videos that need to be shown. It also allows the sound editor to set the levels for each speaker and the stage hand to have a dry run in mic’ing up the speakers to be quicker at the event.

Importantly, it allows the videographers to check the exposure and contrast of clothing against backdrops, make any necessary lighting changes, and prepare to capture specific moments in the talk, gestures or movement.

As a bonus, we will usually have a stills photographer taking photos of our speakers at dress rehearsal. These images are then sent to our comms team, who add quotes from the talk to the image. Someone in the team monitoring the live stream will share those quotes in real time on social media as the event proceeds. This adds another level to the production of the event.

Conclusion

When you are taking the stage for a talk or presentation that matters, you are a performer. Performers choose their costumes carefully because your appearance is as eloquent as the words you choose to say.

Your choice of dress for the stage has both practical and performative aspects. Both are important, and both must be accommodated. The real issue that crops up, again and again, stems from ignorance of these requirements, and it is my hope that this article has helped to allay some of that ignorance so that your next big presentation has more impact.

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Unpacking Wisdom is a weekly section in which I explore a famous (or not-so-famous) quote and how it applies to the Compelling Communicator.

When looking for quotes this week, this one leapt out at me, but not, I think, in the way that Muhammad Ali meant it.

When you get on stage to share your perspective on something, it should be something you care about. Almost all of our speakers at TEDxRuakura spoke about something they were passionate about. I can only recall one speaker who tried to create a talk on something he perceived to be popular instead of focusing on his passion.

We struggled as a coaching team to help him find a personal connection to this topic. He managed it, but it resulted in a lacklustre talk that, in hindsight, I might have pulled before the event.

But as Ali points out, there is another side to that coin.

The audience is there looking for something to believe in.

They, we, want something to believe in. It is part of the human condition. I believe that the audiences I present to are looking for something they can connect to and believe in, something that gives them hope, purpose, or at least the promise of improvement.

If your audience is looking for that, then it is up to you to meet their expectations by giving them something they can care about.

If you keep this in mind and work to achieve it, then your presentations will automatically become a better experience for your audience and for you.

What I am up to this week…

Professionally:

I may be flying to another city this coming week to interview some entrepreneurs for a new podcast I may be hosting.

Recreationally:

This week, I returned to Improv… I was a bit rusty!

What I am reading:

Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth