Questions to Ask Performers
A list for anyone who gets to put a question to someone who works on a stage: the hand up at a post-show talkback, the class after a school assembly, the student or podcaster with half an hour and a recorder. These 49 questions to ask performers are worded to fit an actor, a musician, a dancer, a comedian, a circus artist or a street act, and they run in the order an interview tends to go: beginnings, preparing, on stage, the audience, the working life, then last questions. With only one turn at the microphone, choose from On stage or The audience, where the answers are about the show the whole room just watched.
Want questions from the whole vault instead? Try the random question generator.
The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Beginnings
How did you start performing, and how old were you?
Why ask it
The plain opener, and the one a class interview cannot leave out. The age splits the answer into two stories: trained since childhood, or walked into a first class or open stage as an adult. Whichever it is, get what the very first thing they performed actually was.
What was the first live show you saw that made you want to be on the other side of it?
Why ask it
Many performers can name the show, the seat and who took them. Follow with what exactly they wanted to do afterward, since wanting to be on a stage and wanting to do that one particular thing lead to different careers.
When did you first perform for people who were not your family or friends?
Why ask it
A room of strangers is where it stops being something relatives praise. Find out what they were paid, if anything, and what they remember getting wrong that night.
Who was the first person to teach you, and what were the lessons like?
Why ask it
It works as well for a conservatory graduate as for a juggler who learned from one older busker on a sidewalk. A studio, a dressing room and a family kitchen turn out different performers, so get the place, the hour and the thing they were corrected on most.
Was there a day you decided this would be your work, or did it creep up on you?
Why ask it
Plenty of performers say there was no decision, only a run of jobs that kept coming. If there was a day, the useful follow-up is what they gave up to act on it.
What did you have to be bad at in public before you got good at it?
Why ask it
Stage skills are partly learned in front of people, so most performers have a stretch of early shows that did not work. Students like this one because the answer gives them permission to be a beginner. Ask how long that stretch lasted.
Preparing
Where did this show or act come from, and whose idea was it?
Why ask it
Some acts grow from one trick, tune or joke that needed a home, and others from a commission, a script or a director's phone call. A performer in someone else's piece can answer for the day they were asked to join. Then find out what from that first idea is still in the show.
How long did this show take to make, from the first rehearsal to the first audience?
Why ask it
The figure surprises people in both directions: it can be years for a ten-minute act and a couple of weeks for a full play. Once you have the number, ask which section ate far more of that time than anyone planned.
What did you do in rehearsal yesterday, or on your last rehearsal day?
Why ask it
Asking for one real day gets the actual schedule and not the ideal one: the warm-up, the repetition, the waiting around. A solo act will describe something very unlike a company member's day, which is worth pointing out if you have both in front of you.
What do you still practice that the audience would never guess?
Why ask it
Expect something plain: falls, breathing, a three-ball pattern, tongue twisters. It shows which basics the whole act rests on, and it hands a student something to try tomorrow.
How do you get a whole show into your memory?
Why ask it
Lines, set lists, choreography and trick sequences are held in different ways, and most performers can describe their method step by step. The better half of the answer comes when you ask what they do with a section that refuses to stick.
Which part of this show was hardest to get right, and is it right yet?
Why ask it
Put it to a whole cast and watch who looks at whom before anyone speaks. The second half matters, because sections are often still being adjusted weeks into a run and performers will say so if invited.
Do you have a warm-up or a routine before you go on, and what happens if you have to skip it?
Why ask it
The routine may be ordinary: a stretch, a cup of tea, a walk around the building. The skipping part tells you whether it is preparation or superstition, and they generally know which.
What does a run of shows cost you physically, and how do you keep going?
Why ask it
The useful replies are about sleep, food and what they refuse to do on a show day, more than about pain. Do not steer toward injuries. If one comes up, let the performer decide how much of it to tell.
Who watches your work and tells you the truth about it?
Why ask it
It might be a director, a partner in the act, a spouse at the back of the room or a phone propped on a chair. Ask for the last note that person gave and whether it was taken.
On stage
What is your favorite moment in the show to perform?
Why ask it
The simplest question on the page and a good one for a younger child with a hand up. The answer is often a small moment and not the big finish, so ask what is happening in it.
What are nerves like for you now, compared with your first year?
Why ask it
A comparison gets past the yes-or-no answer. Many describe nerves that changed shape instead of leaving, which helps a nervous student more than being told you get over it.
What is going through your head while you are performing?
Why ask it
People guess 'nothing' or 'the character'. It is often counting, the next cue, a light that is in the wrong place, a cough in row three. See whether a quiet mind is something they aim for or something they distrust.
Which part looks hard but is easy, and which looks easy but is hard?
Why ask it
Jugglers, magicians, singers and acrobats tend to have a ready answer, and it changes how you watch the next show. If you are writing it up, get them to say why the easy-looking part is hard in terms a reader can picture.
How much of what we saw is fixed, and how much can change from night to night?
Why ask it
Audiences misjudge this both ways: the moment that looked spontaneous is set and the drilled-looking one has room in it. Ask for one thing that was different in this performance.
Do you and the others on stage have signals the audience is not meant to see?
Why ask it
Bands nod before a change, partners squeeze a hand before a lift, and a cast may have a line that means 'skip ahead'. Ask to be shown one signal and who is allowed to give it. A solo performer can tell you what is agreed beforehand with whoever runs the sound or the lights.
What is the worst thing that has gone wrong in front of an audience, and what did you do next?
Why ask it
This is a story they have told before, so it arrives polished and funny. The craft is in the second half: who covered, how long it took, and whether anyone in the seats knew.
What went wrong tonight that none of us noticed?
Why ask it
Only for a Q&A straight after a show, and only in a friendly voice. Something nearly always did, and hearing about it shows how much repair goes on in plain sight.
Which part of the show carries real risk, and how is it made safe?
Why ask it
Best for circus, aerial, fire and stunt work, where the answer takes in equipment checks, spotters and who has the right to call a trick off. For other acts, swap 'risk' for 'the part you are least sure of'. Never ask it as a dare.
What do you do on a night when you do not feel like performing?
Why ask it
Name a cause if it helps: tiredness, bad news, the fourth show of a weekend. You are likely to hear about technique and routine carrying them until the feeling turns up, and a student can borrow that for an exam morning or a game day.
How do you keep it fresh when you have done the same show so many times?
Why ask it
Find out how many performances they are into first, because the reply at night ten is not the reply at night two hundred. Listen for the method: something new to notice each time, a different person in the seats to play to, a private game with a castmate. If they admit some nights are flat, ask what the audience can and cannot tell.
What does a really good night feel like from where you stand?
Why ask it
Place it after the mishap questions so the mood lifts again. Notice whether 'good' means the crowd, their own execution or the people beside them, because those are three different kinds of performer.
The audience
Can you tell what kind of audience it is in the first few minutes, and how?
Why ask it
The clues tend to be sounds: how fast the first laugh or clap comes, how much shuffling there is. Then ask what they change once they know, since some adjust pace and volume and some refuse on principle.
How much can you actually see and hear of us from up there?
Why ask it
A favorite with school groups, and it depends on the lighting and the room. Under bright front light a performer may see nothing past the first row and still hear every wrapper, so ask what it was like in this space.
What does a silent audience mean to you?
Why ask it
Silence can be attention or boredom, and performers learn to tell the two apart by what the stillness sounds like. For a comedian or a clown, add: what do you do when it is the bad kind?
Who is harder to perform for: children, teenagers or adults?
Why ask it
Anyone who does school shows has a firm view. Whatever they choose, the follow-up is what they change for each age, down to the length of the act and where they stand.
How do you get people to stop and watch when they did not come for a show?
Why ask it
Written for street acts and festival performers, and for anyone who has played a shopping mall or a school gym full of students who were marched in. Winning the first thirty seconds is a craft of its own, so ask what they do before the act proper begins and how they hold a crowd through to the hat.
What do you do when a phone rings, someone heckles or a toddler heads for the stage?
Why ask it
Street performers and comedians usually have planned responses, while a cast in a play may have a rule about never acknowledging it. Ask which camp they are in and who made the rule.
How does the show change from a small room to a big one, or from indoors to outdoors?
Why ask it
Voice, timing and the size of every gesture get rescaled, and some material is dropped altogether. Get the story of the least suitable place they have made it work, whether a gym with a basketball hoop behind them or a sidewalk beside traffic, and what had to be cut.
Does it help or hurt when people you know are watching?
Why ask it
Performers split on this and it gets a laugh either way. Some ask family not to say which night they are coming, a detail worth drawing out.
What do you wish audiences did more of, or less of?
Why ask it
The replies are down to earth: clap when you feel like it, keep the phone in a pocket, stay for the hat at a street show. Handy if your readers or classmates are unsure how to behave at a live performance.
The working life
How much of your week is performing, and what fills the rest?
Why ask it
The rest is usually some mix of email, travel, teaching, training, applications and mending costumes. That proportion is what a student weighing this work most needs to hear, so ask for a rough split in hours.
How do you find your next job?
Why ask it
It could be auditions, an agent, word of mouth, a festival application or a regular spot on a street. How it works depends on the art form and the place, so ask how it works for them and do not assume an agent is involved.
What other work have you done to keep performing?
Why ask it
Kinder than asking what they earn, and it draws the same picture: teaching, bar shifts, corporate events, a second career. See whether any of that work fed the act.
Can you describe one whole day on tour, from waking up to going to bed?
Why ask it
Skip it if they have never toured. Otherwise you get the drive, the load-in, the meal eaten standing up, and the contrast between the hour on stage and the rest of the day is the story.
How do you stay ready when there is no show to work toward?
Why ask it
Some keep taking class, some make a piece of their own, and some will admit they let it slide. For a paper on working conditions it shows who pays, in time and money, to keep a skill in shape between contracts.
What do you miss because of the hours you work?
Why ask it
Performers work when other people are free, so the list tends to be evenings, weekends, holidays and other people's weddings. Say it plainly and without pity, and leave room for what the odd hours give back, such as quiet daytime streets or mornings at home.
Who are the people backstage we never see, and what would fall apart without them?
Why ask it
Stage managers, technicians, dressers, whoever drives the van. Performers are generally glad to be asked, and for a school paper it opens up arts jobs that involve no performing at all.
Have you ever thought about stopping, and what kept you at it?
Why ask it
Keep this for a one-to-one interview, since it is too heavy for a Q&A with a line at the microphone. Dancers and circus artists may talk about the body setting the date, so ask and do not assume.
Last questions
What is the best advice you were given, and did you take it at the time?
Why ask it
The second half rescues it from a greeting-card reply. People often admit they ignored the advice for years, and the day it finally made sense is the real story.
What should a young person who wants to perform do this year?
Why ask it
'This year' forces something concrete: join a group, see ten shows, put a five-minute piece in front of people. If you get 'follow your dream', ask what they themselves did at that age.
Whose work should we go and see next?
Why ask it
Recommending others comes easily to performers, and the names show where they place themselves. Write down the spellings before you leave the room.
What are you making or learning next?
Why ask it
An easy closer that lets them mention the next date without you having to ask about tickets. If nothing is booked, 'learning' still gives them something to say.
What do you get asked every time, and what do you wish someone would ask?
Why ask it
Use it as the final question, then put to them the one they just named. That reply is frequently the best quote of the whole interview.
Asking performers good questions, from the third row or across a table
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
At a post-show Q&A or assembly
One question, said in one breath
You will probably get a single turn. Pick the question before your hand goes up, leave out the preamble about your own experience, and stop talking when the question mark arrives. A short question gets a longer answer.
Ask about the show everyone just watched
The On stage and The audience groups work best here, because the whole room can picture what the performer is describing. Career questions suit an interview better: half the audience will have left before a life story is finished.
Say who it is for
With several performers on stage, an open question often lands on whoever is nearest the microphone. Name the person, or name the moment: 'for whoever caught the hat in the second half'. Performers who rarely get a question remember being asked one.
For younger askers
A child at a school assembly does well with the concrete ones: how old the performer was at the start, the favorite moment, what can be seen from the stage, what looks easy but is hard. Practice the question once with them beforehand so it comes out whole.
Interviewing for a paper, podcast or class
See the work first
Watch the show, a recording or at least a few minutes of video before you sit down. One question that names a moment from their act earns more trust than ten general ones, and it stops you from asking what the program already says.
Swap the nouns to fit the craft
The list is written to cover any stage act, so adjust the words: lines for an actor, a set list for a band, counts for a dancer, the running order of tricks for a magician or juggler. A street performer has a pitch and a hat where a theater company has a venue and a box office.
Ask for one night, not the general rule
'What is touring like' gets a summary. 'Tell me about the last travel day' gets a van, a town and a meal. Whenever an answer stays general, ask for the most recent time it happened.
Record with permission and check the names
Ask before you record, and say what the recording is for. Before you finish, confirm how they spell their name, what they call their job and the title of the show. A wrong credit in print is hard to take back, and it is the first thing the performer will look for.
Budget the groups
Twenty minutes holds about eight questions once the follow-ups are counted, so take one or two from each group and mark them before you arrive. Start in Beginnings to settle both of you, and hold The working life until some trust is there.
Questions that fall flat
Asking for a free sample
'Do a trick', 'sing something' and 'say something funny' put a tired person back to work with no stage, no lights and no fee. If you want to see the skill, ask them to talk you through how one moment is built.
Asking what they earn
A direct question about pay tends to close the subject. Asking about other jobs, how bookings come in and how the week divides up gives a fuller picture, and the performer chooses how much to share.
The famous-person comparison
Asking whether they want to be the next household name, or have met one, turns the conversation away from the work in front of you. Ask whose work they admire instead and let them bring up the names.
A speech with a question mark on the end
If your question needs three sentences of setup, the room has stopped listening by the time it ends. Cut it to the one thing you want to know and trust the performer to supply the context.
Pressing on injuries and private life
Bodies, money and family all come up naturally in this list, and each is the performer's to open. Offer the door once. If the answer is short, move to the next group.
After the answers
Write it down the same day
Stage talk is full of terms you half understood in the moment: a load-in, a cover, a pitch, a call time. Note them while you can still remember the sentence around them, and ask the performer or look them up before you quote.
Keep one person's account as one person's account
How people get hired, paid and insured differs by country, art form and employer. When you write up what you heard, present it as this performer's experience and not as how the business works everywhere.
Send them what you made
A link to the article, the episode or even the class presentation costs you a minute. Performers hear from audiences mostly in applause, and something in writing is often kept.