I'm a producer at heart. I like being in the control room and directing people. That's what I do. But I've gotten on the mic a few times in my career; people seem to like it, so I'll do it again here and there. But that's really not my thing.
Occasionally, especially on video games and with a lot of the fighting stuff, to get what you feel is the proper sound, you have to imitate what you're doing, and occasionally I've gotten carried away and kicked over mic stands or punched things.
I went to a performance-art high school, and a teacher there was signing me up for open-mic nights at the comedy club. I think about it now, and I think, 'Well, that may be inappropriate,' but it was great!'
He hated crowds, never liked punk. He couldn't handle the nakedness of the rage -his own so sophisticated and finely tuned. He could never see the similarity between himself and Donnie Draino screaming into a mic.
I'm a stand-up comic, but I also have ideas, and I want to get them out. People think getting in front of the mic is the only way to work out. You've got to try different situations.
When I recorded my first album, my ego didn't let me believe that what I was gonna say on the mic, anyone would really care about. But then when I found out that they did, I started to take it more seriously.
Every night there's a moment that I just wanna go back to bed. I just get nervous. Then I run on (stage) and as soon as I grab the mic then I'm fine.
One time I was singing along with a boy that looked like me in the crowd and he pushed away the mic and started making out with me and accidently bit my lip and I had to get stitches.
I play Rock Band, which is Guitar Hero times ten. You can play with four people, so when you have parties, you have a real band. Nobody ever wants to sing, so I'm always the one throwing down on the mic.
James Brown's Live at the Apollo is not just a musical whiplash, it's a spiritual cleansing. You can just close your eyes and see him doing the splits, kicking the mic stand and doing a 360.
I just started the way most comics start, doing open mic shows around Sacramento and San Francisco, and eventually, I moved to L.A. After about four or five years in L.A., I got the call to join the 'The Daily Show.'
I might not be able to hold my drink or my man, but what I can hold, is a tune. Point me in the right direction and give me a bloody mic.
The first band I was in out of college was a Celtic band, and I had to learn to sing with a microphone, because I'd never done that before. At Oberlin, I never used a mic for any kind of singing.
I remember doing stand-up at an open mic a long time ago, and the MC was like, 'Who's next?' I said, 'Marietta Sirleaf,' and he was like, 'What?' And I was like, 'Ugh, okay, just Retta.' It stuck with me ever since.
I'd like to say I'm R&B's savior. Whether that's the truth or not, I'm definitely going out there with my mic and my shield to declare, 'I am here to save R&B.' I will have the people saying, 'Sir, there is a man at the musical gates saying he is here to save R&B.'
On the microphone, I'm not scared to step up and say, 'This is my ability, this is how good I am.' In other areas of life, I'm not so confident; I'm still adjusting to the photo shoots, all that stuff. But behind the mic, I'm fully confident.
On Warped Tour in Boise, Idaho, I broke my tooth on the mic. I took a pretty significant chunk out of my tooth and had to have it sanded down. It wasn't the most painful injury, but it was the most unexpected one.
Though I'm not a huge fan of The Rock, I admit that I am a fan of the fact that he does his own thing. He gets excited on the mic. He yells. He didn't listen to what people told him to do, and people responded to that.
My live sound does not work in the studio, which is a completely different animal. Every little thing is detrimental to the sound. And if someone moves a mic, you've lost it. It's pretty much a case of 'lock the door and set up a police line.'
I normally work like a vampire. Around 8 to 9 P.M., what I call 'the spirits' actually show up, and then I just go in the booth and scream on top of a track. I only sing on the mic. I don't sit down and write anything.
Usually a manager is put with someone who has got good rings skills, but is not necessarily good on the mic. So I have no idea why they put me with Steve Austin, he didn't need any help!
In WWE, they're real big on letting you sink or swim, and they let you go out there, and they're going to give you the stick and a live mic in front of a packed house and millions watching at home, and if you're not prepared for that moment, you're going to go down in flames.
I know for an actual fact that the things I say or that my brothers say on the mic are valid for life. What we say, if you're smart you get it, if you're stupid, you learn about 3 years later.
Trump crossed the line all the time. Flustered during the debate because he couldn't out-debate Clinton on policy, he just leaned into the mic and dismissed her entirely: 'nasty woman.'
There are mics inside the instrument, a contact mic on my throat, and countless mics clustered around the air of the horn and throughout the room. I wanted to make something that was specific to the medium of recording.
All I need is one mic
One beat, one stage
One ni%$a frontin' my face on the front page
Only if I had one gun, one girl and one crib
One god to show me how to do things his son did.
My monologues aren't always funny. They're generally thoughtful. Sometimes at different levels of aggravation. And sometimes no aggravation. But the pressure on me is not to be joke-efficient when I'm talking on this mic. And that sets the tone.
My second year of college, I started performing comedy at an open mic. It was good to do open mics with the kids. It's a good, safe spot to start, you know?
When someone gets passed that mic, and they know deep down inside that they wanna say something or sing something or produce something, but they don't do that, it's like killing your musical life.
There were people that grabbed you just by talking, and that's what I loved about professional wrestling when I started out. That's why I'm already so good. That's why people literally hang on the edge of their seats when I have a mic because they want to know what I'm going to say.
They would go back and listen to my matches, and two days later, I'd be fined. Because no one heard it while it was being played, but they heard it on some mic behind the court. Is that the way it should be? I don't think so.
Some nights I'm funny with the between-song commentary, some nights I'm not. I have no control over this. I pace the stage a lot and struggle with the mic stand in a ridiculous way.
Performing live actually thrills me. Just get me a stage, get me a mic, and I'm going to be happy.
Me and Biggie share a storytelling ability--he was an actor on wax, too. His stories were so vivid and torrid, he made you feel them. And we both have the hardness. When I come out on the mic, you know it's me.
I'm not going to lie. I'd love to have the mic in my hand opposite of Dixie Carter in the ring and say my piece, say what's on my mind. And if she's willing to sit there and listen to it, I think it could make for some great television.
I think, for me, I should have worked harder on my mic skills, and I should have been a lot easier to deal with, and I would have been pushed a lot better.
My only challenge was to tell my truth, man... figure out what I had to say. These days, it's not enough to boost that roomful of strangers. The young comic spends all their time trying to sound different from the million other jokesters grabbing for the mic.
When you're literally staring at the person right in front of you, you're connecting with them on a personal level. I even jump into the crowd sometimes and perform with them, sing into the mic with them and share the experience with them.
For me, the moment the mic is on and it's rolling, it's impossible to vocally relax for some reason. But one day, I'm going to be able to sing the way I sang when I was a little kid, completely open and free. That's, I think, the one thing that's changed: Growing older, I'm not ashamed to hear my voice.
I'll never forget when we played Shepherd's Bush in London. We played 'I Run To You', and we put the mic out for the last chorus, and you could hear them singing the chorus with the beautiful accent that they have.
My older sister was into grime, so she got me into it. When I was ten, I begged her to take me to my first house party, where there were decks and a mic. I ended up falling asleep standing up in the corner.
Even with Dream Theater, we track in a big studio and everything. But when it comes to doing leads, I don't really require a lot of studio to do that. I need a good sounding room and a Pro Tools rig, and some Neve mic-pres, and I'm good.
When I was in college, I would go out, and I would go to these open mic nights at Stitches and Nick's Comedy Stop, so I was going to classes during the day, and then at night, I would be signing up on the lists.
Before doing my first open mic, I was sitting in the back watching all these comedians banter back and forth and fire jokes and up each other, and I thought, This is where I wanna be.
Before doing my first open mic, I was sitting in the back watching all these comedians banter back and forth and fire jokes and up each other, and I thought, 'This is where I wanna be.'
I don't think coaches should have to wear mic's. It is an invasion of privacy. We are trying to accomplish things, and wearing microphones may hinder development by straining the nature of relationships coaches and players have.
I did a tour down South someplace, and it was an all-day festival, and there were about 2,000 people. It was pouring down rain, and I went to grab the mic, and I got electrocuted. I felt the electricity flow through my body.
I'd like to say I'm R&B's savior. Whether that's the truth or not, I'm definitely going out there with my mic and my shield to declare, 'I am here to save R&B.' I will have the people saying, 'Sir, there is a man at the musical gates saying he is here to save R&B.
The first time I did a show, I definitely didn't get any money. My friend just let me do this show. I was so nervous: my mic didn't work, and I was like, 'Urgh.' It was terrible. It was a dingy club off of the highway, but all these people came. It was packed out.
I tend to use different microphones, different mic techniques, and different recording mediums - like analogue tape - that evoke multiple eras of recorded music at the same time.
I stayed away from drugs, I never smoked a pipe. When I wanna get high, I smoke the mic. I never did white lines, I only write lines, and I ain't sniffin' nothing but the vapors from hype rhymes.
Lots will get on the mic and tell huge audiences to pray for world peace. And there's a scientific study that shows when everyone prays for peace, whole war zones on the planet actually cease fighting for that day!
WWE is very good at doing things that are advantageous. If you have the ability to go out there and get on a mic and be captivating, then they're going to do everything in their power to support that ability and make it even bigger and seem better.
I often take things I find in vintage crawls and hand them to a very good seamstress, who then replicates them and makes a more robust version in different colors, with a pocket for my mic pack.
Whatever you want to do in the industry, do it on the smallest level at first. If you want to be a writer, write a screenplay in your house. If you want to be an actor, put on a one-man show. If you want to be a stand-up comedian, go to an open mic.
It's a lot different being a hip-hop artist. You just show up with a piece of paper with your words on it, say it in the mic, then you leave and some other guy does all the music.
As an entertainer, Justin Timberlake has learned from the past. He can cradle a mic stand like Elvis Presley, move like Michael Jackson, and swoon like Frank Sinatra.
Whenever I am on camera or doing anything on mic, I don't have any process at all. I just do it and, when I'm finished, it goes away. There is no process. I wish there were some techniques to it. I just turn it on and off, and then I go home.
In general, I'm pretty shy and nervous about a lot of things. For me to get on stage for the first time took so many times at an open mic before I finally got on stage and did it.
My first song was 'So Sick,' which was my first number one as an artist, and I turned the mic around to the crowd, and they sang the whole song. Every lyric. That was my first experience with the power of music.
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