Judges-Laughing

[airpezman]

Do you feel judges' laughter is an indicator of how you did usually in a round (when your selection is humorous)?

Question 1: Do you peak to see how the judge is reacting to the selection or are you too into character?

Question 2: What makes you feel like you had a better round?
a) judges smiling b.) students laughing

pez

[Ryan]

To answer your 2nd question: neither. Students don't determine the outcome of the round and most judges understand that, especially in break rounds, individual students will have their own cheering sections. While judges smiling would be more of a good sign, it still doesn't determine the outcome of yourself in a round. Some judges I've seen in the past will smile while watching and then let you know on the ballots that they were confused by your piece. The smiling was simply hiding their ignorance or inability to understand.

[jman255]

I think that the students laughing gives you the extrra boost of energy for a better performance...especially if you don't know the kids...ex. Making finals in a tournament not in your circuit.

[sassafrassz]

I think that the students laughing gives you the extrra boost of energy for a better performance...especially if you don't know the kids...ex. Making finals in a tournament not in your circuit.

I totally get way more into it when I'm in finals and people are laughing a lot, than when I'm in prelims and hardly anyone laughs.

Question 1: No. for my duo, most of the funny parts occur right as I'm switching characters or something like that, so I hardlt eve see the judges because I'm behind my partner.

Question 2: Everyone laughing. But again, I can't always tell WHO is laughing.. so its difficult.

[SniffyGuy]

I certainly try not to "sneak a peak" at the judge to see how he/she/they're reacting. Its just completely breaking the 4th wall.
However, sometimes in my piece the character is talking to the audience, so i kinda can observe, but i try not to think about how the judge is reacting too much, especially if its not good.

Unfortunately, audience reaction seems to be fairly unreliable. I've been in numerous HI rounds where I got, or at least thought I got, much better reaction from the audience than any of the other performers and recieved crappy ranks.

[Jesus]

I certainly try not to "sneak a peak" at the judge to see how he/she/they're reacting. Its just completely breaking the 4th wall.

Much agreed. I hate when competitors do that.

[AfRiCaNHI]

I don't reall "sneak-peak," so to say. I have many characters, thus a variety of focal points. If the judge is in line w/ one of my focal points (which they almost always are since I like to perform right in the middle, unless it's a break round) I can usuall tell if they are smiling or laughing. One of the ways I like to "test the crowd" is by establishing humor in the intro. That way, you can throw a line in the direction of the judge (since you're making eye contact) and see their reaction.

[LightningAnkh51]

in all honesty, i feel better when the judge is laughing at the jokes in my piece. Its mostly a drama, after all. But to answer your questions...

1. yes, i am guilty of peeking at judges faces in competition.

2. i like a mixture of both. if everyone was laughing, okay. but if just the judge was happy, i'd feel better coming out of a round.

to add on, i never use laughter as an indicator of how i did in a round. I kno of a judge who laughed frequently at a piece and then gave it a 6 afterwards.

[RiseAboveReality]

While I don't consider a smile from a judge or laughter in a round (especially breaks) an indication of my ranking, I definitely feed off of it and I think it gives my performance a small boost as opposed to performing in a dead room.

[Seabass08]

yes

judge laughing