Punctuation gives us relief. Punctuation gives us confidence. Punctuation points toward a safe structure.
In entertainment we want our audiences to melt into us — to become sheep and let us lead. We want them to be alert sheep, though. We want them in the flow. If we wanted them to be zombies, murky is better. Put them to sleep because of lack of cognition. If we wanted them to be autonomous and stressed, we could keep it confusing. But even when creating a thrilling experience, we need trust.
Punctuation builds trust. Talking about punctuation in a live show, I mean…
- Applause points.
- Transitions.
- Segmentation of bits.
- Pauses in sound.
- Deliberate lighting changes.
- Curtain draws.
- Punch lines.
- Etc.
These are clear, abrupt moments that label the rest of the experience and help the audience block out what is happening. They’re also signals that this is not an endless experience. It’s got chapters, and the creator has a plan to get to the end. The creator is gonna take care of us.
When doing a lot of experimenting in shows, I thought it was avante garde to not give applause points in the show. I thought it was interesting to purposefully walk over my laughs so the audience had to decide when to laugh for themselves. Really it’s just stressful to experience a thing with no punctuation.