Fighting Your Silence: Turn On The Camera | Win $100!

[Tay Zonday]

Tell about a time that you were put "on the spot" and had to create.

The best story posted by midnight PST on December 27 will win $100! I will e-mail that person a $100 gift-certificate to Amazon.com! ( http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-com-Gift-Card/dp/B00067L6TQ )

[Pyro4816]

I'm not a very good comedian, but i try. I am funny when i have a set up, like someone being stupid or saying something stupid. All my friends know that i don't just randomly bust out being comical, but when we are put in that situation i can be. Well, i attend a fairly large church, about 700 members. I know there's a lot bigger, but mine isn't huge. Anyway, we were having a large church get together, about a hundred or so people, well our pastor calls for a dance competition. My friends knowing that i am usually funny in certain situations, decided to sign me up. I'm basically sitting there enjoying myself watching people be idiots on stage when they call my name. I can't dance. I can't just not do it, theres a hundred people out there who are cheering for me to go. Anyways, its hard to explain what i actually did, but it was a mix of Evolution of dance, nsync, backstreet boys, and idiocy, of course with the lawn mower, chainsaw, and sprinkler mixed in. Anyways, about 3 minutes after i am done, my face is red as a firetruck, i step down off the stage more embarrassed then i have ever been in my life. I wait till the end of the competition, and i actually won 2nd out of about 20 people. I was amazed, and in the end really glad i have friends who appreciate the comedy in putting a comedian in a dance-off.

[Cupcheck]

My hobbies are Trading Card Games, and podcasting, and I was able too do both when I went to the Magic:The Gathering World Championships here in Memphis, TN. Friday and Saturday I did Interviews, on the spot, with some really popular people in the community of Magic, and they turned out to be alright. But here's what I had to go through to do the interview....

I WAS NERVOUS AS HELL!!!

I was in the situation to do a interview with a man named Patrick Chapin. Well...as we were finding a place to sit, a INSANELY popular Pro Magic Player sits across from me, when a WORLD CHAMPION John Finkel is sitting to my left. I had to fight nervousness, to the point where I had to put the microphone on the table and sit on my hands it was so bad.I kept stuttering for words and about 3 minutes in, I was like, "WTF? Cupcheck your more professional than this!" And did a kick ass interview with the 3 of them for about 10 min....I had to cut the first 3 min outs because if you listened to it..it was horrible.

Interviews are creative content, you just have to be calm and listen.....

Cupcheck

[nigel]

In my English class a few years ago, I had to write a story about any subject. I didn’t remember to do it so I made up this story about how I think that the moon landing was a fake! I don't really remember much of the story but I do remember that I was having a bit of stage fright and shuddering when I would talk. But then I just remembered stuff that I seen on the web and the T.V. about the moon landing hoax, after that it just went like a breeze and I got like a mark in the high 70's...

That is my story about a time when I was put "on the spot" and had to create.

[EricBoisen]

My whole life is basically "on the spot". I have made most of my decisions "on the spot". My decision to make youtube videos are on the spot. In Speech I am in 2 things where I make my whole "show" on the spot. All my youtube videos are basically thought about "on the spot" I have no script for my videos, I just fly. My whole life is "on the spot" The only thing that isn't "on the spot" is if I study for tests.

[Drummer656]

I'm a drummer, of 7 years this June. I was just recently selected to play with my schools honor jazz band, now myself being a wanna be rock/punk/funk star have only very basic idea of how to swing and samba and all of that. Well, one Thursday apparently we were to play a dinner at my school where the grand parents of the students would be coming to eat and listen to jazz music. Well this was 3 hour gig of me, not only playing a genre I was unfamiliar with, but also playing songs that I had never heard of, and time signatures that I hadn't seen before such as 7/8 and all that kind of weird funk-a-dunk. Well anyway after all of this I managed to pull through the gig, with complements from the audience on my improve drum solo for one of the songs, and my improvised performance for the rest of the songs.

That's my story.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know true peace"~ Jimi Hendrix, R.I.P.

[chris]

i try to be funny.sometimes i am.i can be the most hilarious person but i cant focus.
wen i put myself on camera iam kinda funny.i get some subs .but i do wat i wana do.
people are giving bad coments but i keep on going.never give up.some of my friends
suportme but they are my friends.friends do that.i keep on making vids though....

*pEAce*

[Collin Lesch]

When I was in 8th grade I made a bad video in band class. I put it on youtube and everyone in my school thought it was funny. But it offended a kid so the principle found out and so did my parents. It was the first time I ever got in BIG trouble so I was scared. My parents were worried too. So I got suspended but then I apologized to the kid i offended, and did some community service to help out. It took me forever to apologize, but everyday I just thought about it, and i finally got the guts to apologize. Once i did I felt great!

[GuntherJ]

I dropped out of Highschool when i was a freshmen, I never really enjoyed school and i had a hard time staying in school moving alot.. So don't expect my Essay formed message to be anywhere close to good :)

Anyways

There was a time i was put on the Spot, I am a very shy person and i had to do a Science Project in the 5th grade, my family was poor at the time so i couldn't afford all the utilities to create one, but i was shy and i didn't tell anyone, So the day before the report i asked my dad if he could help me, and he knew i needed to create the Science Project along time ago, but i waited too long. So i pulled out some Screws and Nails that were all different lengths and i started to glue them onto the side of a cardboard box, writing the length of the nails and what different things they are used for and what they could not be used for. I wrote a paragraph above each one and i felt so embarrassed doing it, that when i was finished, i went to school and i totally froze up and forgot everything about the nails and wood on what i just made the day before. I was so embarrassed and as people walked by i told them random stuff (cause i was in the 5th grade), and you can just imagine what all the other kids thought.. they all had cool science stuff and i had nails.. it was kinda depressing for a few days after that but at least i received an A+

Geez this was a huge runon sentence, I love your music Tay, Good luck reading all these ^_^

[Jblader154]

Hey Tay,

Well one time I was put on the spot by the older sister of a girl that I like.So basically we where at the bowling alley and her older sister goes "Hey why aren't you talking to my sister, You know you like her", in front of everybody, and if you know me I'm the most shy person when it come to this one girl, any other girl and I would have no problem talking.But there is something different about this girl IDK ... , Anyway back to the story.So now she is looking at me had a few second to give an excuse, so a few seconds go by and me and the girl exchange smiles, So then finally after like a minute I say the cheesiest line, "There's so much to say but your eyes keep interrupting me." I thought it wouldn't work, but hey it worked.

So me Fighting The Silence got her to like me back.

Good Luck with everyone with there story

Peace

[Margit Jean Hammer]

I am a musician, and about a year ago, I was playing a lot of open mics, and sharing my music with friends, and I was good, but I didn't have any real shows going on. My friends were all telling me that I should set up some real gigs. I did, and this very first gig that I set up was to be with three other bands and solo artists. Well, this is my very first show I set up, I hired a sound guy and everything, and two of the three musicians didn't show. Well, the show was my responsibility, and I wasn't going to put the one other band that showed up on the spot and ask them to play a longer set than they were prepared for. So I extended my set to be three times the length that I had planned, which was forty five minutes originally, so I played for about two hours, or a little bit more. And, man, I really had to rack my brain on that one. I really didn't have that much material, but I didn't want to let down the few people who did show up, so I started just writing some instrumental stuff, and extending whatever I had, all the while hoping that these two other artists would show up. I was so tense, but they never showed, and eventually it was over. The band that did show up closed the show and it was over. I haven't set up a show since. I play shows that other people set up and ask me to play in, but never my own. It's too much responsibility, though I hope some day soon to give it another shot. That experience really taught me to prepare for the worst, and never set up a show that you cannot fill on your own, just in case somebody doesn't show up.

[Ray (aka Scarthman)]

The most memorable time I was really put on the spot to make a decision quick was honestly my most difficult one. I am a very quiet and laid back person to start with so speaking up is somewhat hard for me. But about a year ago, me and my film crew came to a wall in our filming. Originally, we had 8 people in the crew, but within a one week's time, 4 of the people had moved away. Kinda ironic in my opinion to have 4 of the people in our small town move away all at once like that. So that weekend I called the crew in for an emergency meeting and we all met up and Cody's house (one of the people in my crew). They all sat down and I stayed standing and told them straight up what our problem was. I said, "Guys, as you all know, Joey, Ben, Trey and Jeremey all moved away. I don't know of any other solution to this problem other than to quit filming." They all got a saddened look on their face mixed with surprise. Then almost instantly, the questions started comming out of them like none other. So many people were talking at once, and me being the leader of the crew, I felt that I had to answer all of them. At this point I became panicked and confused, not knowing what to do. I had just made a decision that disappointed the entire crew. Questions like "Why not just get new people?", "What's going to happen now?", "We can't stop filming, it's what we enjoy doing (i know that's not a question, but it was said)!", "What's going to happen to our youtube stuff?" came at me so fast and at that point, I was put on the spot. I didn't know what to say or what to do. I felt lost, confused and angered at the situation. I immediately ordered everyone to be quiet for a few seconds to give me a little time to think. Then I said, "We can't film with the crew we have, we are now missing one of our camera men and 3 of our stunt men. If we stop filming all of our videos will stay online as they are now." The crew then argued about solutions that could go through to work out a new crew. I figured we didn't need anymore camera men, Me and Derek (the 2 main camera men) were still there for filming. So we tried to get new people. I didn't want to disappoint the crew like that with a sudden stop in filming. So we got a new person, but it turned out he wasn't any good at all. He didn't listen at all when it came to filming and nobody seemed to like him, so we kicked him out. Over time we filmed with the small crew we had left and slowly slowly started getting new people. First came Justice (One of cody's friends), who asked me right away if he could join the crew. I didn't know him at all and after the last time we got someone we didn't know, I was a bit nervous about trying it again. But Cody insisted that we give him a try. We ended up making a video just for him to see how well he would listen when it came to filming and he listened very well. He worked well with the team, but a few of the people didn't like him and still don't. But overall, he is a good addition to the team. Then we ended up getting Nathan and Wesley (they're brothers) to join us. I know both of them personally and was happy to know that they wanted to join us. They both work well in videos and we just recently made a short movie with both of them in it.

Overall, the situation that had come over the team was somewhat tragic in a way, but I was able to work it out. Being put on the spot like that wasn't what I wanted, but it's what happened it worked out in the end. Now we are back to full working order and may even be getting another member on the team sometime soon. My film crew (Short Bus Productions) really works hard with what we do now and we all enjoy it a lot. Even with the difficulties we've had in the past, the whole thing worked out great.

[GermanSeabass]

I've played piano since I was 5, but have never been to comfortable playing or performing in front of others. During a recent open mic, a friend of mine called me out after his performance - “hey, this guy plays piano as well! Play something!” It's rather difficult saying “no” when 150 people are staring at you with anticipation. The camera turned on, and I had to perform.

It is moments like those that inspire, raise your self confidence, and smack you in the face with “hey, you can actually create something people enjoy.” The reason I now perform music (in front of an actual camera) and post it on YouTube is to inspire others; to give any listener the same euphoria I get when listening to other amazing musicians.

Anyone can excel in at least one area. No-one should ever be silent.