QuoteProject
Just as most of us prefer to watch a trapeze artist work without a net, we like to be absolutely sure that a virtuoso is giving us our money's worth, and a seemingly effortless performance, no matter how spectacular it may be, deprives us of that slightly sadistic thrill.
Terry Teachout
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

We appreciate skilled performances more when they come with an element of risk, as it heightens our enjoyment.

This quote illustrates the human tendency to seek thrill and satisfaction in performances that include a sense of danger or uncertainty. It suggests that mastery, while admirable, requires an element of risk to fully engage an audience, as the absence of danger can dull the excitement of watching someone display their remarkable skills.

Themes

PerformanceRiskThrillArtistryMastery

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about the arts, this quote can illustrate why audiences appreciate danger in performances.

More from Terry Teachout

Unlike film and TV, theater is a luxury object, but one that ordinary middle-class people can still afford. Above all, it isn't a mass medium: Live theater is a small-scale, handmade art form. Intimacy is what makes it special.
Terry TeachoutRead
No translation can possibly be perfect. Every production and every performance is a different path up the mountain, and nobody ever makes it all the way to the summit.
Terry TeachoutRead
No, I don't know how to get young people to start listening to jazz again. But I do know this: Any symphony orchestra that thinks it can appeal to under-30 listeners by suggesting that they 'should' like Schubert and Stravinsky has already lost the battle.
Terry TeachoutRead
Century-old records are the closest thing we have to a time machine. To listen to the voice of Theodore Roosevelt or the piano playing of Claude Debussy is to feel the years falling away like autumn leaves from a maple tree.
Terry TeachoutRead

Similar quotes

I think when you're young and have that first burst of energy and make five or six pictures in a row that tell the stories of all the things in life you want to say... well, maybe those are the films that should have won me the Oscar.
Martin ScorseseRead
I've been told, and I think I recognize it, that there's a cinematic quality to my writing, with a sense of image and place and scene - and, some would say, my tendency to finish my books the way Hollywood finishes its films.
Khaled HosseiniRead
I try with my pictures to raise a question, to provoke a debate, so that we can discuss problems together and come up with solutions.
Sebastiao SalgadoRead
I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.
James NachtweyRead
It's unfortunate that a lot of people think African-American female artists are monolithically R&B this-or-that, don't have to do anything by default.
Janelle MonaeRead
The reason one writes isn't the fact he wants to say something. He writes because he has something to say.
F. Scott FitzgeraldRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.