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Turn Stage Mishaps Into Masterful Moments

2026 Update: Advice for handling unexpected situations like a true professional onstage

On Stage

Public speaking

Stage performance

Russell

Ewing

Creative Director, Lead Performance Faculty

minute read

Published on

March 30, 2026

Photo Credit: EAA, Photo Submitted by Kim Campbell.

This article was updated March 2026.

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You’re onstage, giving your performance as usual, when suddenly your worst nightmare starts to play out before your eyes…

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You have an embarrassing flub of your lines.

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Your slides stop working and the tech guy looks at you with panic in his eyes.

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A large man stands up in the back of the room and shouts something out to you.

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Suddenly, the entire room goes pitch black.

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These unexpected moments might happen during any performance. For most speakers, just the thought can spike cortisol levels.

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It’s completely normal to experience some degree of anxiety around the fact that you simply can’t control everything that happens during your performance.

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In fact, dealing with unscripted moments onstage is one of the most important yet most overlooked topics in the public-speaking world.

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The typical advice out there—stay calm, think on your feet, be professional, adapt to the situation, and be positive—might not do much to calm your nerves.

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While those are great reminders, they don’t actually explain what to do in those situations or how to deal with the unexpected. And they leave out the most important part: the audience.

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What NOT to Do When Disaster Strikes

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Just to clarify, you don’t need to address every single miniscule interruption that happens during your presentation. Sometimes it’s best to maintain the audience’s focus on you and just keep going.

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But if there’s an elephant in the room, you’d better address it. Because there’s one big mistake you don’t want to make when the unexpected strikes: ignoring it.

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When an audience member shouts something out at you, when a phone starts ringing, when a technical issue happens, you must acknowledge it in some way. You know it happened, they know it happened; it’s weird to just ignore it.

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In fact, pretending it didn’t happen can create a huge disconnect between you and your audience. It subliminally tells them that the connection they feel with you and the relationship you’re trying to build are false.

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Now, during the seconds you try to come up with something clever to say, you’ll probably feel like an eternity and a half has gone by in awkward silence. It will feel like your audience is staring at you, holding their breath, thinking you’ve lost it.

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But the truth is, they can’t even tell. To them, it’s just a very brief—even imperceptible—moment.

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Give yourself some grace. If something unexpected happens, you can breathe, assess the situation, consider what your audience needs, and react. Then you can get back to doing what you’re onstage to do: create a transformational experience for your audience.

Full Transcript

Don't

ignore reality and pretend whatever happened didn’t happen.

acknowledge the awkwardness and use it to connect with your audience.

Download

How to Deal With “Bloopers” During Speaking Events

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The typical advice for eliminating performance anxiety and overcoming the fear of the unknown is removing as many variables as possible. In other words, practice. Though rehearsal is essential, there are additional actions you can take to prepare for the unexpected:

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Remember this: your audience is on your side. They want to hear what you have to say. They want to be inspired, motivated, taught, and entertained by you. They want to be transformed by you. Even when unexpected moments arise.
Use humor. It’s often most effective to choose a playful response during unexpected moments. Humor can release the tension and turn an awkward situation into a lighthearted and memorable one.
When possible, minimize the issue. A server in the back of the room drops a tray of plates and silverware. Every head in the audience turns to look. The server is humiliated, the audience is distracted. Just saying: “No worries, it happens to all of us,” can redirect their attention to you and save the moment.
Know your speech. When you truly know your material—actually knowing it, not just memorizing it—you can just take a brief detour from your “regularly scheduled programming” and address the unexpected situation. (With rote memorization, if at any given moment the string of text gets broken, you get lost. Any small disruption will throw off your presentation and it’ll be hard to get back on track.)
Don’t rely on slides. Sooner or later, the tech will fail. If you use your slides as a crutch, it will be very difficult to offer value to your audience without them. Make sure you know how to deliver a transformational performance without the slides.

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These tips are all things that you, the speaker, can do to save the moment onstage. What comes next is the most important aspect of dealing with unexpected moments onstage.

Don't

Ask yourself: “What does my audience need, right now?”

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Most of the advice about performance blunders, tech problems, and “the unexpected” onstage is focused completely on the speaker. Save the moment, the show must go on, stay professional, don’t freak out.

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But this leaves out the most important part: the audience.

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When disaster strikes onstage, you might feel anxious, worried, and stressed, but you probably don’t want your audience to feel the same. Average speakers focus on how they feel. Extraordinary speakers always focus on what they want their audience to feel.

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Focus on what your audience needs at any given moment, even the unexpected ones. If you’re truly focused on your audience, when something unexpected happens, you’ll ask yourself: “What does the audience need right now?”

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Imagine the lights go out.

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What does your audience need? They need to feel comforted. Safe. Calm. And you need to make them feel that. How? That’s up to you. Maybe you lighten up the mood with a joke. Maybe you do something completely different.

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Imagine an audience member shouts out a challenging comment. What does your audience need? Your audience wants structure. They want you to solve the problem, because they came to have a positive experience. So you need to use your authority to take back control.

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(Some speakers worry they’ll come off as rude or unprofessional by correcting challenging behavior. But that’s usually not the case. As the person onstage, you’re the one with the microphone; you’re the one in charge of the room.)

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When you focus on your audience’s needs, you’ll always know what to do next. You’ll be able to handle unexpected situations with ease, and you’ll even be able to make those unscripted moments memorable.

Don't

be afraid to use the authority of the stage to command the room and handle the situation with confidence.

focus on what your audience needs at any given moment.

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Let’s Reframe “the Unexpected”

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You can’t prevent undesirable and unplanned moments from happening to you onstage. But when you truly know your speech and focus on what your audience needs, no matter how “the unexpected” comes at you, you’ll be prepared to handle it confidently (and with as little anxiety as possible).

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After all, the fear and anxiety that we feel when thinking about these curtain-call calamities stem from one thing: the unexpected. It’s the unknown, the uncontrollable, the unprecedented. What you cannot control is what causes anxiety.

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But it’s also the very element that makes live performance so compelling and so powerful.

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And the truth is, the fact “the unexpected” exists and looms behind every performance is overwhelmingly positive. It’s what makes it high-stakes, alive, magical.

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That’s what makes live performance beautiful—and unique. That spark of the unknown is the last bit of alchemy that makes your time onstage more exhilarating and memorable for everyone.

Don't

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How to Deal With “Bloopers” During Speaking Events

‍

Remember this: your audience is on your side. They want to hear what you have to say. They want to be inspired, motivated, taught, and entertained by you. They want to be transformed by you. Even when unexpected moments arise.
Use humor. It’s often most effective to choose a playful response during unexpected moments. Humor can release the tension and turn an awkward situation into a lighthearted and memorable one.
When possible, minimize the issue. A server in the back of the room drops a tray of plates and silverware. Every head in the audience turns to look. The server is humiliated, the audience is distracted. Just saying: “No worries, it happens to all of us,” can redirect their attention to you and save the moment.
Know your speech. When you truly know your material—actually knowing it, not just memorizing it—you can just take a brief detour from your “regularly scheduled programming” and address the unexpected situation. (With rote memorization, if at any given moment the string of text gets broken, you get lost. Any small disruption will throw off your presentation and it’ll be hard to get back on track.)
Don’t rely on slides. Sooner or later, the tech will fail. If you use your slides as a crutch, it will be very difficult to offer value to your audience without them. Make sure you know how to deliver a transformational performance without the slides.

‍

These tips are all things that you, the speaker, can do to save the moment onstage. What comes next is the most important aspect of dealing with unexpected moments onstage.

Dont

Ask yourself: “What does my audience need, right now?”

‍

But this leaves out the most important part: the audience.

‍

Imagine the lights go out.

‍

Don't

be afraid to use the authority of the stage to command the room and handle the situation with confidence.

focus on what your audience needs at any given moment.

Let’s Reframe “the Unexpected”

‍

But it’s also the very element that makes live performance so compelling and so powerful.

‍

And the truth is, the fact “the unexpected” exists and looms behind every performance is overwhelmingly positive. It’s what makes it high-stakes, alive, magical.

‍

That’s what makes live performance beautiful—and unique. That spark of the unknown is the last bit of alchemy that makes your time onstage more exhilarating and memorable for everyone.

Don't