Even if you’re not an actor, a fear of being perceived by others can be debilitating to your everyday life. Some may say to conquer stage fright through deep breaths or repeating positive mantras, but if those don’t work, intense exposure therapy can be the shock you need to become a natural performer. And what better way to practice showmanship than flashily grilling Japanese dishes in front of customers for hours at a time? Instead of calmly meditating your performance anxiety away, here’s how to dive right into the deep end and overcome stage fright by becoming a chef at Benihana.
Exude confidence.
As they say in showbiz, you have to fake it ‘til you make it, and nothing will force you to make it quickly like juggling three knives in front of a sizzling hot surface with no room to run away. You’ll learn to be confident in front of others in no time, since you might lose a finger otherwise!
Practice, practice, practice.
Practice makes perfect, and once you’ve perfected the classic tricks in the Benihana playbook such as shrimp-in-the-hat and beating-fried-rice-heart, it’ll be like riding a bike when you perform them in front of guests. Plus after mastering complex performances like the onion volcano, simple public speaking will be nothing!
Imagine everyone in their underwear.
During the dinner rush, it could be incredibly stressful to be physically enclosed by multiple hungry parties demanding to be entertained and fed, but take a page from the oldest stage fright trick in the book – imagine everyone in the restaurant in their underwear. Not only will it make the audience less intimidating, you’ll start wondering about the dangers of having so much exposed skin near scalding hot objects being tossed in the air and your anxiety will shift from fixating on your own performance to your own possible health code violations!
Being a Benihana chef is not for the faint of heart, but if you become adept at it, any other form of performance that doesn’t involve twirling knives or a fiery tower of flaming onion will seem like a cake walk. The next time you have to give a speech at work or tell a story at a party, you’ll realize how simple it is and wonder how you can incorporate sizzling shrimp into it!
