You and I as artists and entrepreneurs have to do the same thing. “Hey, this is great, you guys are a blast, we are having a ball tonight!” How many times has Paul Anka sung “Diana?” Has the song gotten old to him? If it has, he can’t show it. So Paul Anka steps lively, flashes a brilliant smile, prances to the edge of the stage and sells the fact that he’s having fun and so are we. We in the seats want to be told that we’re having a great time. It wouldn’t surprise me if, sometime back in the day, an old-time, vaudeville-schooled manager took him aside backstage and told him, “Kid, you can’t just deliver the performance, you gotta sell the performance.” But it’s a pretty safe bet that Paul Anka says and does the exact same thing in every show he puts on-every night, in every venue. This particular show was at the University of Southern California, where apparently two or three of Paul Anka’s daughters had gone to school-so that may have contributed to the emotion of the evening. Anka communicated to us in the audience-by his body language, his smile, and by direct statements-how much fun he was having and what a unique and special evening this was. Here’s what I learned from watching him onstage.

He tours with a band of about fifteen and he delivers a terrific show. Paul Anka wrote the Sinatra classic, “My Way,” along with hundreds of other songs. He’s still an extremely popular performer, who sells out shows around the world. He was a teen idol back in the days of Fabian and Frankie Avalon.

Paul anka now