Mindfulness Behind the Microphone

One of my intentions in taking up a regular meditation practice is to be present. The place where I am the least present, aside from the subway, is on stage. I go into a kind of blackout fugue state when I am performing, where something else takes over. Once done, I sometimes can't even remember what I said into the microphone. Who is the me that seems to take over when I'm 'on,' and could applying mindfulness improve my act?

Last night was one of the first times I tried to connect to my breath while doing a performance. I was doing a comedic art history presentation with a performance artist friend of mine, and we hadn't rehearsed at all. We just slapped a bunch of slides of famous paintings together and decided to see what would happen. Every time it was her turn to talk, I tried checking in with myself. It was much more difficult than applying mindfulness to other acts, like cooking or riding the train. But trying it as a thought experiment let me soften my approach and I think the night was more successful for it. Especially when Magritte's Treachery of Images came up on screen and I said it was French for 'Look at my pipe!'