NEVER SAY: “THIS NORMALLY WORKS.”
No retries on stage. No apologies for the product. One calm sentence, next beat. Forward, never backward.
BACKEND DIED MID-DEMO
“We cache aggressively — this is what it serves.”
Hit the panic key (Ctrl+Shift+P if built on demosafe). Keep narrating the SAME beat. Your hands never stop.
VENUE WIFI DIED
“Live conditions — good thing it runs offline too.”
Hotspot swap (rehearsed) or local seed mode per DEMO_FALLBACK.md. Said with a smile it reads as engineering, not failure.
A FEATURE VISIBLY ERRORED
“What this step does is [X] — and here's where it lands.”
One sentence about what it DOES, then advance to the next beat. Never click the same thing twice on stage.
YOU FROZE / BLANKED
[The payoff line — the one you memorized cold.]
Look at the screen's current state, describe it in one sentence, then jump to the close. Questions will rescue you — invite them.
JUDGE BROKE IT (BOOTH)
“You found the edge of the prototype — the real path is this one.”
Steer back to the rehearsed path, hand them the wow moment. Their click, your route.
RUNNING OVER TIME
[Skip straight to the payoff line + the one ambitious sentence.]
Cut features, never the close. The close is what they score. Then stop talking — silence is confidence.