What judge45 advises is sound, I think. And here's what I found works for me in terms of changing my mood.
- Sing a fun song outloud
- Do a stupid dance (like in the movies)
- Look in a mirror and make a silly face
- Remember my funny moment (see below)
- Remember a funny joke
- Do my anchor move (see below)
Funny moment: These are some of the moments that I made myself remember or just did because they were so funny. Usually things that happened to me or that I witnessed that never fails to make me laugh. Usually involves me losing my balance in a funny way and barely saving myself from the fall, but making a complete idiot of myself, complete with sound effects and such.
Anchor move: When I find myself in really good mood or funny mood (this is my favorite mood), then I do what Tony Robins' calls an anchor. It's a simple, but sort of unusual physical touch or movement that you do when you're in a specific chosen state. Keep doing that over and over again, and soon your brain links up that movement or touch with that state and recalls it when you trigger your anchor. For me, I scratch my finger middle finger pad with my thumb nail in a 45 degree angle coming up from the lower pinky side to the upper thumb side. Seems to work for me. But before I do this, if I am in a bad mood, I always try to at least break out of the bad mood first so that I don't end up linking the bad mood to the anchor.
Oh, and regarding the marketing. Here's an idea that you might try.
I was a teacher and maybe this will help. Principals are always tight for cash and they won't easily spend their budget money for something that's not 'for certain'. So first thing I might suggest is to give your performance for free at once school, but with the prearrangement that instead of cash, they'd give you letters of recommendations to other schools or principals or at least a phone call to a few of them recommending that they try you out.
But this isn't enough. With the first gig and the rest, you need an angle to get yourself approved in their eyes. Why do they need your gig for their students? Can you possibly tie it into an educational angle? Or one of the easiest thing to do if your gig is based on some sort of 'wow' factor, is to assist schools in their fund raising. There's always a fund raising going on and it shouldn't be hard to find.
Hope this helps.
Good luck to you.
Thomas