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Technician Versus Performer (view source)

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** Of note: a good part of May's [[Character Development]] comes from her training to become more of a Performer, dropping the flaws that her Technician side brings her.
** Don't forget Rosetta versus Sora early in season one. Rosetta was a stellar technician whose act looked like a "Diavolo machine". According to Kalos, she looks cold and mechanical when performing, that the audience gets bored despite all the skill she develops; therefore, he teams her up with Sora so Rosetta cn learn has to teach her how to enjoy herself more so she'll win the audience's love. When she ''does'' becomes more of a performer thanks to Sora's help, he lampshades this by saying "Rosetta has finally become a performer".
* ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' and its sequel, ''[[Great Mazinger]]'': Koji Kabuto and Tetsuya Tsurugi have distinct ways to pilot their respective [[Humongous Mecha]]. Kouji is the Technician, who uses his weapons in a normal way -such as Mazinger's Photon-powered [[Eye Beam]] as a long range weapon-, combining them with pure brute force and [[Combat Pragmatism]]. Tetsuya is the performer who combines his own [[Combat Pragmatism]] by using Great's wide arsenal of weapons in an unorthodox way -such as shooting Thunder Break with both weapons or using it to turning his swords into Lightning rods, his surprisingly weird way of handling swords, or covering Great with [[Chest Blaster|Breast Burn]] heat energy (a movement which later would be adapted in [[Super Robot Wars Alpha]] and turned into ''[[Mazinkaiser|Mazinkaisers]]s'' Kaiser Nova).
* Duck, in ''[[Princess Tutu]]'', is so inherently clumsy that not even her passion for ballet can land her a leading role, but her performance does inspire a melancholy yet brilliant ballerina to find her own style rather than mimicking others.
* Briefly mentioned in a volume or episode of ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', where Winry and Cheska debate over whether cooking is a science or an art.
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* Used beautifully in ''[[Beck]]'': In the "Grateful Sound" arc, the band breaks up thanks to internal tensions set off by Ryuske's Deal with the Devil. The rival band, Bell Ame, is set to totally eclipse BECK's set. Refusing to back down, Koyuki, followed by Saku on drums, grabs a acoustic and plays a stunning and spirited cover of <s>the Beatles's "I've Got a Feeling"</s> in-universe band The Dying Breed's song "Fifty Cent Wisdom". The result? The factory-produced sugar-pop rival's set actually bleeds off its audience!
** Belle Ame aren't helped by the fact that their special guest, the [[Bishounen]] [[Soap Opera|soup star]] (and love rival of Kouyuki) they have performing with them can't actually sing.
* ''[[Iron Wok Jan]]'' twists this trope with Kiriko Gobancho and Jan Akiyama. Jan, the [[Jerkass]] [[Anti-Hero]], is an inverted Performer in that he cooks to deliberately earn the hatred and disgust of the audience -- toaudience—to make the victory of his cuisine all the sweeter. And yet he admits that he cooks mostly because it's all that his grandfather [[Training From Hell|taught him how to do]] before dying, and mostly seems to feel a professional pride about what he went through hell to learn. Kiriko's ideals are that "cooking is about heart"; although she's the [[Heir to the Dojo]], she only became a cook because she wanted to, she taught herself most of what she knows, and she always tries to keep the customers and their desires in mind when she cooks. However, she is definitely a much more deliberate, no-nonsense chef than Jan. The two are both portrayed as equals in skill -- ifskill—if only because Kiriko is [[The Rival|the only thing keeping Jan from being a]] [[Jerk Sue]].
* Inverted in ''[[Captain Tsubasa]]'', Hyuga Koujirou is a Performer who uses raw power and hot blood as he plays, whereas Ohzora Tsubasa is a devoted Technician who focuses on his skills. They quite clash as a result, but later Hyuga finds himself landing in quite the trouble when he plays abroads and sees that his Performer traits are a hindrance on his playing style...
** It could be argued that Hyuga is the technician and Tsubasa the performer in the sense that Hyuga only plays to be the best, to get noticed so to land a contract in a major club to provide his family with money, and spends countless hours in training from hell while Tsubasa plays mainly for fun, is enthusiastic enough to have everyone behind him and seems innately gifted.
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* Yusei Fudo and Jack Atlas of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]]'' fit this trope perfectly. Whilst Yusei is a master of gadgetry and engineering and calm and calculated as a result, Jack on the other hand appears to have no technical skill but is a hugely talented entertainer, and arguably a better duelist than Yusei with his only two loses capable of being chalked up to overconfidence in the first case and an obsessive desire to defeat Yusei by conquering the card combo he lost to in their last match during their rematch.
** Not necessarily. Those were losses in his professional career. And Jack's specialty, akin to Kaiba in the original, is that he favors beatdown. Yusei counters this with strategies often centered around weaker monsters with protective abilities.
** And take into account the definition of 'technician' in [[The Verse|the Yugiverse]]:For example: Yusei's combos for summoning Stardust Dragon, his level 8 Ace [[Mons|Monster]]ter, are truly numerous, with some marvels as Junk Warrior(5)+Junk Synchron(3), Debris Dragon(4)+Bolt Hedgehog(2)+Speed Warrior(2), and Junk Synchron+Bolt Hedgehog+Speed Warrior+Tuning Supporter(1). As for Jack and his [[Mon|Monster]]ster of equal level, Red Demon's Dragon, his usual is a Vice Dragon(5)+ Dark Resonator(3), and very few times does he deviate. In terms of combo and strategy creation, Yusei is the Performer and Jack is the Technician, because the former uses every card's effect to its fullest in near unheard of ways whilst he latter uses mainly tried and tested methods which tends to bore the audience, [[Truth in Television]] when looking at the [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys]] who look down on those not using Top-Tier Decks. Can be an [[Irony]] judging by the metagame. Yusei's flashy, interesting and complex combo is the basis on one of the most sucessful deck at the time, yet while decks that uses simpler tried and tested combo while sucessful(such example being Six Samurai and Dragunity) never manage to be as sucessful as the former.
* ''[[Bakuman｡]]'' has an interesting version of this, making the Technician(s) the protagonist, yet also putting both sides on equal ground. The main characters, Takagi and Mashiro, are clearly the technicians, being praised for their calculating intelligence and technical skill at writing manga together, yet get bogged when trying to write something mainstream because they can't come up with an exceptionally interesting premise. Their main rival, Niizuma Eiji is presented as a natural genius who simply draws whatever he feels like and cranks out hits, yet is also criticized for the lack of depth in his work. Then it turns out that the Performer is a totally fanboy of the Technicians' work, and later on both parties end up improving from the influence of the other.
** The trope is still mostly played straight, since Eiji's work (especially Crow) consistently outperforms every other named character's manga, including the main pair's. But they're much closer to Eiji's level than most instances of this trope.
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* ''[[Glee]]'' makes Vocal Adrenaline out to be the "technically-perfect team with no soul" whereas New Directions are the plucky underdogs who make up for their lack of polish with their bleeding hearts. {{spoiler|But the Regionals judges don't see it that way.}}
** {{spoiler|Neither did the Nationals judges a season later.}}
** [[Your Mileage May Vary|For some viewers of the series]], [[Technician Versus Performer]] in some form kicks in within New Directions itself, particularly with regard to Rachel, who tends to be technically adept but an imitative and immature performer whose goal is winning approval and applause, and the rest of the girls (plus countertenor Kurt - they're in competition because they share equal ranges and song preferences), who sing with more originality, authenticity and emotion. However, it also applies in reverse to the boys. Finn, as by far the least accomplished of the male singers and dancers, looks like he should be an underdog Performer type - but he's resented for getting solos while other (far more accomplished and enthusiastic) singers such as Artie, Kurt and Puck, and dancer Mike, are undeservedly stuck in his shadow - largely because of [[Technician Versus Performer]] favoritism from Will Schuester.
* Often happens on [[So You Think You Can Dance]], especially with breakdancers. While technically wonderful dancers are often competent enough to stay on the show for a while even if their performance isn't too amazing, dancers like season 7's Jose sail through because they're fun to watch even if they don't dance very well.
** It also has a major part in deciding who wins- there's a reason the winner is '[Country's] ''Favourite'' Dancer'. People with bright personalities may well win over more technically gifted dancers.
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* Britney Spears (Performer) Vs Chritina Aguilera (Technician).
* The [[They Might Be Giants]] song "[[XTC]] versus [[Adam Ant]]" asserts that the two bands represent "content versus form," ie technical performance versus style.
* An unusually common situation: An actor-who-sings tends to be much more successful than the reverse. Though both fields are demanding, singing is also [[Crippling Overspecialization|extremely focused]]; singers (Technicians) often lack the physical presence needed to connect to the audience, while actors (Performers) may not be the best singers, but know how to get reactions from audiences. Underlining the differences, many actors already ''are'' decent singers--butsingers—but they view it as a fun way to kill time, while singers view acting as [[Serious Business]].
* This trope is the main reason why it's generally [[Internet Backdraft|not a good idea]] to try to discuss either [[Garage Rock]] or [[Progressive Rock]] with fans of the other.
* Despite his clear technical skills, [[Jimi Hendrix]] was closer to the Performer end of the spectrum. Had virtually no formal musical training, could barely even read music, but was blessed with natural talent and near-perfect pitch. Nobody taught Jimi how to play; HE JUST KNEW, man...
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** The [[Bret Hart]] / [[Shawn Michaels]] rivalry is arguably the quintessential example. You can practically rename this trope "Excellence of Execution vs The Showstopper".
** [[Daniel Bryan]] and The Miz's feud over the United States Championship in WWE - Bryan widely considered the flat-out best in-ring technician in North America (winning the Wrestling Observer awards for "Best Technical Wrestler" five years in a row, "Most Outstanding Wrestler" four years in a row) pitted against The Miz, a charismatic [[Heel]] who got his start on reality shows.
* Some people says that two main WWE shows -- Rawshows—Raw and Smackdown -- areSmackdown—are based on this dichotomy, with Raw putting more emphasis on storyline and spectacle while Smackdown is seen as the "wrestling" show.
** Similarly we had the old WCW (technician) vs. WWF (performer) rivalry, epitomized by the two companies' top stars, [[Ric Flair]] and [[Hulk Hogan]] respectively.
* Some even blame WWE's current [[Insistent Terminology|reluctance]] to use the phrase "[[Professional Wrestling]]" on this trope.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* Columnist John Derbyshire once said that the [[Chess|Deep Blue vs Kasparov ]] match was really between a "toolmaker"(technician) represented by the programer, and a "virtuoso"(performer) represented by Gary Kasparov.
** Except that analogy is almost entirely backwards. Anyone who knows anything about chess will tell you that becoming grandmaster level requires not only raw analytical talent, but also obscene amounts of training and memorizing tens of thousands of maneuvers and responses by heart. The computer, meanwhile, needs only to know only the rules, and basically improvises in response to the human player. If anything, Deep Blue was the Performer, and Kasparov the Technician.
*** Only if you choose to disregard the opening and endgame databases usually used in computer chess (Deep Blue had those too) - which is one factor contributing to the fact that chess programmes are often weakest in the middle game.
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* The entire chain of political events which ended in [[World War Two]] could be understood as the battle between the logic of a Technician and that of a Performer, while the former was the Soviet Union and the latter the community of Fascist states. If anything, the Communists were absolute maniacs of [[Charles Atlas Superpower|discipline and gain by struggle]]: they won the Russian Civil War by the skin of their teeth, developed the heavy industry and military forces of the USSR by iron hand, oppression, death and poverty, won [[World War Two]] [[Zerg Rush|by the force of numbers]], immitated to the point that Soviet cars, trucks, buildings or fridges were [[Munchkin|carbon copies of American designs]], only because [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|they were so determined to gain visible results]] that took the easier way by copying what worked, regardless of having understood the culture behind it or not. On the other side, the entire Fascist culture, from Benito Mussolini in [[Roaring Twenties|the 1920s]] to the end, revolved around [[Rule of Cool|coolness]], elaborate design, color, music, innovation, staging, up to the point of being a gigantic theatrical performance instead of true Machiavellian politics. They played straight the trope, as modern people are far more impressed by cool tanks, uniforms and heroic deeds of the losers instead of the anonymous labor and toil of the winners.
* The [[Three Chords and the Truth|central ethos of punk rock]] is that of the performer, bringing it to swift popularity in a musical landscape dominated by the prog rock technicians who dominated contemporary rock music.
* Director-writer Franco Dragone, who handled most of [[Cirque Du Soleil]]'s shows through 1998, arranged for extensive creative workshops with the gymnasts, acrobats, dancers, etc. hired for each show from ''[[Nouvelle Experience]]'' onward. He was confident in their technical skills, so in the workshops he focused on getting them in touch with their creative sides. From these, the quirky characters of the shows emerged -- performersemerged—performers who were nonetheless highly skilled. The first post-Dragone show, ''[[Dralion]]'', would have used similar methods but they ran up against [[Values Dissonance]] due to a predominantly Chinese cast that was not comfortable with Dragone's style; the creative team instead focused on getting the best work possible out of these technicians, which is why the show isn't as character/theme-focused.
* Karaoke singers tend to fall into one of these two extremes, and audiences tend to respond equally well to both the guy singing off-key and flubbing the lines while jumping wildly around the stage and the guy nailing the song flawlessly. Of course, [[Your Mileage May Vary]]...a lot.
* Many people who audition for X Factor or Idol are either overconfident people with no singing ability, or people with good singing ability who are too nervous to sing well in front of people. People who pass their auditions are usually humble people with good singing ability who can take criticism. They are usually attractive as well, but this isn't always the case.
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* Many technicians work hard to get a performalist appearance. Dancers are a good example, but holds for musicians as well.
* The rivalry between skaters Robin Cousins and Jan Hoffman boiled down to could Hoffman win by more on the technical figure tracing than Cousins could on the free program.
* In Spain, at [[The Cavalier Years]], Cervantes was a technician, [[Hard Work Hardly Works|mediocre playwright and poet ]][[Wide-Eyed Idealist|that wanted to establish rules in playwriting so every author in Spain could publish without fear to be arrested and set a standard for quality in entertainment]]. Lope de Vega, the performer, was a [[The Ace|accomplished natural poet and incredible successful playwright]] who was convinced [[Viewers are Morons]] and that the must create art with [[Lowest Common Denominator]] because[[Money, Dear Boy|is that what the public wants]]. (He stated it in verse, it’s awesome). [[Always Someone Better|Cervantes had serious disagreements with Lope de Vega that at the time seemed pure envy]]. Cervantes died in poverty and oblivion, while Lope de Vega was always popular and loved. Now Lope de Vega is recognized as one of Spain’s [[The Cavalier Years]] genius, while Cervantes has been [[Vindicated by History]] by an interesting experiment he did: the first modern novel, ''[[Don Quixote]]''.
* Beauty: Technician Dayanara Torres (may have won the beauty pageant) vs. Performer Jennifer Lopez (actually hailed as the world's most beautiful woman over and over again).
* Modeling: Technician Gisele Bundchen vs. Performer Heidi Klum.
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