Technician/Performer Team-Up

Let us strike a bargain
You possess a gift
But I can speak the jargon
That will give your gift the needed lift
You possess the know-how
And I command the show-how
Oh, how successful you could be with me

— "Eglantine", Bedknobs and Broomsticks

The Technician Versus Performer battle has been raging since time immemorial. The "technician" is technically skilled and highly knowledgeable about what they do, but often lacks warmth, heart, and charisma. The "performer" is the complete opposite, lacking those skills and knowledge (at least relative to the technician), but is flashy, charismatic, appealing, and creative with what capability they do have. When they decide to join forces toward a common goal, the result is often exponentially more successful than what either can achieve alone.

A common scenario has a "technician" create something new, it can be tangible like a new product or intangible like an idea to achieve, but in either case has difficulty getting support and buy-in for it. The "performer" then becomes an expert salesperson for the product, promoting it and using their charisma to gain support for it, despite not having a full understanding of how it works. The technician can be seen as the "brains" of the operation while the performer is the "face".

A common means to showcase this type of relationship is to have the "performer" stumble when explaining the technical details of how product/idea actually works, deferring to the "technician" if available. Conversely, the "technician" may have to take on some of the "performer's" duties to show off how awkward they are.

Tech Bros seems to be especially prone to forming this sort of partnership, with one actually "developing" the product and the other promoting it (charming investors, inspiring employees, schmoozing the media, etc.), but it can happen in any sort of business or relationship. For example, this is a popular Tag Team composition in Professional Wrestling, pairing a technically skilled wrestler who may not be the most charismatic with a less-skilled but better talking/acting partner.

This pair frequently overlaps with Red Oni, Blue Oni, with the "performer" as the passionate "red" and the "technician" as the rational "blue". Similarly, they are often an Energetic and Soft-Spoken Duo, with the "performer" the former and the "technician" the latter. If they are a combat-oriented duo, Force and Finesse and Brains and Brawn are common overlaps, with the performer as "force/brawn" and the technician as "finesse/brains". Ditto for Talent vs. Training, with the performer as the "talent" and technician as the "training". An Idealist vs. Pragmatist dispute is a common way to inject conflict into this relationship. Can be the result of a Rivals Team Up scenario if they competed against each other before joining forces.

Can be seen as a mundane form of Ability Mixing.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Asteroid in Love: The series' premise involves the main duo, Mira and Ao, trying to attain their Goal in Life of discovering an asteroid. Mira is an energetic girl who, despite not being the most intelligent, is good at explaining science in different ways. Ao, on the other hand, is very knowledgeable in astronomy and is generally rather intelligent, but she also has the quirk of explaining science in Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness regardless of audience, not to mention she's a bit timid. The quote below from chapter 5 (as adapted in episode 2) summarizes their complementary nature:
  Mira: (Thinks) [Ao] sure knows a lot about this stuff, so I'm sure her worry (of the increasing difficulty of asteroid discovery ) is more justified than mine.
  Mira: (Calls out aloud) Ao! Don't worry! I'll do everything I can to help you! I'll study super hard to catch up to your knowledge! Let's do our best together!
  Ao: (Thinks) How could she think she needs to catch up? She's always the one in the lead, pulling me along behind her.
• Dragon Ball Z: Goku tends to be the Performer in comparison to his various rivals-turned-allies — Tien, Piccolo, and Vegeta. He's much more friendly and charismatic (a big part of why they become allies), and while he does extensively train, it tends to result in a greater overall power increase versus the more technical refinements made by his former rivals. Tien is serious, introduces new and effective techniques every time he fights, and though he falls well behind the overall power curve deep into the series, is able to contribute in fights against Cell, Majin Buu, and participate in the Tournament of Power in Dragon Ball Super. Piccolo is in a very similar mold (serious, introduces a number of effective techniques, holds his own despite being outclassed in raw power) and is chosen for Super's Tournament of Destroyers for his technical skill (even piercing the barrier created by a god-like being). Vegeta is the most shining and longest-lasting example of a Technician "partner" for Goku, training to an extreme degree, refusing assistance out of pride, and, as exemplified earlier in the series before his huge jump in power, was an incredibly technical fighter (at least when he wasn't toying with an opponent for his amusement).
• Mob Psycho 100: Mob is mostly calm—if shy and lacking social skills—even while exorcising spirits. Reigen, however, has a way with words, so he can easily bring people under his sway to sell his Phony Psychic act.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Series protagonist Jaden/Judai Yuki leans very highly towards the performer side in his dueling, who makes a big spectacle out of his duels and having fun. This contrasts him with Aster/Edo Phoenix, a professional rival duelist introduced in Season 2, who treats the game and his profession seriously, having a rather technical dueling style that carries an efficient strategy in order to win. Late into the second season, the two are forced to compete in a Tag Team duel against Mizuchi Saiou/Sarina Kumar. While their two dueling strategies clash at first, the two are able to pull off a comeback thanks to Aster loosening up and allowing himself to have fun like Jaden, while also lending him one of his cards that end up being a critical part of their victory.

Films — Animated

• Monsters University: The Prequel film centers on the growing friendship between Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan during their college years. The former is the Technician who holds an expert knowledge on scaring despite lacking the physique to be a scarer himself, while the latter is the Performer who has a natural talent for scaring but lacks technique due to his disinterest in studying. When their initial enmity with one another causes them to be kicked out of the scaring program, the two are forced to cooperate as they lead a fraternity of scaring rejects into winning the Scare Games to be let back into the program. With Mike's help, Sulley becomes more dedicated to his studies to be a more versatile scarer. As for Mike, he eventually comes to accept that while he will never be an actual scarer, he does make for an excellent scaring coach.
• Ratatouille: Collette is an experienced Technician chef who follows recipes exactly as instructed, while Rémy's Performer aspect has him cooking and experimenting based on taste and smell. While this puts them at odds with each other at first (with Rémy controlling Linguini to cook in his place), when they prepare Ego's Ratatouille dish together, they prove to be an excellent pair, with Collette being allowed to experiment herself. This partnership continues after they open "La Ratatouille" together at the end of the film.

Films — Live-Action

• Bedknobs and Broomsticks: The song "Eglantine" centers around Emilius Brown proposing such a partnership with Eglantine Price. Eglantine, with her genuine magical powers, would be the technician; and Emilius, with his showmanship and and silver tongue, would be the performer. Eglantine, who needs the rest of Emilius' spells, agrees to discuss the proposal if he helps her obtain them. Ultimately subverted, as while they do team up for the rest of the film, it's not in a way that really showcases the dynamic as Emilius had envisioned.
• The Old Guard: Andy is the performer, banking on her immortality and years of combat with acrobatics and lots of violence, while Nile is the technician who's only just recently gained immortality and was trained more to make combat encounters quick and efficient with headshots. They both are a formidable duo in combat and prove that creativity and efficiency combine well when Andy comes up with the out-of-the-box idea to get Nile to pretend to shoot her to distract Merrick when he's holding a gun to a de-immortalized Andy. They pull it off without Andy saying anything else.
• Sister Act: The Mother Superior of the convent is the Technician, as she is old-fashioned and believes in discipline and order in all things, including the choir and its song choices. Deloris, who's in witness protection as "Sister Mary Clarence," is the Performer—as a Vegas lounge singer, she knows how to wow a crowd and use choreography and staging in addition to rollicking music. Though they initially butt heads, they eventually grow to respect each other; their healed relationship is demonstrated by the concert at the end of the film, which has the nuns sing "I Will Follow Him" in both Mother Superior and Deloris's styles (it begins as a traditional madrigal then transitions to a gospel performance).

Literature

• Apprentice Adept: In one key round of the Tourney (a game in which serfs on the planet Proton can try to win Citizenship), the hero Stile (the Performer) is matched up against another competitor, Clef (the Technician) in a duel of musical performance; Clef wins for technical proficiency but Stile wins for audience engagement. Unusually, they are then assigned by the planetary Computer (the referee) to perform a duet together before a panel of judges. While the panel is being assembled, Stile explains to Clef what Clef's technical brilliance lacked; Clef then promptly picks up Stile's knack of audience engagement during the duet and outplays him. The resulting duet is deemed of such high quality that the loser gains a special extension of tenure, allowing both contestants to stay on Proton if they want. To his own surprise, Stile is declared the winner despite Clef getting the votes of both the audience and the Computer as the better player — because the judges evaluated the performance on cooperative expertise rather than individual ability, and since Clef improved more than Stile did, the judges consider Stile to have contributed more to the overall performance.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: Oliver Horn has no particular talents as a mage (though no significant deficiencies either), and keeps up with others in his age group by being smart and working his butt off with textbook practice, to the point where early in the series his fighting style is sometimes derided as boring. By the end of volume 1, he's practically attached at the hip to his primary Love Interest, Nanao Hibiya, a mage of phenomenal natural talent who does her best work when she isn't even thinking about what she's doing and invents new magic tricks like the Seventh Spellblade simply out of necessity. Between his head for strategy and her natural fighting prowess, the two of them make a terrifyingly effective Battle Couple to the point of becoming minor celebrities in the student body by the time of volume 6.
• Uprooted: The Dragon is a terrible magic teacher to Agnieszka at first because his magic is highly technical and rules-based, whereas hers is intuitive and improvisational. However, when they learn to combine their powers, with his structure supporting her adaptability, they can create magic that's much greater than the sum of its parts.

Live-Action TV

• The initial premise of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman's partnership in Breaking Bad: Mild-mannered chemistry teacher Walt uses his knowledge of chemistry to cook high-quality meth, and his former student Jesse, who has connections to the criminal underworld, plays the role of tough street dealer. Both characters are eventually forced to take on both roles as Jesse learns more about the science of cooking and even teaches others and Walt's exposure to the drug trade and descent into his "Heisenberg" personality turns him more ruthless and frightening than Jesse ever was.
• Columbo: In "Murder by the Book", Ken Franklin and Jim Ferris are equally credited as the authors of the "Mrs. Melville" mystery series, but Ken has been suffering from Writer's Block for years and barely contributes to the books anymore. So instead he handles all the interviews, book signings, and other publicity events (the performer) that Jim (the technician) would rather not deal with. Of course, this partnership breaks down when Jim decides he'd rather go solo and write more "serious" literature and Ken responds by murdering him.
• Community: In "Debate 109", Jeff joins the school debate team and quickly proves to be the "performer", falling back on his charismatic lawyer persona to captivate the audience... but his lack of knowledge on the debate topics falls flat with the judges. Annie, meanwhile, is the "technician" who knows the facts and the rules of competitive debate but fails to make much impact due to her stilted, robotic delivery. To ultimately win, they have to put their strengths together to sell their factually based argument and captivate the listeners.
• MacGyver (2016): Part of the premise for the reboot is that the original intent of the organization that would eventually be the Phoenix Foundation is to team up soldiers (performers) and scientists (technicians) so that the team would be greater than the sum of its parts.
• Mythbusters built this into the show through its hosts Jaime Hyneman and Adam Savage. Jaime was working with a producer on the concept with him already owning a special effects studio and a long history of engineering and prototyping devices. But Jaime is also a fairly reserved individual and felt himself not qualified to be the sole host, so he recommended Adam, a model maker who he worked together on Battlebots and other projects beforehand. Adam is more of a self-described cartoon character much more confident in front of the camera, allowing a Vitriolic Best Buds vibe which complimented the problem solving that went into testing the myths. A handful of myths explicitly take advantage of this by having each design their own version of a device and see the positives and negatives of their strategies.
• Super Pumped: Garrett is the technician, being an actual software engineer who first came up with the idea for Uber, but taking a backseat to T.K. and serving as a rather distant board member. T.K. is the performer, being the public face of the company and, at least initially, its undisputed charismatic leader. When issues come up, Garrett tends to awkwardly defer to and support T.K. When meeting with Larry Page of Google, he highlights the divide when he calls out T.K.'s lack of understanding of how the Uber app actually works. As T.K. breaks laws, crosses multiple lines of morality, and really becomes Uber, his support erodes, but he knows that between his and Garrett's voting shares, he can't be ousted as CEO. Garrett, tired of T.K.'s showmanship and not giving him the credit he's due, sides with the rest of board and ousts T.K.
• WeCrashed: Of the WeWork founders, Miguel is the technician, being an awkward architect who put in most of the original seed money and designed the initial workspaces, but is hopelessly lost actually having to promote or lead the company. Adam is the performer, capable of charming nearly anyone ranging from potential investors, to employees, to the media, but his lack of business sense overextends the company and ultimately leads to its dramatic downfall.

Music

• The friendship of meticulous, introverted Chopin and charismatic showman Liszt (though the former was a brilliant performer on the rare occasions he could be persuaded to give a concert, and the latter possessed strong technical ability which just took a back seat to his flamboyant concert persona).
• Charming Disaster: The song "Grifters", sung as a duet, is about a couple of con artists and the repeated line "With your skills and my good looks, the fish will be begging for the hook" suggests they operate like this trope.
• Pet Shop Boys: "Opportunities" is a technician giving a pitch to a performer:
  "I've got the brains,
  You've got the looks,
  Let's make lots of money."

Professional Wrestling

• Claudio Castagnoli (aka Antonio Cesaro) is one of the greatest technical wrestlers in the sport and tends to be the "technician" whenever he joins a tag team, pairing up with more of a "performer" type like Chris Hero (as The Kings of Wrestling) or Tyson Kidd (as Tyson Kidd and Cesaro) who handles more of the mic-work and whipping up the crowd.
• Edge and Christian fit this early in their careers, with Edge more of the charismatic "performer" (who'd go on to a much more successful singles career after, embracing the less-technical "main event style" popular in the WWE at the time) and Christian being the more technical "worker" in the ring (his catchphrase even being "Out Work Everyone"), famous as one of the best at "putting over" other wrestlers in the ring. As their careers went along, each evolved to include some traits of the other archetype.
• The Hardy Boyz, featuring real-life brothers Matt Hardy (the technically sound "technician") and Jeff Hardy (the good-looking, high-flying "performer"). As they gained experience, Matt grew to excel in more "performer" traits (mic-work, pumping up the crowd), becoming more well-rounded.

Sports

• In the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Spain's top two teams had each gained such a reputation. Real Madrid's Galacticos were the Technicians, being comprised of a number of extremely talented players such as Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas, Raul, and Xabi Alonso, plus superstar Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal. Their archrival Barcelona were the Performers, having pioneered an extremely entertaining passing style called tiki taka and boasting players like Carles Puyol, Andres Iniesta, and Xavi, and world-class superstar Lionel Messi of Argentina. The 2010 Spain squad was comprised mostly of players from these two clubs (minus their superstars), and they were able to put together a run that resulted in Spain winning their first ever World Cup.

Stand-Up Comedy

• Bo Burnham: In the song "Left Brain, Right Brain", Bo gets his neurological functions split between a cold, harsh, logical Left Brain and an emotional, childish, horny Right Brain. The two initially fight over their separate roles, culminating in calling each other out for causing Bo's depression. Just before the experiment ends and the two merge back, Left Brain decides that he and Right Brain should work together and perform comedy as a means of helping Bo, with Left Brain manning the form and analysis and Right Brain managing the themes and feelings.

Tabletop Games

• Magic: The Gathering: Competitive decks tend to follow a Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors breakdown into Aggro, Control, and Combo decks. On one end, Aggro decks are the ultimate "Performer", forgoing any sort of complex strategy in favor of overwhelming opponents with creatures, be they a Zerg Rush of "weenies" or "big stompy" behemoths. On the other end are Control decks, which use complex tactics of countering, removing, and otherwise disrupting whatever their opponent tries to do, while having either no creatures or weaker ones played for their added abilities rather than their raw power. Combo decks combine the two strategies, utilizing the more complex strategies to beef up their individually weaker but more synergistic creatures to more easily defeat Aggro decks, but opening themselves up to their combos being dismantled by Control decks. The metagame is constantly shifting around these primary archetypes.

Video Games

• Dante and Vergil in Devil May Cry 3, where Dante is the performer, preferring to defeat his enemies in a spectacle of gunfire, swordplay, and whatever Devil Arms he can pilfer in the game. On the other hand, Vergil is the technician, being an Iaijutsu Practitioner who uses precise and proper katana strikes, while also having an aversion to firearms, thinking they are worthless. The twin Sparda brothers end up working together to take down Arkham, who is denying the brothers their ultimate match. Arkham by himself managed to give Dante a run for his money, but with Vergil's help, the two manage to overcome him. The two are even able to effortlessly trade swords and use their individual styles, before finishing him off with a combined "Jackpot" attack using Dante's guns.
• Pokémon: Zig-zagged by the duo of Red and Blue when they team up for multi-battles in Generation VII's (Pokémon Sun and Moon, Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon) "Battle Tree", whose personalities do not match the style of their teams. Red is The Stoic (normally a Technician trait) who fields a team of Signature Mon hard-hitters but which lack synergy (more of a Performer trait). Blue is an arrogant, loudmouth jerk (though he got kinder since his introductory games), typically more Performer traits, but fields a far more technically sound, balanced, synergistic team with moves to cover their weaknesses and even strategic moves like Trick Room (which allows slower Pokémon to move first and greatly benefits his team). Combined, they make for an incredibly challenging multi-battle duo.
• Project X Zone 2 pairs twin brothers Dante and Vergil from the Devil May Cry series together, where in their home games, they are the performer and technician respectively. As one of the game's Pair Units, they work together with one another to overcome a multiversal crossover threat, using various attacks that complement each other's fighting styles.
• Red Dead Redemption II: The leaders of the van der Linde gang, Dutch and Hosea, take on "performer" and "technician" roles, respectively. Dutch is a Byronic Hero, being intelligent relative to the setting, highly charismatic, extremely passionate about the gang, and has an intense drive and determination to live out his philosophy. He can rally the gang with a great Rousing Speech at the drop of a hat and blend in with the upper echelons of society to scope them out for robbery... But he's by far the least active gang member when it comes to actually committing crimes and his planning skills tend to amount to an Indy Ploy at best. Hosea is a cranky but Cool Old Guy, with plenty of cunning and experience as an outlaw during the golden years of the Old West, making him the gang's expert planner and Dutch's voice of reason. When he is killed, it signals the beginning of the end for the gang, as things only get worse under Dutch's solo leadership and Sanity Slippage.
• Yuri and Flynn in Tales of Vesperia. There's even a skit where Flynn complains about Yuri's tendency to add flashy flourishes and corrupt established techniques, nonetheless the two always fight perfectly in sync in cutscenes and have unique combination attacks, which the rest of the cast lacks.

Visual Novels

• Slay the Princess: The Voices of the Hunted and Stubborn pull off one of these in Chapter III: Eye of the Needle. The Hunted, with his superior survival instincts, agility and strategic nature, is the Technician, while the Stubborn, being incredibly strong and driven only by his potentially death-defying desire for a good fight, is the Performer. Individually, they struggle against their respective versions of the Princess, as the Hunted's lack of initiative leads to the player usually only being able to escape from the Beast, while the Stubborn's lack of self-preservation means the player can at best score repeated Mutual Kills with the Adversary. But in this chapter, where they are made to work together, their combined skillsets allow them to overcome their respective weaknesses and successfully kill the Eye of the Needle, who is even stronger than both of the above.

Webcomics

• Widdershins: Mal and Thackerey defeat Wrath by joining Mal's intuitive affinity for spirits as a nascent Witch with Thackerey's academic knowledge of magic theory in a Banishing Ritual.
  Thackerey: No time to teach you the words, I'll do those. Try to... move the energy.

Western Animation

• Inside Job:
  • This ends up forming the dynamic of partnership between the Cognito company leader Reagan Ridley and her co-leader Brett Hand. Reagan is a genius scientist and quite often the most sensible person in the room, however, she is anti-social, insecure, inflexible, and thus struggles to get people to listen to her. Brett meanwhile only possesses average intelligence and has no background within the Deep State, however, he's a charismatic, earnest, likable, and adaptable, thus he has no issues getting people to listen and believe in him. After a rocky start, the two quickly discover that they work very well together, and their blossoming friendship also provides each other with the mutual support and respect that helps them work through their individual issues, leading them both to grow into healthier individuals.
  • This was the relationship between Rand Ridley (Reagan's father) and J.R. Scheimpough when they founded Cognito. Rand is a genius on par with his daughter, as well as a cunning and ruthless master manipulator, however, he's also narcissistic, egotistic, immoral, hedonist, and quite lazy (leading to him not thinking things through and taking shortcuts whenever possible). J.R. meanwhile is a self-serving, but slick and charismatic political animal, who was able to keep Rand focused and in check, and cover for his more abrasive personality. Thus together they made Cognito one of the six factions that secretly rule the world for the Council Shadow Board. However, as their relationship was founded on mutual gain rather than any real bonds it ended up falling apart, with Rand's increasing alcoholism and J.R.'s greed leading to them turning on each other. Thus at the start of the series, Rand is kicked out of the Company with J.R. as sole leader, but due to him now lacking Rand's expertise and only caring about personal profit and power, it's clear the company would have collapsed if not for the expertise and talents of the Department heads, most of all Reagan.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "The Last Laugh", Pinkie learns that Cheese Sandwich started a gag factory with Sans Smirk. The factory is having problems specifically because this process made Cheese lose his ability to smile and laugh, as he's a creative that needs to be out performing in order to fulfill his purpose. As for Sans, he's very intelligent and passionate about creating gags but from a technical standpoint, making him more suited for the factory work. Ultimately, the two establish a new style of partnership where Sans runs the factory and Cheese is out performing and submitting gag ideas when he has them.
• The Venture Bros.: This is the nature of the partnership and relationship between The Monarch and Dr. Mrs. the Monarch (formerly Dr. Girlfiend). The Monarch is the ultimate performer when it comes to costumed villainy, being utterly passionate in his hatred of Arch-Enemy Dr. Venture with a genuinely menacing Evil Laugh and penchant for dramatic villainous speeches. However, he is also utterly inept on his own, falling into all of the classic Contractual Genre Blindness trappings. Dr. Mrs. the Monarch is a highly intelligent engineer (technician) who failed as a solo villain in part due to a lack of passion and knows the rulebook of the Guild of Calamitous Intent inside and out. She makes the Monarch far more competent and deadly. For a time, after he was a little too passionate, she left him and returned to her ex, Phantom Limb, a Man of Wealth and Taste-styled supervillain whose primary form of "villainy" is dealing in stolen art. She's reminded of why she left him, with Limb lacking the Monarch's passion and treating her as arm candy, not allowing her to actually use her skills and knowledge. By the end of the series, she is on the Guild's Council of 13 and he has reached "Level 10 Villain" status.

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