applause, applause, applause
This is how my brain works. I did not edit this piece. This is what my writing process looks like in it's rawest form. I let it all out and then I go an organize it into a post. This particular post took half an hour to complete and it's not "checked" in any way. Generally it takes anywhere from twenty minutes to four hours to complete one post depending on the topic. From this raw stock comes a well formed post. For all of you who asked for it, here it is.......
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It's the dying seconds of a little league baseball game between little kids in purple and little kids in green. Behind the dugout of the purple children, the mother's are all going nuts. Behind the green team's dugout, the mothers are all yelling out words of encouragement, when they can fight back the tears long enough to do so.
The kids on the field look as oblivious to the game as they are to their future with high school algebra. They simple don't know and don't care what any of this means. They are just enjoying the game, the uniform and the weird dried out booger that they put on their jersey at the beginning of the game. Life is good for a little leaguer.
The ump blows his whistle and the game is over. All of the adults who are in various states of appreciation, simultaneously stop what they are doing, and begin to clap.
----
It's an unspoken truth that Western cultures clap after a job well done. It would seem that an audience needs to communicate their appreciation for the performance and the performer, and they do so by slamming their hands together for an indeterminate length of time and completely out of sync with everyone else clapping. This creates a wall of sound that the performer, or performers can hear clearly. The depth of their appreciation is shown at the length of time they clap and how loud they can make it.
As a performer myself, I have enjoyed many a round of applause sent in my direction, but I have also witnessed "empty clapping". Applause that is dead inside and carries no real meaning. The audience barely gets their hands together and it only lasts for a second or two, which really makes the statement. There is no feeling in the world like walking off a stage to silence.
Applause is something that needs more thought before it's dolled out. Is it fair to clap for everything all the time? Doesn't that strip away any value that the clap every had?
When a sitcom star walks into a scene for the first time in the episode, everyone claps. There are signs in the studio telling the audience to clap, so that's cheating, but the viewing audience sees this and understands that this person is important. The performer is special. They haven't done anything in this episode yet, but they have done solid work in prior episodes. So is this clapping meant for that work? Or is it being used as a psychological tool to train the audience? If you hear lots of clapping, then many people must love this show, right?
The green team lost to the purple team by 10 points and a "mercy rule" was put into effect to save them from further humilation. After the game, the purple team gave the green team a round of applause for a "game well played". Really? Shouldn't the green team be clapping for the purple team for a game well played? After all, they are the ones that did all the creaming.
Standing around the destruction site this past weekend, those of watching the Kubota dragon delicately dance around the site, clapped when it did something amazing. The dragon is loud when it's on so there is no way that the man in the brain could have heard us, but he saw our hands slamming together. You could see him swell up inside from the clapping.
We don't clap after great sex. Nor do we clap at chefs, waiters, cab drivers, land scapers, septic tank pumpers, mailmen, bank tellers, road construction workers or car washers. The only time these people get applause is if it's set up in advance. We call it, "APPRECIATION DAY" for our favorite this or that. Someone has to give a speech, then introduce them and then we clap. These appeciation days are generally held within the given community that the worker works in, so the rest of the world never gets to show their appreciation. This puts an huge burden on the clappers who now not only have to clap for themselves, but for the rest of the people that can't come. A one clapper for every 1000 that didn't make it out, ratio. And two people clapping sounds a lot less amazing than 2000. Actually two people clapping is so bad it actually has the opposite effect. Its sound is demoralizing and strips all self respect from the applausee's heart.
We also clap as a weapon. There are times when clapping really, really slowly with a smirk on our face can destroy someone's soul and crush their pride.
If you clap at the wrong time, you are looked at as showing your appreciation prematurely and that's wrong. There is a time and place to show your appreciation and how dare you try to set your own rules or show your appreciation your own way.
And what other ways are appropriate? Why not one big, simulataneous clap? (everyone... On three... One... Two... Three... CLAP!) It works for me.
We spend so much time clapping that for most of us, it's lost it's value. For example, does anyone really want to clap after a guest speaker has given a speech at your work? Especially if the speech was dull and lifeless. Do we really want to clap for vanquished athletes like the green team? Didn't their lack of performance bring about their loss? So why show them any appreciation? What about the applause that just appears when famous people appear? Is that necessary? Jan Micheal Vincent hasn't worked in twenty years and back then he only worked every now and then. Does he deserve applause everytime he comes out of a restaurant in Denver?
Clapping - Where does it come from? Who decided the rules here? Why does an opera singer get twenty minutes of it and a surgeon get none? Do we abuse the applause that we have been given? Have we done it so much and come to expect it at certain times that it really doesnt' carry any meaning anymore?
I ask you to think about your personal applause and give more thought to when you show it. If we are required to censor ourselves from expressing our DISPLEASURE with someone, then I think we could monitor our expressions of APPRECIATION. That way, when someone does something that is truly applause worthy, they will understand that it means something for you to give it to them.
I hear it every time I go on stage and I can't tell you the last time I believed that it was real and not just a courteous gesture.
Thank you....
APPLAUSE! APPLAUSE!
-------------
It's the dying seconds of a little league baseball game between little kids in purple and little kids in green. Behind the dugout of the purple children, the mother's are all going nuts. Behind the green team's dugout, the mothers are all yelling out words of encouragement, when they can fight back the tears long enough to do so.
The kids on the field look as oblivious to the game as they are to their future with high school algebra. They simple don't know and don't care what any of this means. They are just enjoying the game, the uniform and the weird dried out booger that they put on their jersey at the beginning of the game. Life is good for a little leaguer.
The ump blows his whistle and the game is over. All of the adults who are in various states of appreciation, simultaneously stop what they are doing, and begin to clap.
----
It's an unspoken truth that Western cultures clap after a job well done. It would seem that an audience needs to communicate their appreciation for the performance and the performer, and they do so by slamming their hands together for an indeterminate length of time and completely out of sync with everyone else clapping. This creates a wall of sound that the performer, or performers can hear clearly. The depth of their appreciation is shown at the length of time they clap and how loud they can make it.
As a performer myself, I have enjoyed many a round of applause sent in my direction, but I have also witnessed "empty clapping". Applause that is dead inside and carries no real meaning. The audience barely gets their hands together and it only lasts for a second or two, which really makes the statement. There is no feeling in the world like walking off a stage to silence.
Applause is something that needs more thought before it's dolled out. Is it fair to clap for everything all the time? Doesn't that strip away any value that the clap every had?
When a sitcom star walks into a scene for the first time in the episode, everyone claps. There are signs in the studio telling the audience to clap, so that's cheating, but the viewing audience sees this and understands that this person is important. The performer is special. They haven't done anything in this episode yet, but they have done solid work in prior episodes. So is this clapping meant for that work? Or is it being used as a psychological tool to train the audience? If you hear lots of clapping, then many people must love this show, right?
The green team lost to the purple team by 10 points and a "mercy rule" was put into effect to save them from further humilation. After the game, the purple team gave the green team a round of applause for a "game well played". Really? Shouldn't the green team be clapping for the purple team for a game well played? After all, they are the ones that did all the creaming.
Standing around the destruction site this past weekend, those of watching the Kubota dragon delicately dance around the site, clapped when it did something amazing. The dragon is loud when it's on so there is no way that the man in the brain could have heard us, but he saw our hands slamming together. You could see him swell up inside from the clapping.
We don't clap after great sex. Nor do we clap at chefs, waiters, cab drivers, land scapers, septic tank pumpers, mailmen, bank tellers, road construction workers or car washers. The only time these people get applause is if it's set up in advance. We call it, "APPRECIATION DAY" for our favorite this or that. Someone has to give a speech, then introduce them and then we clap. These appeciation days are generally held within the given community that the worker works in, so the rest of the world never gets to show their appreciation. This puts an huge burden on the clappers who now not only have to clap for themselves, but for the rest of the people that can't come. A one clapper for every 1000 that didn't make it out, ratio. And two people clapping sounds a lot less amazing than 2000. Actually two people clapping is so bad it actually has the opposite effect. Its sound is demoralizing and strips all self respect from the applausee's heart.
We also clap as a weapon. There are times when clapping really, really slowly with a smirk on our face can destroy someone's soul and crush their pride.
If you clap at the wrong time, you are looked at as showing your appreciation prematurely and that's wrong. There is a time and place to show your appreciation and how dare you try to set your own rules or show your appreciation your own way.
And what other ways are appropriate? Why not one big, simulataneous clap? (everyone... On three... One... Two... Three... CLAP!) It works for me.
We spend so much time clapping that for most of us, it's lost it's value. For example, does anyone really want to clap after a guest speaker has given a speech at your work? Especially if the speech was dull and lifeless. Do we really want to clap for vanquished athletes like the green team? Didn't their lack of performance bring about their loss? So why show them any appreciation? What about the applause that just appears when famous people appear? Is that necessary? Jan Micheal Vincent hasn't worked in twenty years and back then he only worked every now and then. Does he deserve applause everytime he comes out of a restaurant in Denver?
Clapping - Where does it come from? Who decided the rules here? Why does an opera singer get twenty minutes of it and a surgeon get none? Do we abuse the applause that we have been given? Have we done it so much and come to expect it at certain times that it really doesnt' carry any meaning anymore?
I ask you to think about your personal applause and give more thought to when you show it. If we are required to censor ourselves from expressing our DISPLEASURE with someone, then I think we could monitor our expressions of APPRECIATION. That way, when someone does something that is truly applause worthy, they will understand that it means something for you to give it to them.
I hear it every time I go on stage and I can't tell you the last time I believed that it was real and not just a courteous gesture.
Thank you....
APPLAUSE! APPLAUSE!
posted by Daniel Loomis | 9:42 AM
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