How important is applause?

[Bob Carr]

How important is it really, to make your audience applaud anyways? In different places I naturally get different amounts of applause. For example, In Swissland the people don't clap much and it feels like I am banging my head against the wall trying to make them. They pay good whether I make them clap or not, so what's your thoughts?

How important is it to make your audience applaud?

Bob.

[jeep caillouet]

applause

Bob ,I never get much applause in my shows, but I do get a lot of laughter, YEHAAAAAS, and yays. I also get a lot of smiles.I really never thought about the applause. Hummm.

[Chris Griffith]

psychology

I think applause & laughter both are very important, psychologically, for your crowd, for a number of reasons:

1. DOing something together like clapping, laughing, etc. bonds individuals together to create a group mentality - an audience. This makes it more enticing to stay and be a part of the group, rather than continue on and get their hot dogs down the way.

2. Any group making noise together will attract other passers-by to pause and think -- "What's going on over there?" and they will be more likely to stop and take a look. The more noise the crowd makes, the bigger it will grow.

3. I also believe that the more times during a show the audience responds as a group (through laughter or applause) the more invested they become in the show and the more they will put in the hat.

[scot]

I used to not want people to give me anything (applause, money, accolades, etc.). I wanted the shows to be my unconditional gift to them. Then, I realized that the more they give, the more valuable the whole thing is to them.

[Frisbee]

Different cultures applaud and laugh for different reasons and at different points in a performance.

In America and Canada and China I have found that people will applaud and laugh throughout a performance, while in other countries the applause will come at the conclusion of performance, but not during it. They will still laugh at key points, but the applause is saved until the end.

In some countries, I have found that people clap or laugh at things that in the states they do not find funny and vice-versa.

I think the main thing to try to achieve is a connection with your audience, whether they laugh or clap during your performance or not, it is about if there is that bond between us.

how it is expressed I feel is not so important.

but I do like that wild applause and standing ovation at the end...

[jeep caillouet]

laughter

sorry Frisbee, If I tell a funny joke or do some funny routine I want MY audience to laugh.You know that laughter is the same language in every single part of this earth. I did a show the other day where a lady that did not speak a word of English laughed like crazy at a silly routine that I did.I felt that I had passed a mile stone in my entertainment history.I've always wanted to be able to go to another country that did not speak English and be able to make a living for myself through my entertainment value.That would be the ultimate for me. I know that there are some of you that do this already and my hat is off to all of you.

[Frisbee]

<<They will still laugh at key points, but the applause is saved until the end>>

I agree with the laughter needed throughout, I was reffering to applause which is what I thought we were talking about. Applause will sometimes come during the routines or sometimes only at the end.

it is like a great piece of music, do you clap in the middle of it because you appreciated the crecendo or the transitions or do you properly wait until it is over.

There was even a sniglet for this many years ago...it is called a BachSlapper

Bachslapper (bawk' slap' ur) n. Anyone who applauds the wrong part of a classical concert.

and remember what is funny to you and your audiences at your home pitch, may not be funny in another part of the world.

a pants drop though is indeed universally funny.

[jeep caillouet]

If one listens to Bluegrass or dixieland and I'm sure other styles of music after there is a solo finished and it's hot' . a good number of people will applause.