A Good Audience

Last week, we were out with another couple and swapping stories as is likely to happen especially with new friends. One of the stories was about cast parties.  Garbanzo and the male half of the couple were both theater geeks, and they were comparing experiences at cast parties, which from the sounds of it were quite the interesting affairs.


They were talking about how much more fun these parties were in comparison to the regular parties which were all about drinking and getting laid.  Sure, these parties had those undertones, but you throw a bunch of outgoing performers in a room, the drinking games, from what I could tell, become more creative.


One they were talking about was where you had to make someone in the room laugh.  I had made the comment I would be the target of these people all night because anyone can make me laugh.


The male half of the couple’s response: “Ahh….you’re a good audience.”


It’s funny how something can so succinctly describe me like those few words.  I have a long history of being a good audience.  This history goes back to when I was 9 and when I was the “good girl” who was placed at the table group with the two class clowns.  The hope, by the teacher, was that I would bring calm to their antics.  Instead, I gave them a good audience.  I got into a lot of trouble those two months….for laughing, mainly.  


Or the time when I got thrown out of PE when I was 12.  The teacher had just said “the next person who is screwing around is out of here!”…..just as someone made a face at me, thus making me laugh.  Out of class I was thrown.  That was the day I learned from the guy who had been thrown out earlier that the PE teacher kept Playboys hidden in one of the drawers of his office.  Three of the guys in the class had discovered it, so were taking turns getting thrown out of class.  If you were tossed from class, you got to sit in his office unsupervised.  


And the countless times I tried hard not to laugh.  My chemistry teacher in high school used to get mad at me for laughing at inappropriate times….but then again, I wasn’t alone in it, and he didn’t have a sense of humor.


PE usually resulted in me running extra laps for getting into trouble for laughing.  That never bothered me too much until the year my cross country coach was my PE teacher.  His running punishment usually was seen as an opportunity to give me an extra workout….nothing like running for an hour during class which didn’t really bother me….until he started setting lap expectations during that time.  


And I won’t even go into my family’s entertainment at large family meals.  We’ll just call it “Let’s see if we can make Emmy laugh while she’s drinking something.”  To this day, I do not have anything to drink during a family meal.  Between my youngest brother and my dad….it is never good.


I have a long, LONG history of being a good audience.


This was put to the test, once again, when Mr Chatty, my cohort, showed up in my cubicle.  Garbanzo had just IM’d me about something when I told him “1 sec…Mr Chatty is here”….big mistake.


Mr Chatty cannot see what is on my screen unless I turn it.  But, I could see what was on my screen.  I should have minimized the window in hindsight…..


Up on my screen comes…


Maybe you could stab him with a fork?”


I was happy that Mr Chatty said something where a chuckle was appropriate so I could cover my response to Garbanzo’s comment.


“Or burst in to tears and run from the room?”


My eyes started to read that line, but stopped when I almost burst into laughter.


I was glad I didn’t see this last comment until after Mr Chatty left. I would not have been able to hold it together…


“Or suddenly stop understanding English?”


I would have lost it….like I did an hour earlier when in a long meeting I got a note that distracted me and almost made me laugh hysterically.  A coworker’s response to an issue was very clever.  I was proud that I had held it together….until I realized I had missed what was being talked about as the VP of Engineering asked me a question.  I covered my distraction with him, but not the Director of Electrical Engineering who found it hilarious.  


Just call me “a good audience”….

One Comment Add yours

  1. It sounds like you are a lot of fun to hang out with.

    And cast parties do rock!

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.