Stomping and Clapping

A drama teacher in high school once told me that people like to applaud.

That's why at the end of a play, the actors are brought out in small groups for their final bows. It gives the audience the chance to applaud their little hearts out.

I guess I'm not like everyone else. I don't like to applaud.

At the ballet last night, after they brought out the third group of dancers, I stopped clapping.

As people were still clapping for the seventh set of dancers, my sister looked at me, as if to say: "When the hell is this going to end?"

It looked like soon. So I stood up to put on my jacket. Bad idea. Then everyone else around me stood up, still clapping. I accidentally started a standing ovation, but I guess it was deserved.

Finally, all the dancers were on stage for their final bow. The curtain started to close. People stopped clapping. But then the curtain got stuck. There was this second of awkward silence, as people realized what happened. The dancers were still stuck on stage.

What did people do? They started clapping again.

The dancers took one more bow. And then finally, a clever person up in the lighting booth killed the stage lights and the dancers scuffled off.