to loathe shows that involve audience participation.

[swallowmehole]

When I watch a show, I want to do that - Watch it.
They are the performers. I'm in the audience.
I don't want to be in the goddamn show.

AIBU in wishing they would leave the audience alone, or at least only pick on the ones in the two front rows (who are fair game)
It seems that most shows now involve some degree of audience participation.

When did this become a thing?

YANBU at all

I hate this and will not go and watch shows where people get picked out of the audience

YANBU at all

stuckinthemiddle, it's not so easy to pick shows where there isn't any audience participation.
It's become very popular and most shows involve it audience in some way.
I think I will stick to films.

I'm not normally a shy person but I find I can't relax at all when there is a slight possibility I might get picked on.
It ruins the whole evening for me.

We are not alone.
Who are these people that enjoy it? [puzzled]

www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/10607443/Audience-participation-is-a-new-circle-of-hell.html

They make me cringe.

YANBU, I hate it.

I also hate performing in them, it's really difficult. There's always that audience that doesn't respond the way the script says they should (or doesn't respond at all!) and it's so unpredicatable. All the improvising wears me out.

I was in panto this week and fell asleep on stage (during a front of tabs scene while I was still on behind the curtain, not while I was actually performing!)

It's also just so loud. On our matinee performance I felt like I couldn't really act at all because I had to shout so loudly to be heard over all the children.

Nightmare. But we have to do it because pantos are what makes the money. Which leads me to believe that lots of people like them!

My DD is the opposite. She has volunteered to be on stage with Miranda and was v funny.

I would prefer to leg it out the back door.

I hate it! I would not pay to watch the average idiot on stage so why would people devising these shows think it is a good idea?

Similarly, why do the news think I want to see people in the street giving their opinion on news items? I don't! They could be idiots! Just get me an expert and save me from having to rant at the tv

YANBU. It's simple as far as I'm concerned- I have paid hard earned money for you to entertain me. My role is not to be part of the show. It isn't going to go away though so I think they should have seating areas where you're guaranteed not to get picked on.

YANBU i hate it too. I think it spoils the show.

I dont mind a bit of 'he's behind you' at panto but thats about all the involvement that i want. Even at gigs the performers seem to be doing the whole 'who can scream or sing the loudest' more often now. Just sing the songs and let me dance.

My poor Dh hates this and was practically forced on stage in Las Vegas. I of course had tears rolling down my face watching him

YANBU - gives me the horrors. I still break out in a hot sweat the memory of my poor male friend narrowly escaping being forced on stage during a League of Gentleman show. He was clutching me and had a look of pure fear. He was right to be afraid, the hapless man they picked had to do some awful cringey thing with a sausage.

Yanbu.

I was at a show this weekend and ended up in the first couple of rows.

My heart raced every time this entertainer came towards my general direction. Thankfully, I wasn't chosen to participate.

I agree with the 'dragging some poor idiot up on stage and embarrassing him' thing being cringe-inducing, but some immersive stuff by companies like Punchdrunk is spell-binding. Not trad audience participation, but you are walking through a building, moving freely, with the play happening all round you, usually masked so you are less conscious of other audience members as such. When you reconvene with whoever you came with later on - you're encouraged to split up - you find you saw entirely different things.

When I saw Punchdrunk's Masque of the Red Death with DH, I was hauled off and had my face washed in a secret room by an elderly woman afraid of plague, and DH ended up alone at an organ recital given by a scary masked figure in a room I never got to. We both, at different points, ended up inside a wardrobe looking out through a hidden window at two people in bed together. It was one of the most astonishing evenings of theatre I've ever had.

I don't think it's a new thing. I remember my grandfather telling me about going to see Frankie Howerd live. My grandfather was sitting in the second row and he spent the whole show sweating and sliding down in his seat in the hope that Frankie didn't pick him to become his stooge, which thankfully for my grandad he didn't.

Urm you are in a panto and hate the noise its a panto not national theatre

That was for panto poster. I am never picked on for participaion i have a piss off and leave me alone face.

Panto has just the right amount of audience participation. It doesn't involve embarrassing individuals. It's more of a group thing. A case of ''those on the left sing this''
''those on the right sing that''

I can handle that

There are so many people who hate audience participation.

We should stick together. In future if we get picked on, we should stand our ground and refuse to take part.
No matter how much they try to embarrass us, stand strong and refuse to budge.
If enough people did it, it would end up wrecking their stupid cheapskate shows.
They would soon learn to only pick on people who are happy to be involved and stop harassing the rest of us.

The majority of theater goers want to be left in peace and be able to relax and enjoy the show.

Eek. While I get that the experience of immersive theatre (Punchdrunk) was fantastic for you, the mere description of it turns my bowels to water.

I once turned up late (as a group of young women) to a comedy club performance. They kept the table right at the front for us (it must get allotted to latecomers so you can be used as bait) and the comedian focused on us both singly and as a group for a fair few minutes after.

Thanks for the reminder, I need to book tickets for the Panto for Dd's birthday.
We love it.

You need to all practise your piss off faces it involves a death stare and swallowed a wasp mouth it never fails

CastaDiva I saw that production too - was wonderful. The Drowned Man was also great, but Masque was special to me because I had no idea what to expect.

ovenchips it's not scary at all because you're masked, and not generally expected to participate - only watch. You don't have to talk, the performers act as if you are not there. It's wonderful and so, so detailed.

The Punch Drunk theatre sounds amazing. But it looks like they are only in New York for the forseeable future - their website is not very forthcoming about what is coming up in the UK.