When you go to an event with a performer you love what is your first reaction? Odds are you will scream and clap as loud as you can in the hopes that your star will see and recognize you.

Well that’s not what I do. I actually find this extremely annoying. There is nothing I hate more than missing a punch line because the girl in front of me has to scream “Gay people rock!” At any performance, I sit down, and I clap a little when the performer comes on. Whenever they tell a joke I think is funny, I laugh. This is what I think is “polite” audience behavior. This way everyone can hear what is being said.

Now I am all for people getting loose and having a good time. I was fine with the people smoking and drinking as I stood in line for 5 hours to see Conan O’Brien yesterday. The line is crossed when this enjoyment ruins my enjoyment by disabling my hearing what is being said during the show.

My most recent experience with this happened Thursday, May third at the Orpheum theatre. A friend wanted me to go to see Conan O’Brien with her. I don’t ever watch his show, but I went anyway.

When I got there people were pumped, and hooted and hollered when Conan walked into the theatre. This is fine, but it crossed my enjoyment when it took five minutes for him to start because the audience wouldn’t shut up. Those of you who watched it on TV got to miss out on most of those kinds of things, but I was stuck with it.

There was something else in the show that was said by Patton Oswalt about your audience loving you to death. This happens when the audience ruins the enjoyment of the show through their exuberance, so that no one can hear what is being said.

This extremely annoying behavior throughout the taping seriously caused me to wonder: What makes these people clap, hoot, and holler all the time?

If I were to ask anyone who went there why they clap so much they would give the same reason I heard many times throughout the day. “He’s Conan O’Brien”. I think that is certainly part of it, but I believe that there is still a remnant of the herd instinct in humans.

Yet again my experience in the lines to get into the taping proved this. Whenever someone cheered, it started up the other people. Pretty soon everyone was cheering the name Lisa, and she was the person handing out tickets.

You yourselves can even observe this in everyday life. If one person starts clapping it begins a domino effect that can quickly reach a critical mass of everyone in the room, but who is deciding to start the clapping? I don’t know it’s definitely not me.