Random clapper

Saturday night I sat behind the random clap starter. A great American hero Budweiser? Maybe not, but it was a unique experience. "Random clap starter?" you ask. It's the person who deems the point made by a speaker during a talk inspirational and/important and thus begins to clap and the rest of the group follows suit. In a crowd of 3000 people I sat behind that guy. During the talk on stage, the guy in front of me four times started the random clap. After the first time, his son, probably 20 years old looks over at him with awe and says, "Dad, you began the random clap." The guy didn't respond because he was too engrossed in the speaker's content. The wave of clapping was begun by a middle aged guy sitting near the back of thousands of people, right in front of me. Did I respond to his initiation? Yes, claps are like yawns, they are infectious.

The random clap that I'm waiting to experience is the one we see in movies, mostly in high school movies where the "nerd" turns hero. At that moment, always near the end of the movie, the cool kids who had previously been the arch nemesises (what is the plural of nemesis anyway), stand near the "nerd" after his/her moment of triumph. He/she has finally gained their respect and usually one guy starts clapping slowly and forcefully: clap..........clap.........clap........and then others begin to join in....clap...clap..clap...and the speeds picks up into a wave of clapping....clap, clap, clap, clap...I've never seen this in real life, but I've always wanted to be the one who starts the slow, forceful random clap.

Here's to you Mr Random Clap Starter...

Thanks for reading...