Everybody Up

What’s with standing ovations?

Genuine, deeply felt and given applause is no longer enough. Now there are Standing O’s before anything happens, no performance necessary. Just walking out justifies one. A standing ovation has become the starting point, the most routine, and frequently if it is not also accompanied by stamping and squealing then you can just feel the disappointment on stage. A gloomy sense of failure descends. You must stand up again at the conclusion, and sometimes during breaks or intermissions, and if you don’t you run the risk of being badly mauled by the rest of the folks there, an outcast drowning in a sea of standing, stomping, screaming sycophants.

I am talking about people like Martha Stewart and Oprah and Dr. Phil. It’s built into their shows. I am thinking about two unknown guitarists (for good reason) I heard the other night in concert. So many others. You’ve been there when it’s occurred. I know you have. The Big O before, during, and after. And in the case of the TV people they will be receiving them every single day, and in reruns forever. After they are dead.

Whatever happened to earning something before you get it? It used to be a performance that caused the audience to rise to their feet in appreciation was rare and unusual indeed. You had to feel the artist had done something great before you stood up, and even then not everyone would. If you were there when a standing ovation was justified you considered yourself to have been extremely fortunate, a witness to a rare and extraordinary event. And you told everyone about it for days, probably years.

But now expectations are virtually nonexistent; standards of quality have never been lower; nearly everything has been cheapened. What was low is considered high, and what was medium is off the charts. The implications are widespread.

Once I asked someone next to me, a person who had jumped up four times to applaud, and who remained on her feet long after the stage was clear, whether she loved the show. ”It was OK. Pretty good,” she said.

So, people come on. Let’s hear it. Hey over there--- you, yes you--- on your feet for the ordinary.