Audience Participation

I remember the very first time I went to a play. I was 12-13 years old and I went with some friends to watch Oedipus the King.
We had won free tickets for the very front road, if we stood up we could literally touch the stage. So I was just sitting there, waiting for the play to start when I suddenly realized that the probabilities of being part of the play were increasing, as the roads at the auditorium were almost empty.
I was panicking about it because of course I didn't want to be a part of it whatsoever and I was thinking about posible ways to get out of it when the lights turned off and the play started. When the lights turned off, I felt like my heart stopped, I was sweating and shaking.
It might sound like a joke, but that actually happened that day, and I didn't even enjoy the fucking play! (Ok, we won the tickets but sTILL).
Even though nobody was called to participate in the play, I couldn't get that thought out of my head, and it's been haunting me ever since. Anytime I go to watch an staged show I can't help to think I'm going to be called to go on stage at some point, even if it's a concert, a musical play or a crappy high school play just for students and parents.
I've been thinking about that quite a lot recently and I still can't find a racional answer to this condition. I'm not afraid of embarrass myself in front of a bunch of people (I've done that before), which is possibly the thing you were thinking of. But let me tell you this: I'm 100% sure that this is not the reason I'm stupidly afraid of being called to participate.
And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has this feeling. It could either be a magician, a clown at your little sibling's birthday party or whatever, but I know that I'm not the only one who is afraid of them. Not because clowns are sometimes scary, or magicians make you believe that they made some kind of arrangement with Satan or Dumbledore, it's because I know for sure that at some point they are going to ask someone to participate in the act.
This actually happens to me a lot, and it's kind of ironic that they always call me for that. They see me sweating, shaking uncontrolably and avoiding eye contact, and still they call me up! Don't they know anything about body language? I'm not shaking of excitement, fellas. And I don't know why they always call the most shaky/unconfident/anxious kid on stage. Do they need someone to fuck up the act? What is it? WHAT ARE THEIR REASONS?
However, I think I'm a little bit more able to deal with that now than when I was younger. It sometimes makes me feel bad, because they respect more my -17 years old girl- decision of not going on stage than a little kid's one. Specially their parents, do they feel like their kids are gonna win something? An Oscar? A Grammy? Get the EGOT while they're at it? No. That's not gonna happen, don't make your kid participate in something that he's not feeling comfortable with. (That is a lesson my mom learned when I was six years old and I punched a clown at my best friend's party).

These are basically my thoughts on Audience Participation. What do you guys think? Let me know.
Thank you for reading, see you next time! ☺

-A