Audience participation can be a gruesome thing, often as painful to watch as to take part in. Nevertheless, clowns, cabaret artists, and stand-up comedians have been picking on people in the stalls for eons, safe in the knowledge that -- no matter how feeble the attempt to connect with the crowd ("Is anybody here from Boise?") -- it'll be sure to generate some laughs. That's not to condemn all audience-involving shtick. Dame Edna Everage (aka Australian comedian Barry Humphries), for instance, is so adept at working the room that her... More >>>