I was hired to do a fairly large after-dinner show for about 300 people at the Shell Oil Company. The boss at Shell wanted me to be a surprise so he requested I eat dinner separately in my Green Room which was fine. Toward the end of dinner he popped his head in and said, “We’ll be ready for you soon” to which I replied, “Great, give me about 10 minutes  please” because there are always a few things I need to load into my pockets just before I begin my show.
I actually was ready in just 5 minutes and headed out into the main hall, and to my shock it was DEAD QUIET in the room.  Not a single person was speaking or making any noise whatsoever.  It was surreal.
I kept walking toward the stage wondering what the heck was going on as 300 people stared at me in complete silence. Then a random guy at a front table shouted, “THERE he is!” and everyone laughed. Somewhere in my short journey to the stage I realized that the boss who had left my green room 5 minutes earlier had gone out immediately and introduced me.
Meaning they had all been waiting in silence for 5 minutes.
As I hit center stage I turned on my microphone and said to the boss, “Bill, you already introduced me, didn’t you?”
Bill:  “Yup.”
Me:  “Did they clap?”
Bill:  “Yup.”
Me:  “Do you think they’d do it again?”
Bill:  “Yup.”
I threw my arms out, the audience started clapping, and I was on with the show.