One of my very best audiences was a pub (coffeehouse?)in the UW district of Seattle back in about 1984 or 1985, at an open mic for songwriters. I did a song called "Lessons From The Garden" (satire on politics and other aspects of human activity), and "Cheesecake and Apple Pie" (a song about Vanessa Williams's then-recent fall from the graces of the Miss America Pageant). I may have also done my "Moral Majority" song (but IIRC, each performer got to do only 2 songs). Anyway, probably because the audience was other songwriters, they LISTENED, and they really appreciated the songs. I've never gotten such overwhelming applause and laughter elsewhere (though some places have come close on a song or two). (All too often, my audiences are either intoxicated or distracted and won't catch a joke if a song contains one, won't follow a story line in a ballad.)

Nursing homes and some assisted living and retirment homes are also often among my best audiences (though they can also be among the worst, partly because of distractions). (They don't know me as "Sonja," though.)

SWO