Sometimes during a live show, the lead singer/performer invites a random person from the audience to join them on stage, usually for short mutual singing or performance. (Example)
Is there a word for the person being invited?
asked Aug 11, 2019 at 13:18
Shadow Wizard Is Sad And AngryShadow Wizard Is Sad And Angry
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2Audience participant is pretty neutral. Of course, sometimes the selected person is effectively a "victim" (the main performer is just using them, perhaps to their detriment in some way) in which case they might be a mark or rube (both pejorative slang). Or they might have been "pre-selected, prepared" for whatever they're going to do on stage (presented as "randomly chosen", but actually what people would call a plant). Perhaps performers who do this have special slang terms for non-victim, non-plant, but I doubt any would count as "widespread, well-established".– FumbleFingersAug 11, 2019 at 14:28
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1 Answer
There’s not a specific word for that person—other than perhaps a “fan”—that I’m aware of. However, to point out something that really bothers me, in your sentence you used the word “them” as apposed to him or her—“to join them on stage.” I know that using them or they to mean a single person of unknown gender is all but absolute these days, but it is very incorrect to do so. This is due to the feminizing of the English language. In fact, according to American Standard English (the most correct form of English in the world today), if a person’s gender is unknown, the correct or “default” word is he or him. It may be politically incorrect, but it’s linguistically correct!
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1Thanks but the second part is totally not relevant and totally out of place. Aug 14, 2019 at 11:25