Open mic experiences

[BananapeelWilliams]

I wanna start this up again. I really loved reading about people's experiences in the last thread. I think it was really helpful to a lot of people, plus a lot of it was comforting to read for a beginner comedian.

I myself am dying to get on stage for the first time but there's absolutely no clubs in my town. I'll probably end up driving way out to other not-so-nearby cities just to do my first 5-minute open mic set.

Anyways, post all your open mic experiences, stories, questions, videos etc.

[Max Goldberg]

Where do you live?

Most open mics I've known aren't actually in clubs, but rather bars, or coffee shops, or colleges. If your town doesn't have one going, I highly recommend starting one up weekly on a slow tuesday or something. It'll guarantee you stage time and be a great opportunity to network and find out about other shows and mics worth playing.

My favorite open mic only ran for a couple years in Culver City in Los Angeles, a dive bar called Marv 'n Mary's. It's since closed down and the entire area has became gentrified and redeveloped. The bar's owner was also the host, and a big fan of comedy. He had an open mic from 6pm until closing every night of the week, and gave every comic seven minutes, with the chance to sign up *again* after the first list was through and everyone had been up once already. I would sometimes get up three times in a night with different seven minute sets and essentially work out a 20 minute act.

Like any open mic, it had a lot of terrible comics trying to get better, but boy-oh-boy was it a beautiful experience.

[Siggers]

I have gone to six open mics, planning on going on many many many more. My first open mic experience was the most exciting.

I went to the club and was drawn last, many of the comedians told me i was not going to be funny my first time so do not be put off by bombing my first night. When it was almost time for me to go on stage there was only fifteen people in the room and all the comedians were outside.

I told the comedians i was up next when a comedian came towards me and asked if this was my first time on stage. i replied yes. He than begun to say how i was not going to be funny the first night, i was gonna bomb, that if i was funny just go to LA.

I went on stage and did very well for a beginner and did not bomb like the comedian expected. I actually was praised a lot by the comedians afterwards. The following week i went to the same club and bombed.

[scamboogah]

He than begun to say how i was not going to be funny the first night, i was gonna bomb, that if i was funny just go to LA.

Nice attitude, guy. Did he realize that by saying this, he's essentially telling everyone that he's not funny (otherwise, he'd be in LA)?

[Dr. Feelgood]

I did my first open mic a week ago at a place called Chief Ike's Mambo Room in D.C. and it was above all anti-climactic. I had built it up HUGE in my head and prepared a very rehearsed set of my easiest jokes. I chose a lot of clever one-linery stuff for the first time because I was nervous and I wanted to be able to lean on the intrinsic funniness of the material as much as possible. The set left little room for spontaneity or becoming "one with the room," and required only the most minimal display of my own voice/personality and could be noncommittally delivered. I ended up performing for about 7 comics, 6 of whom seemed to be regulars, and all of whom seemed more in tune with the culture of the open mic than I was. Almost every comic who went before me and after me was working from very rough material and an air of goofing around that connected with the other comics. A good portion of most sets consisted of riffing on how the jokes being shared were inchoate and shitty. The comic I had talked to beforehand had told me to expect people to fuck around and not really get big laughs. I did not fuck around hardly at all, pretty much plowed through my jokes, and I got a laugh here and there, but mostly I got the feeling that people weren't paying much attention. I think part of that had to do with how little time I gave each joke and put between them. My goal for next time (this coming Monday) is to appear more at ease (which I likely will be), not to plow through my jokes without making my presence on stage known a little bit before and during, and to allow more time to adjust to each new joke before the punchline.

[Joe McAdam]

My first time trying an open mic, I could barely speak. I had been doing a two person stand up routine with my friend prior to that, but figured it was time to try going solo. I brought a fake beard with me. I told the audience that I was uncomfortable doing this alone because I usually had a partner, so I invited someone from the audience to stand on stage with me and wear the beard (because my partner has a beard). I fumbled through my jokes, none were funny. I was so nervous I would say the punchline first sometimes. No one laughed, so I would just start punctuating every joke with "...and Paul has a beard on". Luckily Paul had a bunch of drunk friends in the audience who thought that was funny. It was a very defeating experience, and it took me a couple more months before I tried it alone again.

[Siggers]

Nice attitude, guy. Did he realize that by saying this, he's essentially telling everyone that he's not funny (otherwise, he'd be in LA)?

ahha, I do not know if he meant it like that. He was very rude and very arrogant. Telling me, "Kid i am gonna go on stage before you just so i can blow you up and know you are going to bomb." After coming off the stage, and all my jokes got laughs he just looked at me and said....Get your ass to LA.

[mezmorized]

Sorry in advance for the lengthy post.

I've been doing open mics consistently now for two months (about one or two a week) and I in no way should be giving advice, so instead I'll just fill you in on my experiences.

I have found that doing rooms where you are performing in front of just comics is a good and bad way to get started. Feelgood, I hear you 100%. The NYC open mics I go to, a group of comics (more like a clique) go to the same open mics and hang out and do their material and are generous to each other, but rarely to anyone else. What's good about it is, if you are able to make other comics laugh you are going somewhere. Comics, as an audience, especially at an open mic are the hardest to get approval. If they haven't gone up before, they're thinking "I can do better than that.", and after the go up they're just thinking "they were funnier than that." The bad thing from it is if they are to supportive, you don't end up having to work for their laugh, which is going to confuse you when you bomb at a different open mic. You're going to want to kill at a supportive open mic, but you need to be able to do well at a tough one.

So if you can make those people laugh half the battle is one. The trick is leaving those open mics and being able to transport that confidence into a real audience, one that doesn't have to go on stage after you and doesn't have to prove that they are funnier than you. I'm not at this point. I figure I'll try out my list of material at three different open mics, gauge how they went and try for a room that isn't just comics. As great as it is to get laughs in front of comics, that's only step one. Also don't be hard on yourself when you bomb at open mics. It has to happen. If it hasn't happened, it will. The best thing I ever heard about stand up was on this subject by Louis CK. He said what he found was that "bombing was much more instructive than killing. When you kill it doesn't teach you anything. You don't remember why you killed. But when you bomb its like a murder happened to you and you got data and you go back and learn from what happened. If you are able to say 'I did it, it hurt, but I survived it.' and come out the other side, then it's about getting back up there and doing it again." I can't agree more. If you think getting laughs feels good, try bombing and getting back up there the next time and doing good. That's an amazing feeling, but you got to get there through perseverance.

I can relate to your bombing Siggers. I had been doing consistently good sets for a while and this week I tried to do a character (because who likes to keep doing good sets?), essentially going out to the edge, hoping the audience (of mainly comics) would pull me back in, but instead they pushed me off. Even on stage I could read the word "Bombing" on each one of their lips. I think the problem was, besides the audience not being completely sure of what I was doing, was that I was over confident that it would work. Don't get in that trap. Even your best jokes, the one you put at the end because it always gets a laugh, still has a chance of not hitting. And that's from my experience and also watching people also make that mistake. It's a long walk off stage and it doesn't feel good.

But something to keep your head up, much like how everyone poops, all comedians bomb. Even Louis CK still bombs...http://www.louisck.net/2008/07/ck-in-the-uk.html

[BananapeelWilliams]

Where do you live?

Most open mics I've known aren't actually in clubs, but rather bars, or coffee shops, or colleges. If your town doesn't have one going, I highly recommend starting one up weekly on a slow tuesday or something. It'll guarantee you stage time and be a great opportunity to network and find out about other shows and mics worth playing.

My favorite open mic only ran for a couple years in Culver City in Los Angeles, a dive bar called Marv 'n Mary's. It's since closed down and the entire area has became gentrified and redeveloped. The bar's owner was also the host, and a big fan of comedy. He had an open mic from 6pm until closing every night of the week, and gave every comic seven minutes, with the chance to sign up *again* after the first list was through and everyone had been up once already. I would sometimes get up three times in a night with different seven minute sets and essentially work out a 20 minute act.

Like any open mic, it had a lot of terrible comics trying to get better, but boy-oh-boy was it a beautiful experience.

I'm in upstate New York. I know of one open mic in my town and from what I hear it's 100% musical acts. I know it doesn't matter and that shouldn't repel me because what's important right now is just getting on stage, but I really don't mind driving a bit out of my way to the comedy clubs. I plan on doing this within the month.

[Cameron]

I've been doing open mics a few months now, and I love it. I've yet to really bomb, but I've also yet to kill. I'm always somewhere sort of in the middle.

I live in Oklahoma, so there aren't really that many opportunities to get on stage. The weekly comedy open mic I go to is at this italian restaurant/bar. The crowd varies a lot. Sometimes it's mostly college kids that are there to drink and see comedy(it's a block away from the University of Oklahoma), and other times it's older people there for dinner who clearly had no idea an open mic was going on. Sometimes the crowd is great and other times, like this past week, they are absolutely awful and disrespectful.

I've emceed there twice now as well and fun doing that too. I feel like emceeing has helped me get a lot more comfortable on the stage. It also gives me a chance to do more off the cuff type stuff, which I enjoy and am able to get laughs with, but have had a hard time incorporating into my act.

The only other open mic I've been to was mostly poetry and singer songwriter types. It was at this hippy house/commune that is essentially just a drug den. I don't fit in with that at all, so I was beyond uncomfortable. A few people seemed to really enjoy my set, but the majority of the crowd were completely stonefaced. That one takes place every other week, and I'm not sure if I'm going to do it again or not. I really should because I need the stage time.

I turn 21 in October, and after that I am going to start going up to the local comedy club's open mic. It'll be interesting to see how I fare having to do completely clean material there. It's not that my act is dirty, but I tend to swear a lot.

Apologies for the long post that didn't offer any real insight or advice.

[Siggers]

the open mics I have been too seems clicky. As if there are a bunch of comedians that treat me like an outsider. Maybe my paranoid mind make up these plots; I do not know how to fit with them much like I do not know how to fit with this board. I come off as loud in real life so I downplay that so much that I become a completely new person in the process.

My first open mic is my second best performance as of yet.
Mistakes: Talked to fast, read from a paper.

However, the comedians began to respect me, praising me saying they never seen a beginner get the laughs I got, first night ever on stage, I felt great. Next week I went to the open mic, was pumped got on stage and died.

You know you bombed, when you can hear the woman in the back row taking a sip of her drink.

None of the jokes were working felt horrible.

Mistakes: talked so slow that it took away from the good energy and delivery I had the first night.

Went home worked on my jokes, looked at what I was doing wrong and went to the open mic again the next week. Did ok, just barely not bomb. Went home looked over my jokes figured out, I overly rehearsed too much. I wrote things out word for word, then I would read it word for word like it was a play and tried to remember very punchline.

I had to scrap my whole joke writing process and start anew. I figured out I am hilarious with improv, so I incorporated that into my stand up. Therefore, this is my new joke writing process.

I make a joke, I do not write it out. I simply write the topic and the punchlines for that topic.
Say the topic is fat women. I write
Topic fat women.
Underneath I will list the punchlines.
1 smell
2 always hungry
3 eats junk food.
<o></o>
I will just practice the punchlines, the way I get to the joke improv, what I say after improv as well. Less to remember and it always feel new coming out of my mouth. Then I made up a system to see if the jokes I am saying are funny, without going to comedy clubs for practice.

Another thing I learned was from a comedian by the name of Al Roadz. Less is more; I used to write up eight jokes to say at a five-minute open mic, I would rush myself to get to them all. Al told me just use two three jokes with tons of punchlines.

I also figured out, I was trying too hard to put a persona on myself instead of letting the persona find me. I dropped my persona and just told the jokes; the jokes will give me the persona that is best suited for my personality.

I tried all this at my last stand up open mic, killed. One joke was ok first joke was great I improved as well. Did better than the next five comedians after me.
<o></o>
Sorry if you cannot read my post without ripping your eyes out of the socket

[Adult Ed]

I'm in upstate New York. I know of one open mic in my town and from what I hear it's 100% musical acts.

If they will let you do stand-up there, do that mike! A music mike is a real audience, as opposed to a room full of comedians. It will probably be harsh the first couple of times you go (unless you are Siggers (j/k Sigs!) because the first few times are always rough.

As long as you are on the same wavelength as the room, the regulars will come to see you as part of the scene and will appreciate it as you improve. But - and here is where I will sound like a dick - don't start inviting other comics to come with you. It is good to be one of only one or two comics at a poetry/music mike. If too many comics show up, the vibe changes and the poets/musicians (and the audience) stop coming.

[BananapeelWilliams]

the open mics I have been too seems clicky. As if there are a bunch of comedians that treat me like an outsider. Maybe my paranoid mind make up these plots; I do not know how to fit with them much like I do not know how to fit with this board.

Just wondering, does that bother you? I think a really funny comedian who's a bit of an outsider is more appealing that a comedian who fits in well.

If they will let you do stand-up there, do that mike! A music mike is a real audience, as opposed to a room full of comedians. It will probably be harsh the first couple of times you go (unless you are Siggers (j/k Sigs!) because the first few times are always rough.

That's a good point. I do want to perform for a "real" audience but I also want to see what advice a room full of comedians have to offer. I'm definitely going to try that open mic, but I'm gonna do the comedy clubs first.

[Kentock]

Just wondering, does that bother you? I think a really funny comedian who's a bit of an outsider is more appealing that a comedian who fits in well.

Sitting through a million open mics is easier if you have someone to talk to. I don't know why you would prefer to be an outsider.

[Siggers]

Just wondering, does that bother you? I think a really funny comedian who's a bit of an outsider is more appealing that a comedian who fits in well.

A tad. Just i always looked for acceptance from others, i have learned i must accept myself then the rest will follow.

[Siggers]

Here is a few of my open mics.

1st open mic. IT is a ten minute video the actual open mic is about four mins in, if you want to fast forward and not see the Joe Rogan stuff and all that misc stuff.

[youtube]L1wQXJJYk3c[/youtube]
talked to fast, read off the paper. did ok.


Second week my bombing, i still cant look at this video it haunts me.

[youtube]SZYPVwcOhD8[/youtube]

Talked to slow, overly rehearsed just awful.

and my last performance, notice i walked across the stage, engaged the audience, only used like two jokes, first joke did pretty ok. first joke with multiple punchlines that worked. second joke did just a tad ok but still got a few gigles. I am reworking that joke.

[youtube]wlBPDwzP3Mk[/youtube]

I need to work on subject matter i want horrible real life events. like the first joke, i want the audience to feel me not jokey kind of shit, i want realness.

[Dr. Feelgood]

Thanks Mezmorized. I'm a huge C.K. fan and I follow his example and look to his experiences for encouragement. All I needed to hear from him, the best comic in the world, was that he bombed so hard at his first open mic that he didn't try stand-up again for another two years.

[KevinLee]

Me at an Open Mic in Indianapolis

[youtube]pqVtkCU9nKE[/youtube]

It's only three minutes long.

Tell me what you think.

[Dr. Feelgood]

I like it. I thought I got the first Batman joke, until I heard the second one. I at first thought you were trying to relate the two things Christian Bale did and thereby re-frame them as assertions of his manliness, which was the only commonality I could draw between them. But I guess the joke was just that his punching his mom and sister in the face overshadows anything else you could say about him. I really don't know. I still liked it though.

[rfeliciano]

Christian Bale was briefly detained in suspicion for verbal assault on his estranged mother and sister. He was let go without being charged by the London police, however, before the details were confirmed it was rumored that he had actually physically assaulted them. So the joke is playing off that, not his Batman super hero manliness. Funny joke. I was surprised by the second one. Made me laugh.