Open mic experiences

[notArtist]

I usually trade in 3-minute bits, and confidence, or the illusion thereof, is pretty important. In my case, my sights are set on a bunch of laughs throughout, but I'd would think especially if you're building one long slow burn into a huge punchline at the end, you can't waver in what you're doing.

An example: When the smurfs movie came out last year, I saw someone go up with 5 minutes of smurf jokes, which I'm pretty sure are just phrases with the word smurf inserted. It was... not good. But I don't think that guy really lost until he bailed out and spent the rest of his set flipping through a notebook looking for things to say. Any one of those jokes was popsicle-stick quality at best, but the sheer fact that he was still going would have brought the house down by the end of it, I think. I've seen the same idea at work in a 5-minute set consisting of a joke-free lecture on how to back up your hard drive.

For me, that does mean having a tight script for a long bit. Even if I evolve the bit over time on stage, and never lay it back to paper again, I find it very helpful to have chosen a set of words as a starting point. I'm comfortable going off book when something happens in the room, but at the moment, I don't make a goal of doing any crowd work or of being the 15th open mic'er that night to talk about the stage.

I do find a couple short jokes or a shorter bit to get the crowd with you or clear the air from the previous act can help to get them on board for a long piece. I understand that's why some folks do the stuff about the room, but I prefer to stick with something more similar to the rest of the act.

I kind of think that most comics do, or start by doing, whatever seems easiest (laziest?) to them. Some of my pals that do 20 short jokes in a 3 minute set have said that my approach of writing a 3-minute bit, learning it, and then taking it around to mics and building on it from there seems like a huge amount of work. To me, burning up 20 premises and having to remember all 20 jokes seems like it would be harder. And harder to scale - when I started getting 10 minute spots, they were pretty much just three smaller sets chained together.

[nixonjames]

The way to deal with 2-3 min sets in my experience (I'm lucky enough to have enough choices that I often don't have to worry about this) is to have a solid 1 liner opener. You don't have to be a 1 liner comic but chances are you've all got at least 1 good 1 liner. Then work on shorter bits or parts of chunks (what I should've done the other night when I went over and irritated the host) that are 1-2 min long.

If you need structure then go listen to some people who have bits akin to this (or parts of longer ones) and write out what they say to give yourself a feel for how quickly they move around and have punchlines.

That being said I usually avoid open mikes that don't have 4+ minutes but there are usually enough independent shows that I can do my 7-8m there and hit up an open mike and work on a diff 3m (of 4 after an opening reliable one). One thing that was harped to me early was always have a goal or purpose behind every set. And that doesn't just mean 'say this joke this way, follow this order, etc' it can be as simple as standing up straight, not looking down, and maintaining eye contact (or the illusion thereof) with the audience.

Early on it feels boring cuz you don't always understand how many levels there are to work on. I feel that way and it took me 2 1/2 years to get a 7-8min act o.o

[funkyrhino]

I won a comedy contest last night. What happens now?

[Travesty.]

I won a comedy contest last night. What happens now?

Hollywood, baby. Now you're a star!

[Couldn'tThinkOfaName]

I won a comedy contest last night. What happens now?

You are now funny™.

[nixonjames]

What kind of contest?
You could have a credit for a lil bit haha. Something's better than nothing.

[funkyrhino]

What kind of contest?
You could have a credit for a lil bit haha. Something's better than nothing.

I'm on the phone with an agent. J/K I don't take anything from contest, it was fun and to a full room and the guy who came in second brought 20 people and
it was by round of applause...Hey I got a $50 gift card to the club for winning so it's all good in the hood!

[JayP7]

Had a really nice set last night. One of the cool things about living in Chicago at the open-mic level is there are some improv rooms that'll have stand-ups. Improv folks generally don't fuck around with corners of bars; there's a stage, there's lighting, and usually a mic AND a stand. Granted, it can be as sparse or sparser than an open-mic but if there is an audience they're going to be a really good one. Also since they're use to 20-30 minute improv sets they ASSUME you'll do 10 or more.

[Travesty.]

Had a really nice set last night. One of the cool things about living in Chicago at the open-mic level is there are some improv rooms that'll have stand-ups. Improv folks generally don't fuck around with corners of bars; there's a stage, there's lighting, and usually a mic AND a stand. Granted, it can be as sparse or sparser than an open-mic but if there is an audience they're going to be a really good one. Also since they're use to 20-30 minute improv sets they ASSUME you'll do 10 or more.

Which room/bar are you talking about?

[JayP7]

Last night's was the 'Underground Lounge' in Wrigleyville.

[funkyrhino]

Went to two open mics last night. Zero audience members at both! Each was cancelled. I learned a lot from not being on stage last night...

[SeanX3]

YMIW/Shelby Fero interview was a great listen, especially the bits about doing open mics, coping with bad sets, etc.

[JayP7]

"How long have you been doing stand-up?"

Is one of like 3 or 5 questions you'll get and/or ask after meeting another stand-up at an open mic. ("What number are you up?" is another)

And I have a weird time answering it.

Technically I've been doing stand-up for like 4 years. And although I've literally lived and grown those 4 years (which isn't nothing), 3 1/2 of those years were in Western Massachusetts and maybe 2 1/2 was before we even had a weekly opportunity to do stand-up.

8 months ago I moved to a real city where you can do it many times in a week, my average being somewhere between 2 and 5. In truth, in terms of pure stand-up stage time I'd imagine I'm probably more comparable to like a 2 year old.

Yet, I still feel like I have to tell people that number and have an opinion about it. I think I still feel the entitlement of "success" or movement or whatever that somebody who actually was bumping around a real scene would be compelled to feel after that amount of time. I don't think this is fair for me to psychologically demand of the people around me ("Why don't these assholes realize I was the Joke Prince of the Greater Pioneer Valley???") and frankly it's not fair to put that pressure and negativity on myself. I'm still very new and should think of it that way. Still not sure how to answer succinctly without going way more into it than anybody asking really cares "Well, um, I mean this long TECHNICALLY, but I mean reeeeeally like this long cause you know, yadda yadda"

[note: Also, all of this sounds just a little better to me now since I've been telling people "5 years" only to actually realize while writing this that it's wrong and I'm and idiot.]

[PoisonSpanking]

I like to round down so I sound slightly better for the amount of time I've been doing it, though I'm still counting in months.

[funkyrhino]

It's somewhat tough in my city to make the most of the two open mics a week that we have especially when the average crowd size is 6-15 people on most of those nights. It's weird but I remember (before I ever started) having 1 comedy club in the city with one 3 minute open mic per month...the only positive was that open mic was packed with wall to wall people.

[SeanX3]

I'm in a year and a half but NYC is 100 miles away and I can't get down much—I'm probably more like a three month old.

[KeithTalent]

It's somewhat tough in my city to make the most of the two open mics a week that we have especially when the average crowd size is 6-15 people on most of those nights. It's weird but I remember (before I ever started) having 1 comedy club in the city with one 3 minute open mic per month...the only positive was that open mic was packed with wall to wall people.

One of our handful of open mics just shut down. I have a list of bars who do karaoke and shit, gonna try to get a new thing going maybe.

I feel you, the inconsistent crowds really make it hard for me to feel like I'm learning from my bad sets, so much of it is these tiny crowds and nobody's doing well and it's just like let's burn this place to the ground.

I'm doing a thing tomorrow at this shitkicker bar with a goddamn outdoor stage. Last week nobody was listening and my set was just a slow sink into a bog. I tried legitimately for about a minute and a half and then got all desultory and sarcastic. Then I pretended to fumble with getting the mic back in the stand for a while because literally nobody but other comics was even looking at me...that part was sort of funny. Anyway, I'm back there again tomorrow and my only goal is to get these awful people to listen to me. I could try a little crowdwork but I don't want to get stabbed. ughhh guys comedy is hard

[JayP7]

Here's a question:

An open-mic started up pretty close to me. It's a pretty decent room, real stage, etc. The girl who runs and produces is an acquaintance. The host is absolutely terrible. He's condescending (even insulting at times) to the other comedians, doesn't appear interested with what's happening on stage when he's not on it, does way too much time between comics, kills the show's momentum. Etc etc.

Is it fair or foul to illustrate my concerns to this producer? Particularly in like an e-mail.

I'd really like to have a solid open-mic close-by and I'm just not excited to go back if I have to tolerate this guy's shoddy bullshit and generally negative attitude.

[SeanX3]

I wouldn't ever put anything like that in writing. Instant shitsville.

Does the producer attend the mics?

[JayP7]

She does.

Though she's relatively new to stand-up so I don't think she totally realizes how awful he is and what that means, and how unlikely it is that these particular issues will improve with time and experience.