Open mic experiences

[drieux]

It took me a long time to stop using notes, and even now I tend to carry something up with me as a habit and my own concerns about forgetting stuff. Earlier this week I did a set at a show themed New Material night, and one of the rules (along with performing material you'd never done anywhere before) was you Could. NOT. Take notes up with you. Instead of my normal routine lately with new stuff of coming up with the premise, a few lines I know I want to include and a tag, then playing with the specifics onstage, I wrote the hell out of the bits and then spent a good chunk of time working to memorize the stuff. While there was definitely room for improvement in the stuff, it was a lot better-received and smoother in the delivery than most of my Work-In-Progress material, and it was a great reminder that preparation is always a good idea and "just wingin' it" usually leads to blank stares.

By the way, I recently started lending a hand at an SF open mic that tends to run around three hours every week, and while I understand that some people are new, the material is rough and it's an open mic and thusly, where people go to struggle, I'll say this for all the other hosts out there...if you're going to call yourself something like "Chuckly VanGigglin" or "Lord FancyShmancy" then you had better make the effort to introduce yourself to the host beforehand. I don't know anybody too eager to either call your wacky name out and then get nobody walking up and look like a retard, or spend five minutes walking around asking if anybody knows who "Bloodrat Douchenheimer" is. You can have your comedy character, but say hello and introduce yourself first. Which is always good advice at any new open mic you're hitting, by the way. But especially if you're <i>extra</i> wacky.

[Phil]

Hi Phil. I just viewed your clip and thought I'd throw my 2 cents in. This is just your 3rd time on stage? I thougth you'd been been able to get up more?

My first time was in February, trying to get as much stage time as I can, but there's no open mic's in Finland, the concept doesn't really exist (see my recent thread about starting an open mic...)

I admire you're being able to get up in front of your girl friend, friends or family - I've done 4 open mics now and tell my friends and family to stare clear of me because I'm nervous enough as it is - I'll let them they can come see me when I have more experience.

Thanks!! Having my friends there really helps, as they're all very supportive, and guaranteed to laugh. In fact, I find it more enjoyable to have them laugh than complete strangers.

I found your jokes to be very funny. You present your self well - you having a good and clear speaking voice. The ares I thought you could improve were to try to use fewer "aaahs" and "ummms", memorize your material so you don't use cue cards, stop playing with the mic with your free hand and you don't have to anounce that you are going to make a joke - I'll quote you: "What joke did I want to do next now...".

Totally agree. I'm terrible with my aaah's and ummm's, I cringe when I go back and hear all that. It's the #1 thing IMO I need to work on. In my defense though, I was up there for 19 minutes, crazy for my third time I know, but I got paid for this gig and we needed to do longer sets so, fuck it, why not. About 75% of those jokes were totally new for me, wayyyyy too much shit to remember.

But yeah man, many thanks for watching that and big thanks for taking the time to give me feedback!! Really appreciat that. I got a gig next Wednesday and am for sure going to focus in on those things you mentioned.

Peace

btw, if you haven't already, check out my first time on stage, I did a completely different set: http://www.youtube.com/watch<wbr>?v=rMFiE61PJxA

[Brian J.]

What are some of the problems and mistakes you notice watching amateur stand up acts at open mics? Do you ever offer advice or criticism to these struggling/bad amateur comedians?

A big problem I see is there are a lot of amateurs who get up there before knowing how to write a joke. I once saw a guy go up for five minutes, it was his first time, and he told one joke and the rest of the time he just kept saying "where my potheads at? who smokin' weed? (points at someone in the audience) You smokin' weed? You look like you smoke weed. We should get together and smoke some weed after the show."

[Brian J.]

Oh and another first timer I saw got up there and her set went something like this:

"Hey everybody I don't have any jokes I just wanted to let everybody know I like suckin' dick!"
(the older gentleman next to me said What's she telling us that for I knew she liked sucking dicks as soon as I saw her)

"Yeah I like suckin' dicks. It don't matter what kinda dicks I suck any kinda dick. White dick Black dick Short dick fat dick!
Ladies you need to stop nagging yo' man and just suck his dick, he gon' be happy and buy you shit. I get whatever I want cuz i be suckin dick. And ladies remember to cup your man's balls, don't let them just hang there. You gotta give them the attention they deserve. So ya'll know I like lickin' balls. Yep my two favorite national past times are suckin dicks and lickin balls. And don't be lazy about lickin them balls don't just lick them like this (she demonstrates a very peckish lick) you gotta lick like it's some good ass ice cream! Your man ain't gonna be happy unless he's got some slobber on those balls. It needs to look like a dog done licked his balls."

And the tragedy is she absolutely killed.

After recounting this story I feel like I should do like that Patton Oswalt Dr. Pepper bit and perform this bit verbatim on stage as her.

[ASR]

That would actually be funny if you did that, yes.

Or just get up and do it with no explanation whatsoever, and then continue on with your regular routine.

[Phil]

I once saw a guy go up for five minutes, it was his first time, and he told one joke and the rest of the time he just kept saying "where my potheads at? who smokin' weed?

I recently saw a young guy doing his first set, his opening bit was his taking photos of himself on stage with his cellphone camera cause he was so proud of himself. I was cringing, along with the rest of the audience. Then his set managed to get even worse.

[Brian J.]

I recently saw a young guy doing his first set, his opening bit was his taking photos of himself on stage with his cellphone camera cause he was so proud of himself. I was cringing, along with the rest of the audience. Then his set managed to get even worse.

To me these kinds of stories are so bad that they should be chronicled. We should re-enact these bits and record it and call it Legends of Open Mic night.

[Alex Mac]

I smell an interesting book idea! A sort of counterpart to I Killed?

I wrote a story in this thread where a comedy night I attended every week had a huge argument with the Slam Poets next door. That and when a kid was onstage (the stage was situated near the window facing the street) and a cop car hit a woman in the street while he was doing his set.

[ASR]

I went on-stage tonight at my least favorite venue, and it was actually a decent performance. Not bad, not great... but people were laughing and while some jokes that usually work well fell flat, other unexpected ones really worked. I didn't get as much laughs as some of my friends performing, though, so I wasn't particularly proud of this performance, but it was fine because half of my material was new stuff tonight.

Basically, just like any other night, but someone came up to me afterwards and told me that I was their favorite comedian tonight. It made me feel really good about it when only minutes earlier I was very indifferent towards my performance.

It just reminded me that this is really what I love doing, and I'm glad that at least one person enjoyed my stuff enough to come up and personally tell me. I mean, that's happened before, but not to specifically say I was their favorite.

Oh, and don't worry, I'm far from cocky, I personally think the guy is crazy or at least has terrible taste in comedy. STILL NICE OF HIM, THOUGH.

[John Santana]

Oh and another first timer I saw got up there and her set went something like this:

"Hey everybody I don't have any jokes I just wanted to let everybody know I like suckin' dick!"
(the older gentleman next to me said What's she telling us that for I knew she liked sucking dicks as soon as I saw her)

"Yeah I like suckin' dicks. It don't matter what kinda dicks I suck any kinda dick. White dick Black dick Short dick fat dick!
Ladies you need to stop nagging yo' man and just suck his dick, he gon' be happy and buy you shit. I get whatever I want cuz i be suckin dick. And ladies remember to cup your man's balls, don't let them just hang there. You gotta give them the attention they deserve. So ya'll know I like lickin' balls. Yep my two favorite national past times are suckin dicks and lickin balls. And don't be lazy about lickin them balls don't just lick them like this (she demonstrates a very peckish lick) you gotta lick like it's some good ass ice cream! Your man ain't gonna be happy unless he's got some slobber on those balls. It needs to look like a dog done licked his balls."

And the tragedy is she absolutely killed.

After recounting this story I feel like I should do like that Patton Oswalt Dr. Pepper bit and perform this bit verbatim on stage as her.

Don't you just love working so hard to write funny material, carefully memorizing and rehersing it and then struggling to deliver it properly with the hope of getting big laughs and then someone walks up on stage and scratches their butt or belches into the mic and the audience just adores them? I guess that's what they call charisma.

[John Santana]

I just thought I'd mention to PG-13 that you're doing pretty well if that was the biggest complaint that was told to you. Don't beat up on your self. Sh...t happens done.

[drieux]

Don't you just love working so hard to write funny material, carefully memorizing and rehersing it and then struggling to deliver it properly with the hope of getting big laughs and then someone walks up on stage and scratches their butt or belches into the mic and the audience just adores them? I guess that's what they call charisma.

There's one woman with self-diagnosed Aspergers that regularly shows up at an open mic I go to that is all-out, batshit, rat-in-a-tin-shithouse INSANE. She has notes, but depending on the moment and how much cheap beer she's consumed she will go off on all sorts of oddball tangents that have no cohesive line of thought behind them. And depending on the night, she will KILL. There are audiences that adore her, and the consensus is either that she'll be getting drunk at open mics for decades just because she is socially unable to work, or that she's the greatest charactor performer we've ever seen.

[Brian J.]

So I bombed for the fifth time last night so that is 5 times out of 14. I can't complain, but bombing makes me feel so terrible. If I can just hear a couple people laughing I might be able to use their laughs to judge which jokes to edit, but these people gave me nothing. So after about five jokes I just said f*** this and walked off.

What I learned is next time I run into a similar situation I will probably trudge along because at least I should've used it as an opportunity to tell jokes to an audience rather than to friends. My friends have also said that I am too monotone. Althought there are times that I have done quite well being monotone.

Out of the five bombings, four times- I would describe my personality as lacking energy. I do mostly one liners, but now I am adding tag lines, I find it akward to add enthusiasm and energetic style when I don't believe the jokes to be suited to that. I guess i'll experiment with some different deliveries. Does anybody have any advice?

[Brian J.]

Just uploaded my third performance from a couple weeks ago if anyone's interested. My first time performing at a noisy bar full of drunks, hecklers and people who couldn't care less. A shame my piece of shit camera stops filming video after 10mins, cause my blue stuff at the end got people much more excited.

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You should be proud of yourself for being able to do so much time. I struggle to do five minutes sometimes. I laughed several times during your set. The one bit that sticks out for me is the one about the reality show starring your girlfriend and the quiz show. I thought it was well crafted and you can just easily replace any lines with better ones because of the structure. I also liked your personality. I feel that you were pretty natural up there and felt like you were having a conversation with the audience.

[scamboogah]

the consensus is either that she'll be getting drunk at open mics for decades just because she is socially unable to work, or that she's the greatest charactor performer we've ever seen.

It's the first one.

[John Santana]

It's the first one.

lol
Hey Scammy - what's it like going into NYC for open mics? I searched online and it looks like you can find a comedy open mic just about any night of the week with the exception of the weekend. Is it usually hard to get them to work in a new and unknown Amateur Comic?

[scamboogah]

I never went to any open mics when I lived in Bridgeport, just the Comedy Cellar mostly.

I've heard some pretty terrible stories about open mics there, though. Lot of pay-to-play shows, bringers etc...

[John Santana]

I never went to any open mics when I lived in Bridgeport, just the Comedy Cellar mostly.

I've heard some pretty terrible stories about open mics there, though. Lot of pay-to-play shows, bringers etc...

I DID notice that - it seems typical that they will charge you $5-10 to perform for 5-6 minutes in an open mic in NYC. I'm willing to pay it though - heck, that's nothing compared to what parking cost or the round trip on the train, cabs etc.
I heard a guy say he had a rough time with the open mics in NYC - I'll have to track him down and have him to tell me more details about what the problem was. I was thinking it might be a nice change of scenery for me and it's cool that If I stay over night in the city I can actually do 2 open mics in two nights. Another option would be a couple of open mic's that I heard about in the Hartford area - that's about an hour drive for me and I don't have to deal with trains, cabs and expensive parking. The ride from my area up to Hartford is less stressful then NYC.

[forgetiheardthat]

Im an NYC open mic-er. I know there are a few others on the board too. There are some brutal ones, and some great ones. A lot of them are booked based on random drawing from a mailing list, but those usually have standby spots. Don't be afraid of NYC open mics, though, some are really, really great...on open mic standards.

[forgetiheardthat]

So I bombed for the fifth time last night so that is 5 times out of 14. I can't complain, but bombing makes me feel so terrible. If I can just hear a couple people laughing I might be able to use their laughs to judge which jokes to edit, but these people gave me nothing. So after about five jokes I just said f*** this and walked off.

Don't do this again. Sounds like you learned that you shouldn't, but at this point, a big part of what you're learning to do at mics is staying committed to what you're doing on stage, even in the middle of it not working. It's hard, I definitely struggle with it, but it's important. Don't give up mid-set.