Open mic experiences

[MJEH]

I've had gigs with people sitting with their back to me, the weird part is that sometimes I can hear them laughing, but they won't turn around.

Well, exactly HOW ugly are you??

(j/k!!)

[Phil]

Ugh, that sucks. What kind of jokes did you do, if you don't mind me asking?

Shit that came across hacky I think. My starter and ender worked well, just the middle crap about urinals and shitting on airplanes just wasn't appopriate for that room.

I'm angry with myself cause I love doing hipster alt stuff, but it's hard to do in Finland. I blew a good opportunity.

[Just Brett]

I had my first open mic the other night. I talked with a few other comics, downed a jack & coke before the show and felt right at home. I was really confident with my material, so I didn't feel nervous at all. I quickly found out that I would be the first to go up. Still, didn't feel any anxiety or anything of the sort. There were about 7 other open mic'ers and then a regular show. So I looked at it as an opportunity to set the bar at a descent level. My first few jokes were clean and got a few laughs, but my adrenaline level was kind of up, so I wasn't listening to the crowd very well. My last 2 jokes were kind of blue, but on paper they are my favorite. I quickly learned from that show that the stuff I thought was hilarious wasn't funny at all. I'm not gonna upload the video though, it's like handing in shitty homework to your teacher who will determine if you need to repeat the 11th grade.

[Phil]

My last 2 jokes were kind of blue, but on paper they are my favorite. I quickly learned from that show that the stuff I thought was hilarious wasn't funny at all.

Congrats on your first time! Sounds like you started strong but ended kinda weak? I wonder if those blue jokes took it south? I know I have this problem. You appear a clean comic, the audience likes you, then you go blue and the audience is disappointed.

I'm starting to believe that the comedy rule of "save your blue stuff for the end" is very dated.

[Monty]

I'm starting to believe that the comedy rule of "save your blue stuff for the end" is very dated.

I think it still works as long as there's some hint earlier that you could go blue. You don't want to do four minutes of Bob Newhart and two minutes of Redd Foxx. That's just going to confuse everyone.

[maxbarth]

You don't want to do four minutes of Bob Newhart and two minutes of Redd Foxx. That's just going to confuse everyone.

I do four minutes of Redd Foxx and two minutes of Jamie Foxx and then I just come out dressed like a Fox for the last few minutes. It kills.

[Vercetti]

I always open with my joke about fisting my retarded wife at the abortion clinic. Then I do my "Kids are wacky" jokes. Start off strong, make them fear you.

Actually I remember my first open mic a few years ago. The crowd was kind of quiet and not laughing. So one of the guys took the stage and gave a lecture, kind of berating the crowd about how comedy is about energy and ended angrily with "...that's how the fuck IT IS!". Then he went into his first joke which was about Ebonics.

[Cameron]

I had my first open mic the other night. I talked with a few other comics, downed a jack & coke before the show and felt right at home. I was really confident with my material, so I didn't feel nervous at all. I quickly found out that I would be the first to go up. Still, didn't feel any anxiety or anything of the sort. There were about 7 other open mic'ers and then a regular show. So I looked at it as an opportunity to set the bar at a descent level. My first few jokes were clean and got a few laughs, but my adrenaline level was kind of up, so I wasn't listening to the crowd very well. My last 2 jokes were kind of blue, but on paper they are my favorite. I quickly learned from that show that the stuff I thought was hilarious wasn't funny at all. I'm not gonna upload the video though, it's like handing in shitty homework to your teacher who will determine if you need to repeat the 11th grade.

For your first time you did really well man, especially in front of such a tiny crowd.

[Just Brett]

For your first time you did really well man, especially in front of such a tiny crowd.

Thanks Cameron, I appreciate that. I can't wait to get back out there... sucks I have to drive an hour and a half to an actual comedy club. Hope to see you there again...

[Just Brett]

Congrats on your first time! Sounds like you started strong but ended kinda weak? I wonder if those blue jokes took it south? I know I have this problem. You appear a clean comic, the audience likes you, then you go blue and the audience is disappointed.

I'm starting to believe that the comedy rule of "save your blue stuff for the end" is very dated.

Yeah, like, I was in a safe zone with my clean material, but then tried doing some risque material and then the audience got confused and it through me off. They could sense that I left my comfort zone. So, for my first time, I learned A LOT. I have another open mic in two-ish weeks, now I don't really know what to do. I think I'm gonna try and keep it clean, but I think that my blue material would kill if I knew how to read an audience that would like that sort of stuff. I've got a lot to learn... but now i'm hooked.

[ErikNielsen]

I mean, you don't know that that's the issue, though... it certainly makes sense that it could've been. Either they wanted cleaner material, or they were bothered/confused by the tonal shift.

But... maybe the last two minutes just weren't as strong as the first four. (In a general sense, or in the sense that this particular audience wasn't going for them.)

Maybe something about your performance shifted -- the energy level? You got concerned about offending the audience?

And maybe the audience got distracted, or just went cold. Especially at open mics, audiences will sometimes go cold at the drop of a hat.

The good thing is, you don't need to make that guess based on one show. You can try it again, and then you can try it with different configurations, work in new material, etc., etc. There are a thousand reasons why sets work (or don't work) the way they do, and as you get more experience, you'll learn to figure some of them out. The important thing is not to get discouraged and to keep trying...

And for what it's worth, I've never heard of 'the comedy rule of "save your blue stuff for the end"'. I mean, granted, I've never really had "blue stuff" either.

[ErikNielsen]

But as far as order, there are worse guidelines to follow than "make sure you establish your identity and range to the audience relatively early in the set." The great thing about thinking that way is that it's ridiculously broad and vague -- I've used it to justify always inserting a couple one-liners into the spot 1:30 or so into my set, I've used it to justify increasing the tempo on a late-set joke about how I was depressed, I've used it to tell myself that I had to do a joke about being an English major relatively early. Etc.

But these are issues where the idea of range dovetails with OTHER concerns -- concerns of support and balance. In this case, for example, the early one-liners keep me from coming off as too intense -- all my openers involve a lot of shouting -- . The depression joke, which fit in with the rest of my act in terms of content, was too much of a distracting tempo shift. And calling out the English major thing made my subsequent jokes about books -- I had a lot of jokes about books when I was starting out -- seem less like absurdity or reference humor and more like an extension of who I was.

After basic professionalism stuff, those are the best kind of "rules" to have -- the kind that can bend to accommodate what does or doesn't work. In particular, note that this doesn't mean you can't write jokes that don't fit in with what you've done before -- you can grow and expand. You just have to establish early.

(This structure can also be subverted for effect... I always get a huge laugh on a joke which begins "So who wants to see my dick?" I do that joke late, once it's been established that this is absurdly out of character for me -- the line only works because I've created the impression that I am not the kind of guy who is going to ask if people want to see his dick.)

(Continued!)

[ErikNielsen]

This is also (yes, I know I'm rambling) a very useful way of thinking about openers. I have a pretty specific set of rules about opening jokes. Ideally, I want to open with a joke that:

-- contains a reference to my basic incompetence as a functional member of society
-- blows some kind of object out of proportion -- juxtaposing huge world events with the mundane.
-- features a fundamentally illogical notion developed logically
-- opens conversationally, but builds to a very loud (and possibly unexpected) crescendo.

If I can get all of that across in a minute or so, I'm set. The audience has the assumptions I'll be working under for the next however many minutes.

(I have... two jokes that accomplish this, and a third that comes close.)

Of course, these are all things I want to establish... the list of things you want to establish is different. And if you're new, the list of things you want to establish hasn't been written yet... you're going to want to piece together a good 10-15 minutes of solid material, and at that point, figure out what topics/patterns/types of joke seem to be recurring. (This may change with time -- I don't do nearly as much material about books as I used to, for example. So I don't always feel the need to mention them early... unless I'm going to do that material.)

Okay! Enough talking!

[Just Brett]

Thanks for the tips Erik. You're right though, it can go several different ways and it can't be blamed for any one thing at this point. All I can do is keep looking forward to the the next open mic. It doesn't hurt to take notes and make observations a long the way though.

[Vercetti]

You know those nights where you're playing for about three people, not counting the other performers, and no one is laughing? That was last night. Usually I can have fun with bad crowds but last night was just an off night altogether.

At one point I said "Guys, I'm missng 90210 for this. Give me something!" which got a laugh.

[ErikNielsen]

Hm... and that would work in front of a real crowd how? Part of doing shows like that is developing discipline... ideally, you should be able to do your whole set to complete silence without cracking at all. Only then can you start ad-libbing at a dead crowd -- when you don't need to, when it's not a reflex, when it's a conscious choice.

[pg13]

ideally, you should be able to do your whole set to complete silence without cracking at all.

Ideally?

Ideally???

Much love to the man the comedy scouts love the most, but I've got to disagree with you on that.

Comedy is reactive. If you're not getting a reaction doing what you're doing, you're doing it wrong and you should adjust. The glory of stand-up comedy is that you're able to adjust...ideally.

If you're performing to three people and you're just on auto pilot, you're begging to be ignored. If you're performing to three people, you HAVE to make it more personal...you have to make what you're saying vital to those three people... AND, with only three people, you're better able to read their individual cues as you're performing as to how to do that--just as you would if you were simply having a conversation with those three people (compared to how you have to assume a general reaction when performing for a larger, more anonymous audience.)

If you're performing your entire comedy set to complete silence...you should probably never do comedy again...ideally.

---

I will say that one's choice of adjustment, however, shouldn't automatically be to shit on the audience or the situation. That's easy but ultimately unproductive. Pointing out that the situation sucks merely contributes to the situation sucking... If you're funny, you can make three people laugh--ideally, that's why you're there...so figure it out.

I don't have a problem with Vercetti's "I gave up 90210 for this?" line. That's funny...and it's as much about your bad choices as it is pointing out that the situation at hand isn't ideal.

But the "give me something" attitude that followed it was wrong...they're not there to give YOU something, YOU'RE there to give THEM something...something to laugh at. The more productive attitude, after the 90210 line, would be to hitch up your belt and say "All right, let's DO this..."

And then work like hell to do it.

Or just admit that you're wasting everyone's time.

pg--It's ok to try and fail, that's how you learn. If you can accept not trying, what's the point? Shitting on the situation is admitting that you're not trying.--seattle

[Just Brett]

One thing I learned last time is that I tried doing it as I did on my voice recorder. I sounded rehearsed. The next time I do it, i'm gonna try and just get my main points in order, then go out there with a general direction to take the joke.

[ASR]

Haven't posted a video in a while...

[youtube]TD9JSZiH7jk[/youtube]

There's a lot of changes and growth visible in this one, I think. I really enjoyed performing this set.

[ErikNielsen]

Much love to the man the comedy scouts love the most, but I've got to disagree with you on that.

Here's the thing -- doing the best work you can is trying. And your material is the best work you can do. In the ideal show, you do your material, and everyone loves it, and you don't need to worry about spiking anything with ad-libs. Therefore, flaking out on the material is the cop-out in this scenario... sometimes an acceptable cop-out, but a cop-out.

I''m willing to accept disagreement on that in the long run... but in the short run, we're talking about comics who are just starting out. I'm not talking about what's best for the audience, I'm not even talking about what's best for the show. (Though I could make those arguments too... it's better to go down with dignity than make things unpleasant for everyone, etc., etc.)

I'm talking about what's best for development.

As a comic starting out, the first thing you need to do is kill the desperation in your heart. You need to learn to suppress the urge to panic when things aren't going well. With the possible exception of developing a solid 5-7 minutes, that comes before anything.

Without that underlying calmness, attempts to ad-lib will almost invariably fail. They'll come off as a desperate, intrusive attempt to salvage a disaster, which a) acknowledges the disaster to the audience, and b) sets the comic up as clearly unprofessional and overwhelmed. Maybe the audience won't pick up on that; maybe they'll be generous. Maybe you'll all get lucky. But in the long run of a comic's career, lacking fundamentals is going to create the same problems over and over again.

So, what do you need to learn here? Two things.

You need to learn how not to panic. You need to learn how to tell yourself, "okay, I have this covered. I don't have to be a hero here... I don't have to get desperate, I don't even have to ad-lib. I have to do what I do." And once you learn that lesson, not only will it improve your confidence in your material, it will improve your confidence in your ad-libs. There's a huge difference between a considered, voluntary move and an instinctive reflex, and if you have the underlying steadiness, all your moves are voluntary.

(I'd also argue that the time to learn to ad-lib is when things are going well -- you have much better instincts when things are going well. If you're bombing and flailing, your instincts are most likely fried.)

And you already said the other thing: small crowds are great for honing your ability to target/play off the audience. Which you can use to really fine-tune... your unrepeatable ad-libs? No, don't waste your time. Fine-tune your material.

Really focus in on the three people. Even on one or two of them -- if you can get SOMEONE laughing, the rest should at least start paying attention. So bear down on your material. Grab the crowd for a moment with your stage presence (this should be easy with a crowd that size) and tell them something funny. Not an ad-lib, because that's not reliable in the best of situations, and this isn't the best of situations. You're bombing, you're on tilt, don't try to come up with something on the spot. Tell them something funny that you actually have.

From that point, it's just rebuilding. Time yourself off their reactions, build their confidence in you, and you've not only salvaged your set, you've probably had as close a look as possible at how your material works, and at the details that go into your performance of that material. It's like doing your set in slow-motion. Why would you waste that?