Comedy Open Mic: Are You Ready?

Let’s assume that you have made the decision to become a comedian and now you are out to tackle open mic nights.

Here’s the most important question I could ask, which is this:

Are you going to approach open mics largely unprepared like most open mic comedians or are you going to be prepared?

One need only attend a few comedy open mic nights to realize that:

1. Most comedians, even headliners use notes on stage—then they are amazed that their material flops.

2. Many comedians try to “wing it”, which in most cases seems to create more hecklers than laughs.

3. There is an obvious lack of rehearsal prior to getting to the stage.

4. It is somewhat rare for a new comedian to video their set for performance improvement activities. That’s mostly because they wouldn’t even know what to look at specifically for improvement even if they did video their performance.

Just check out this guy if you need visible proof.

Probably the biggest problem I have seen is that the new comedians don’t really understand what they are doing on stage. They don’t have a good handle on how comedy material is developed or delivered for maximum impact.

In other words…

It’s a complete surprise to the new comedian if their material works at all. If it does work, they really don’t know why.

No matter how you slice it…

It seems to me that most new comedians could benefit from even the most basic education when it comes to developing and delivering stand-up comedy material.

Yet, most seem to be OK with suffering at every possible comedy open mic, expecting that “funny” will just happen in a stroke of luck.

Let me say this — that’s the long and very hard approach to developing a killer act for the stage.

Cheers,
Steve Roye
The Professor of Funny for Money

About the Author/Founder of The Stand-up Comedy Tips Blog

Steve Roye is the author of the Killer Stand-up Comedy System and author of the content made available in the Comedy Pro Membership Program.

Over the past decade, Steve has established himself as a leading, globally recognized expert in the field of stand-up comedy material development, delivery and entertainment business strategies for comedy entertainers as well as speaking professionals.

For more information about Steve, please check out the About The Author section on this site.

Tags: comedians, hecklers, open mic night, stand up comedy