Shayne-Michael.COMedy

Open Mic FAQ - by Shayne Michael

Open mics are a great place to test out material, develop a stage presence, and get use to being on stage. After eight months of professional paid touring I realized no bar I would play in Wyoming would be any worse than any coffee house I played in Arizona.

Each city with a population over 300,000 probably has enough open mics for you to perform as a comic, musician, or poet every night if you choose. The following FAQ are meant to help guide comics find those open mics, act professional on and off stage, and learn from the experiences the open mic enviornment creates.

Even if you consider yourself a professional, who should only be working paid gigs, open mics are a great way to keep sharp. And not being sharp is a good way to make sure you don't get any more paid gigs.

Finding Open mics

Finding an open mic depends greatly on what type of performer you are. Bars that have rock bands tend to have rock musicians appear at their open mics. Be aware, if you try material out at a place that's not use to dealing with comics, you could end up chased out of the bar by angry patrons screaming, "Down with comedy! We want Ozzy!"

But that shouldn't surprise you. If it was open mic night at the Improv and a performer suddenly pulled out a guitar and burst into a Jimmy Hendrix solo, the audience would probably start a riot.

The best place to pull off both comedy and music alike is at a coffee shop. Regardless, of what the rumors about having a drunken audience may have lead you to believe, drunken audiences are usually hostile. And if they're the type of young, moronic crowd that tends to hang out around college bars and thinks Cheech and Chong are comic geniouses, they're not you're ideal audience. I guarentee, they won't be patient enough to wade through the set-up and be guided to all those clever punches you wrote.

On the other hand, coffee houses audiences are used to variety since you'll often be performing with other comics, poets, folk singers, or even rock singers who find Marolyn Manson fans who frequent other rock clubs slightly intimindating. Usually, the audiences here are a little older and a lot more polite.

The audiences at coffee houses have lived through more of life's little experiences. They understand politics. They might laugh at work-related humor because they actually have a job. In contrast to college kids, they'll laugh at relationship humor because they've actually had a relationship.

The phrase, "I've had sex, so how can you say I haven't had a relationship," has always rubbed me the wrong way. They're not the same thing. To be able to talk about the complicated relationships that can form between a man and a woman you need a couple that's spent more than one night together. College bars aren't where people look for a life-time mate. College or hard rock bars are great places to test out sexual humor and drug humor, nothing else.

Most coffee houses are also pretty good about letting you pass out flyers for up coming shows. That will help you get people to real shows when they finally come up. The coffee houses that don't really don't have much of a following.

Before You Go On...

Prepare about five minutes of material. I usually write about two pages of jokes from the USA Today state briefs and prepare them in a monologue format. That keeps me writing, and forces me to work on my delivery.

Why would I want to write five new minutes for each time I'm on stage?

I don't do that for shows, only open mics. Remember this is the only place that you can bomb and still be invited back to. Moreover, you might become pleasantly surprised how good you become at writing new material. You see, if you perform at the same coffee house over and over again, more than likely, you'll be performing for the same people over and over again. For that reason, they'll really appreciate it if you don't come back with the same act every time.

There's one other very important reason to attack performances this way. You're material won't always be a crowd pleaser. Because humor is so subjective you will run into occasions when your attitude has to sell everything. Nobody can write five minutes of gems each time up. So in order to keep things fresh you'll constantly have to improve your attitude and acting skills.

Acting Professional Before You Get On Stage

Sadly, this is the one part of open mic etiquette that a lot of people haven't gotten yet. Here are some rules you should adhere to before it's your turn on stage. And here's one good reason, your attitude as a professional will also make or break your career. If a booking agents watches you heckle and ruin somebody else's experience on stage, why should he hire you and risk you doing the same with the paid performers.

Find A Seat - Sit And Quietly Listen: Once you get to the open mic you're no longer in a position where it's appropriate to work on or rehearse your act. You may want to glance at the wording one last time. But this is not the time to perform it. That disrupts the person who is on stage, and it prevents other people from listening. And it's incidentally irrelevant whether it's a comedian, poet, or musician on stage. Treat others as you would have them treat you.

If You Do Have To Rehearse: If you're completely unprepared leave the room and then rehearse. It's more polite to leave quietly to prepare for the show, than to stay and disrupt the one that's going one.

Don't Heckle: Seems obvious. It's not. I don't care what you think of a performer, after they're done don't aggravate a tense situation. Don't lean over to another comic and quietly say that sucked. I guarantee if you take that attitude, someone else will take it with you. Moreover, you'll eventually lean over an tell that comics best friend who happens to be the club owner. If the set was lousy you don't have to go congratulate the person afterwards, but you should never call attention to it. Remember the next person who bombs on stage might be you.

A True Professional: A true professional will realize open mics aren't always the best test of what a real club audience will like and not like anyway. If something is or isn't working you should be studying why. That could be critical for you to win the audience over later. If you are going to give other comics feedback, make it constructive. Look for the positive and negative. In the end, understanding how to improve someone else's act will also improve yours.

When On Stage...

Eventually you'll be called onto stage. Take a deep breath. If you need your notes fine. Don't apologize. Just do your act. Follow these rules. These are the deepest secrets of comedy. I should probably have you shot just for reading them.The biggest secret to developing a stand-up comedy act:

If you try a joke and it works keep it.

If you try a joke and it doesn't work drop it.

That's the secret. However you'd be surprised how many people don't use it. You'd be surprised how many people keep trying a bit no matter that nobody has ever laughed at it.

Now on stage audiences interest can be shown at four different levels.

• Level One: They're not listening of laughing.
• Level Two: They're listening but not laughing.
• Level Three: They're laughing but they're not learning.
• Level Four: They're laughing and they're learning.

First you need to gauge what level response your getting. Then you need to decide how to move to the next level.

Acting Professional Onstage...

A note about failure, while your onstage, give it 110 percent. Don't blame the audience if something is not working. Remember, it's your responsibility to make it work. If the audience doesn't think what you're doing is funny, do something different.

After You Get Off Stage...

This is the time to review and reflect on how you did. Listen to the tape, immediately. Write down what went right and what went wrong. If you cut out the stuff that got the least laughs each time, and keep the stuff that everybody liked, you'll get stronger each time. It will also help you to ask yourself why a certain joke didn't work. Was there no punchline? Was the premise unclear. I usually try to fix broken jokes a few times. However, if you try more than three times and it still doesn't work, let it go. Don't do material for yourself and yourself alone.

Don't avoid all venues because they're difficult. Not all audiences at comedy clubs are easy. Don't develop the feeling your above a venue. However, if a venue does not appeal to you, look for a better place. I went to an open mic in Encino, that was brutal every Thursday. Then I found a better choice. It's always better to go up then not to go up at all.

It's also important, though not always practicle to watch the other perfomers. Find out what's working for them and why. Support them as much as you can, because they are the people who will open doors for you. You never know when you're sitting next to some very important. Treat everybody like they're that person. Even when you're in a barn/ fast food restaurant that's been condemned by the Board of Health. You may later realize that it's the wisest thing you've ever done.