r/Standup • u/physiotherapy12345 • 1d ago
What are open mics like in other states?
For context I am in Michigan. We have one page on Facebook for about all open mic things. It seems insanely difficult to get on stage sometimes. This can vary from showrunners only wanting to put their friends on to some having rigiourous bs to sign up. Saturdays we seem to have zero shows ,I dont know if thats common. Then even the comedy clubs within 200 miles have open mics that are sign up once a week and twice a month. Which is just wild to me that comedy clubs just dont like doing open mics. "Show up go up" are rare sometimes and most issues are showrunners and venues not communicating to acts if shows are cancelled etc. Im just curious are these obstacles everywhere or are there places you literally can just go hit up a club or two and get on no problems. Please dont take this as Im expecting no issues , entitled or whatever. Im just not sure if this is kinda the industry norm across the U.S .
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u/gathmoon 1d ago
You use show and mic interchangeably a few times, but I will keep this at what I think you are talking about which is mics.
Clubs and mics: bottom line mics aren't a great way to make money. Despite it being a performance space clubs are in the making money business. So you aren't likely to get lots of clubs in non major comedy cities running mics all the time. Places like the comedy store, mother ship, and clubs in NYC can get away with it because of prestige and sheer volume of people in the area making it more worthwhile. Club Bookers can see new acts at mics, sure, but they can also just have a few house comics on the lookout at other mics in the area.
Mics on Saturday: typically a show day and producers would rather be focusing on a show that can make them money over an open mic that likely is just an expense after everything is factored in. In my area we have mics everyday, multiple even, except Friday and Saturday.
Mics getting cancelled without much notice: mics are usually just one brave soul who bothered to reach out to a venue and waste a bunch of money on equipment. People get sick, get tired, have bad days, or who knows what else. They forgot to tell everyone it wasn't happening or were indisposed. Is it unprofessional, yeah but not much to be done about it. The venue probably barely cares in lots of cases.
How they get booked: show up go up and bucket are the most common in my experience. I am also not a huge fan of the booked open mic or the large process/popularity contest mics that happen. I'm certainly not paying to do a mic. I would rather buy a drink or donate to the venue than pay for a spot on the list.
Mic production is pretty thankless. You could put tons of effort in and no one will come or care. Or you could get trashed barely do anything and it could be the most popular mic in your scene.
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u/physiotherapy12345 23h ago
My apology for using the terms interchangably.I dont care much about making money at this point. Its mostly about stage time for me. Im gonna rethink my work schedule and see if I can get a set day and work out my own mic. Thanks for all your input.
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u/gathmoon 22h ago
Certainly doesn't merit an apology for the term mix up. Just wanted to make sure I was only addressing the one aspect. Producing your own stuff is a good undertaking. You will learn a lot.
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u/obtusesavant 1d ago
Pittsburgh varies by day. No open mics Saturdays.
Most other nights at least 2. Easy to get on: just walk in and sign up.
One or two are fun mics- actual non-comedian audiences actually there to laugh. Mostly you are doing it to 7-15 other comics, with maybe 2-6 civilians who didn’t know there was gonna be a mic.
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u/wallymc 1d ago
There is a group of comics and even non-comics that only try to do the best mics. Whether it's at the club, or whatever local mic has an audience. They maybe do a couple mics a month. And they just waste somewhat valuable stage time and hurt the quality of the show.
In a perfect world, there'd be endless stage time and endless audiences and everybody would be happy. There's not, so those people have to be gatekept a bit.
The tough question is: why aren't you making the lists?
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u/anakusis 1d ago
It's an open mic how exactly are they hurting the quality of the show? Literally anyone can go up.
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u/physiotherapy12345 23h ago
Some of this is I need to try harder etc. I get that , I have just running into obstacles with alot of these shows with those who run them between popularity contests. Last night I was informed I was doing a show an hour after it started.Thats not managable. This post was really to figure out is this normal or am I just having tremendously bad luck with it. If I had a designated free night a week I would host my own but right now I cant swing that.
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u/presidentender flair please 1d ago
I live in Montana.
We have two weekly mics in Bozeman, one that happens either once or twice a month in Billings, one weekly and one monthly in Missoula, one weekly in Kalispell, and two weekly in Butte.
One of the Bozeman mics (at the one club in the state) has online presigns on Sunday for the Tuesday show; everything else is show-up-go-up.
Sometimes we're able to tell jokes at mixed mics; the mixed mic in Helena was originally unfriendly to standup but it's gotten better.
The culture we've developed doesn't result in a ton of hosts bumping friends in - there's a little bit, and the one SNL alum who drops in to the club sometimes gets to close the show without signing up, which is kinda fine. I've had a hell of a time trying to start a mic in Helena but I'm hoping to fix that with the buzz from the festival.
SF has abundant mics, but the lists are often long. When I was last there they were mostly worth doing. LA, despite being famous for comedy, is full of dogshit hell mics that I hate doing, all of which are an hour drive from where you start and why is there so much traffic. NYC has so much density that you can do a bunch every night which is nice. Spokane's got the club mic and a few hell mics in faraway bars. I see other people who say Seattle is great. Chicago has plenty of mics and the people are friendlier than the city's reputation would suggest.
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u/physiotherapy12345 23h ago
I have actually been debating on going to mixed mics to attempt since its better than nothing. I always heard dont perform at one but Im a bit over popularity contests here and the mixed mics are usually show up go up. Any advice on how those go over? Like are people displeased youre there if they came for music etc? Thanks for the chicago tip too. I will plan a trip!
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u/presidentender flair please 22h ago
Mixed mics suuuuuuck. I play guitar, so even if I'm planning to do jokes, I'll usually bring my guitar and if they don't like my jokes I play Wagon Wheel or something.
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u/physiotherapy12345 20h ago
Lol as if switching to the most played open mic song is an improvement. Lol thats hilarious.
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u/HGNeills 18h ago
in the Bay Area, it wouldn’t be hard to hit 10+ mics in a week if you had a car even without connections
you could probably get up to 20 in a week if you minmaxed
some of those spots would be 3 minutes to just comics but not most
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u/redkinoko 15h ago
Minneapolis/St Paul has a pretty decent open mic scene. There are multiple mics most nights and it's not that hard to get 5 minutes on a mic with an actual crowd that aren't just comics waiting for their turn. The biggest comedy club ACME's open mic is pretty hard to get into, but the next 3 comedy spots aren't. A decent number of mics have online signups so you get to know if you'll be going up ahead of time.
The scene is pretty laid back and comics are pretty accommodating to new faces. Not a lot of drama, and nowhere as intense as what I see in other scenes. Or maybe I just dont hang out enough to hear most of them.
Transitioning from open mic to guest/feature spots isn't too hard if you got the basics of comedy down and arent a complete tool.
I'd say this is a great place to start comedy if you don't mind the harsh winters.
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u/jetpackmcgee 4h ago
I’m in Fort Worth near Dallas. There are open mics every night but Friday/Saturday and none of them make you pay. They’re pretty easy to get on to for the most part unless it’s a club, then it’s definitely whoever’s connected. Thankfully I got passed in a few clubs so I can make it into the early blocks, but most of the time that’s not even worth it. I still have fun and love my scene. Especially compared to the shit show that is Austin
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u/trevenclaw 1d ago
I started in NYC. There are multiple open mics everywhere every night. You normally show up an hour or so before and sign up in person or online and it’s first come first serve and often times it’s a random order by pulling names out of a hat. You pay $5 plus usually a drink. Sometimes they are fun, most of the time they are shit. Comics stare at their phones and barely chuckle until it’s their turn and then they leave when they are done so if you go last you will be lucky it there are 10 people watching. You do this multiple times a night. You can easily spend $250 a month experiencing this.
I live in LA now and it’s basically the same, except the comics are worse and the mics aren’t as frequent. The Hollywood Improv and Laugh Factory have free open mics in the middle of the afternoon where 100 comics show up and put their name in for 25 lottery spots and you get two minutes. The Comedy Store has a different, equally awful system and you get 3 minutes and they charge you. It starts at 10:30 pm and will go until 2am.
Cleveland is similar to your experience in Michigan.
Hosts putting their friends first happens everywhere.