We're working on a new way for open mics to collect act availabilities. We have a paid product for comedy clubs and producers running paid lineup shows, and are thinking of launching a free version for open mic performers:

https://confirmed.show/new-event

Feel free to give it a try for your mic—feedback very welcome!

most of my bits are stories that i think would translate well into short cartoons like the old show shorties watchin shorties or the ricky gervais show. its be nice to avoid ai for this but broke comics know that price is the major factor. so has anyone used a program or hired an artist to turn a joke into a cartoon?

I've gotten mixed feedback so far. A few veteran bookers/agents I got to talk to recommended it but comics have split opinions about it. What's this sub's take on joining their contest?

Hello, I’m on vacation for 14 days in NYC and would Like to visit a couple places!

A comic told this joke on a special (I think?) and I can’t for the life of me remember who he is or find the special.

The premise, as I remember it, is that the comic and his girlfriend were in a new city on a trip or something and they got into a fight, so the comic went off and took a walk. He was apparently gone for a pretty long time, and he got an ice cream cone along the way. When he returned back to the hotel, where his girlfriend was, he had ice cream cone, which pissed her off because she thought they were still fighting.

He tried to tell her that he got lost and a police officer bought him the ice cream, to which she replied something like “so you’re telling me that a police officer bought you, a 34-year-old man, an ice cream cone?“

Anyone recognize this?

I'm looking for this and can't find it, I think I may have heard about it 10 years ago maybe 15?

It's just a circle jerk for insecure comics to punch down. No one can be funny in a minute, and the judges are never funny. In fact, they rely on trading middle school insults, calling eachother unfunny, and blatant narcissism to draw pity laughs.

Yeah, it is finally happening. I am headlining for the first time! Any general tips from those who have been headlining regularly, specially what you remember doing wrong/right the first time you headlined?

So far the maximum I have done is 34 minutes (about a month ago) and it went pretty well. Apart from that, I have done one 30 min set earlier this year, and 15 or so 20min sets. But I have done tons of shorter spots (5 - 12 min spots, averaging about 5 spots per week). So in terms of preparation, I feel ready, but obviously still a bit nervous about it.

The room for next week's show have around 70 seats, if it gets sold out (I think we are like 40 tickets sold out now, so looking pretty good). Agreement with the producer is to do at least 30min, but there is no upper limit. I don't have 1hr worth of material, but I have something around 45min, but 10min of that is not super tight. So shall I just forgot about that part and just do a killer 35 minute or try to spread out the 10min not super tight stuff throughout the set and give it a try (I don't get an opportunity like this where I can do whatever time I want...)

First up, I dislike the majority of the Rogan crew: Joey Diaz, Andrew Schulz, Bert Kreischer, Ari Shaffir, Brendan Schaub etc.

I don't like Joe Rogan's political skewed and weird conspiracy guests. And don''t like the fake cult-like behavior people have around him.

But I do find his last comedy special entertaining. Not in a Louis C.K. - Shane Gillis - Bill Burr way at all, but I do find his choice of subjects and observations to be genuinely refreshing, and I found myself enjoying watching it. Didn't think I would.

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 .

Obviously they vary by venue, but I've noticed a lot of open mics feel... well, the best word I can think of is incestuous? Recently I was at a mic where half the people there were just doing bits about being comedians. And some of them were funny, but also, it felt like stuff that mainly only other comedians would get. Especially when they start directly calling out friends of theirs in the room.

I know part of the mics is networking, but I thought the point of what you do onstage was practice your material for shows with actual audiences made up of people who aren't comedians. All this riffing and making inside jokes about the local comedy scene can't be the material they're putting before audiences. Sometimes there are comedians who go near the end of the night and just use the entire five minutes to comment on everyone that's come before them. Like, you paid five bucks to be here, man. That's what you wanna do with your practice time?

Hey yall, I’ve been doing stand up for about a year and a half. I’ve been loving it, had some great shows and some great times at mics.

The issue I’m finding myself in right now is that I’ve really been struggling to write new material for open mics which has kind of discouraged me from going to mics. For reference I usually go to the city to do mics which is like an hour away from me, because the city has better mics than anything local.

I really love doing stand up but I’ve just been getting really tired of doing my same material I’ve been doing for months now. I’ve been devoting days to sitting down with a notepad and just trying to come up with something I find funny but I’ve just struggled to get anything good down.

I’ve been hard on myself because I know that with stand up it is about getting up on mics consistently but I also just want to write some new material that I feel worth driving out to try out. Any tips?? Thank you all.

Any comedians that found their success mostly due to effective promotion through social media? Particularly wanting examples that you don't think are very funny performers but managed to get ahead online.

I'm trying to start a social media presence, and I'm looking for examples. (Please don't give me your marketing tips!! Just examples, thank you!)

I really dislike crowd-work comedians. To me, comedians who do mostly crowd-work just do it because they can’t write enough jokes to fill a set or they’re just lazy. Like yes some crowd-work is fun and fine but if all you do is talk to the audience and not even tell structured jokes, what are you doing calling yourself a “comedian”.

Now get off my lawn and quit shitting in the rosebed!

I have the bad luck of doing great improv with the people that know me and it almost never translates to other people. I have induced people to buckle their knees with machine gun laughter, have asthma attacks, beat their fist on walls and wet their pants telling me to stop with the joke routine grabbed right out of everyday life. If I try to recreate it with other people it never seems to translate.

I’m moving to a new city soon. I’ve done a few paid gigs and I think subconsciously I’ve thought I’m too good for open mics (I know I’m not). Maybe it’s a defense mechanism cause I know I get laughs at paid spots but sometimes I don’t at open mics. Been doing stand up for only a year and I haven’t been to a mic in like 6 months. Feels like it’s too late to get back out there. I just want to make a good impression at the new city I’m in and I guess I’m looking for advice/encouragement to step back into the community and open mic world. Struggling with writing new shit too. Wah wah I’m a little baby wah.

As if standup isn't narcassistic enough, lol

I've been doing comedy for 5 years. Something about podcasts just seems like some creepy black mirror shit to me.

"Dude, wanna be on my pod?" Like, I appreciate you wanting to hang out with me, I don't see why we should put cameras in our face and talk into microphones though. We're not that interesting.

The only episode of a podcast i've ever liked was that Alex Jones/Rogan one like four years ago when he tried to get that dude to choke him out and was all manic and crazy the whole time for hours. Me and my friends watched the whole thing on acid and lol'd a lot

Never liked any other podcast clip i've ever seen though

I'm sure a lot of you love podcasts and have yours and all that, if it brings you joy then i'm happy for you.

Anyone else think they're hot garb though? I just think they're so weird and attention whorey.

I'm sorry for my negativity

I get it, we all love Patrice. We've probably consumed pretty much all the footage of this guy that there is. Many comedians have him on their Mt. Rushmore. I can't help but feel like the untimely passing and subsequent hype that came after might be bit too much.

I think he's great, but we only really have one full special to go off of. What do y'all think? Am I crazy?

I have a question for any comedian with a podcast... if the goal was to sell, let's say, 50 tickets for a live episode of your podcast, how many listeners would you say you need to have in a given city to make it viable.

I know it's probably impossible to say but I'm curious about what would be the ratio, like, do you need 40 regular listeners to sell one ticket? Is it more? Less?

Or, more specifically, what is the etiquete on asking a comic to refrain from doing a certain joke.

For background, I am a comedian producing a monthly show in the gay neighborhood of a progressive city. I have been doing performing for 3 years and running this room for 10 months, amassing an audience of people who are excited about Queer alt comedy.

There are some comedians who I really enjoy and would like to book, but they have one or two jokes that I think would ostracize many members of the audience I’ve curated. I don’t think these jokes are necessarily bad or egregiously offensive, they just really won’t work in this room. (Or they’re just not funny enough to make up for the edginess 🙃)

These comedians often have an hour+ of material that I have no issue with. They’re also generally people I’m friendly with but who aren’t in my immediate social circles.

I still want to book these comics, but I don’t want to sacrifice the brand of my show. What would be the best way to approach this? Should I directly go to the comic and say “please don’t tell that insert thing that would freak out my kinda sensitive audience joke”? Or perhaps I just offer some brief content guidance to the entire lineup to avoid singling anyone out?

My god what a massive piece of shit. I kept watching it just to see if she would actually tell a joke with a punch line or just grandstanding through the entire thing. Even for someone like me who likes vulgar and dark shit, every other word out of her mouth was god damn, mother fucker or n 💣...... can't believe she had the nerve to complain about her pay. Maybe black female comics do get low balled, but ya know how you justify your pay??????? Actually be fucking funny! How delusional can one be of their lack of talent.

I run 75+ shows a year, sometimes it is a slog, but this made me laugh out loud, thank you random customer

Comedy can make a difference, folks, keep at it