Expert: Matt McDonald - 2/11/2008

Question
Hi Matt,
Can you tell me what happens if you are "successful" at a few open mic nights?  Is that how you can start getting bookings as an opening act for local comedy clubs?  I don't know that I could ever see myself on Leno, but I think I could be a pretty solid opening act anyway.  I know open mic night is step 1, but what can you expect after that if you go over well?

Answer
Hi Karla,

In most cases, other local comics will point you in the right direction, possibly recommend you or give you the names of bookers they know. But that cuts both ways - if you ask them for help, it's their name that you're going to use, so they are well within their rights to tell you you're not ready or that they'd prefer you not mention them.

Another possibility arises if the open mic in question is at a full-time comedy club. For example, you might have a local room that does shows Weds-Sat or something, and on Mondays they do an open mic for the locals. In most cases, those types of arrangements are there so that the club manager/booker can get a look at the local talent and user them as a resource pool for emcees. That's not true in all cases and it's not true for every show. What I mean is that sometimes an open mic show is just an open mic show and the club manager doesn't care who shows up or how they do, and in other cases the manager may only watch certain comics at a show because s/he thinks that those are the only ones who might be ready.

In some clubs, the path to emcee-level bookings is quite clearly delineated. Joker's in Dayton used to to a monthly open mic night and if you did well at it, they'd invite you back for a highlight spot at the next one, and if you did good at that, you got a showcase during one of the regular shows and if you did good at that, you usually got an emcee booking out of it. They changed the path a few times over the years, but it was always something like that.

There are a lot of ways to get bookings if you're just looking for stage time because most smaller bookers, especially those with a lot of one-nighters and bar gigs, are just looking for warm bodies without much regard for quality. Which in some ways is great, because stage time is stage time and in other ways sucks, because the gigs are rarely any fun to do.

The Catch-22 to looking for work is that it can backfire if you're not ready. For example, let's say a local comic recommends you to a booker s/he knows and you do a showcase at one of their shows as a tryout. If you do well, great. But if not, there's a good chance you won't get another tryout with that booker for a long, long time. That's doubly so if you break one of the cardinal rules, like getting the audience p.o.'d at you. So going for things too early can set you back for a disproportionately long time.

Really, the only thing that's definite is that the local comics will know the best paths to emcee booking and as you attend more open mic nights and gain entree into the fraternity of comics, they'll steer you to the opportunities that are available.

Matt