Ever done an Open Mic night?

DeVore

Stand up is something I've often thought of giving a shot but I'm terrified of the idea of not being funny

I've done 3 hours of improv on my feet while auctioning stuff for charity which was a lot of fun but actually getting up in front of a crowd who are sitting there, looking at you, thinking "ok funny man, make me laugh" scares the sh*te out of me.

Has anyone done an open mic night? Are there any good ones around town? Would we have enough people from Boards to do one (so that we dont get lynched if we suck).

DeV.

Jesus Wept

Friend of mine organises loads of comedy in town including open mic nights (and workshops leading to them).

Can provide his contact details.

One Cold Hand

There's one in the Ha'penny Inn every Tuesday and Thursday night. I think the Thursday is more for beginners / cappers.

There's sometimes one in Doyles on Sunday evenings, but I don't know if it's every Sunday.

There's also open mics in the Flowing Tide on Abbey, but I don't know the time or day.

DeVore

What's the standard at these things like?

Might be fun to do a Boards event of an open mic night, I might try my hand at one if I felt amongst friends (or at least, people I can ban the next day )

DeV.

6th

I like the sound of a Boards one.

One Cold Hand

DeVore wrote: »

What's the standard at these things like?

Might be fun to do a Boards event of an open mic night, I might try my hand at one if I felt amongst friends (or at least, people I can ban the next day )

DeV.

Between 'quite good' and 'diabolical.'

I've been to a few, my mate has been doing a few of them over the last year or so.

I've seen a few people die on stage. One guy was hammered and it was his first night ever. He literally couldn't remember anything thing he was going to say.
In the space of a year or so my mate has gotten 'quite good'. By quite good he I mean he can do a 7min slot, tell a few quite good jokes and generally get a few good laughs. And at this stage he's quite comfortable standing in front of a crowd of 50 or 100. Obviously he's no Billy Connolly just yet. I suppose, like yourself, the hardest thing for me would he to stand there for 7/10mins knowing you have to make people laugh.

Earthhorse

I was going to start a thread asking asking how to get involved in the scene.

If there were to be a boards one I'd like to give it a shot.

I know Galvasean has done some stand up before so maybe he'd be willing to do it too?

Zapp Brannigan

I like the idea of a Boards one! but I wouldn't get up on stage, I'd just make sly comments about peoples performances and feel all smug!!

Sangre

While I think I can make people laugh I'm really bad at telling an actual joke so I doubt this would be for me.

hotspur

Dev the reality of it is that very few people who get up and do comedy are particularly good, and this includes people who do it for a living. I used to do stand up a few years ago and in my experience if you have a good sense of humour, are clever, and are creative (all of which are abilities you appear to possess) then you will be fine. The fact that you can also write is a boon, as is being a fellow Bill Hicks devotee.

I'd say to try it on your own, that is don't use a boards event as a safety net, get up in front of a crowd of non-friends and do it. I've seen people bring half the crowd as friends and it's cheating

As people have said the likes of the halpenny inn, the flowing tide, doyles etc. are perfect. Probably I would go for the halpenny inn 1st. Also I wouldn't bother with any workshops, they're quite necessary if you already have the confidence to get on a stage.

You couldn't do worse than most of the open mic performers if you tried, the standard is very very low, check out the shows and see.

nicelives

hotspur wrote: »

Dev the reality of it is that very few people who get up and do comedy are particularly good, and this includes people who do it for a living. I used to do stand up a few years ago and in my experience if you have a good sense of humour, are clever, and are creative (all of which are abilities you appear to possess) then you will be fine. The fact that you can also write is a boon, as is being a fellow Bill Hicks devotee.

I'd say to try it on your own, that is don't use a boards event as a safety net, get up in front of a crowd of non-friends and do it. I've seen people bring half the crowd as friends and it's cheating

As people have said the likes of the halpenny inn, the flowing tide, doyles etc. are perfect. Probably I would go for the halpenny inn 1st. Also I wouldn't bother with any workshops, they're quite necessary if you already have the confidence to get on a stage.

You couldn't do worse than most of the open mic performers if you tried, the standard is very very low, check out the shows and see.

I'd second Hotpsur's encouragement there Dev, go for it, you really just have to jump in and develop it from there.

I wouldn't agree with your review Hotspur of the standard being "very very low", fair enough you can experience a couple of depressing nights sometimes where the energy is all wrong and it's not working for anybody but most of the time the standard is quite good, there's some very funny people out there who get a great buzz out of it, come back to 'open' nights repeatedly and are not desperately trying to secure a mortgage from it.

The scene is getting very crowded with people doing comedy moreso than it was even a few years ago so hopefully some cream will be encouraged to rise to the top.

orestes

Just give it a crack a few times and see how it goes man. The best places for open mic are the Battle of the Axe at the Hapenny Inn (the Tuesday is for new guys, the Thursday is for guys who have done a few Tuesdays and did pretty well) and the Neptune Comedy Club in the Flowing Tide every Friday. Just give the guys who run them a text or a call and they can sort you out with a spot about a month down the line cos the waiting lists can be pretty long. Places like the International have far longer waiting lists, ranging from about three to nine months depending on the club for your first spot. If you wanna pm me I can give you the numbers for the people to get in touch with, they're nice guys so don't be worried about giving them a shout.

As far as the standard goes it's almost impossible to guess since it's open mic. You can have a night where everyone is really good or a night where everyone is realy poor. I'm on the open spot circuit myself and some of my favourite comedians (not me by the way) on the entire Irish scene are regular performers at open mic nights. Although there are some right stinkers out there aswell I gotta admit.

Screw it, just give it a shot, what's the worst that can happen?! Check out the worst comedians thread, you can't be any worse than some of that lot!

Galvasean

Earthhorse wrote: »

I know Galvasean has done some stand up before so maybe he'd be willing to do it too?

Hello. (and sorry for not responding to your PM, i only remembered it now!)

Yeah the idea of a Boards comedy fest sounds great!

I've a few gigs under my belt (nothing over 15 minutes mind, but id say i have about 30mins of material).

...perhaps I'll start a pimpalicious thread..

DeVore

omg I dont think I could work up the nerve to go up in front of complete strangers hahahahh. I also think a Boards night of comedy would be great, we did a Boards Band night and we packed the Sugar Club!

Also, it would be a lot of fun to do one in support of Santa Strike Force perhaps.

It would certainly put the SUC forum on the map... might also be some good PR for more experienced comics...

I dunno, I'm completely new to the scene but I'm sure there are a few people who would like a friendly crowd to ease themselves into it

DeV.

orestes

I think a Boards one would be a good idea.

It would give anyone who has always wanted to give it a shot a good experience since it would be a very friendly atmosphere and take a lot of the fear factor out of it since the first one can be bloody terrifying (I felt physically sick for three hours after I got off stage after my first gig! ).

grames_bond

DeVore wrote: »

Stand up is something I've often thought of giving a shot but I'm terrified of the idea of not being funny

DeV.

mate i was the exact same as you, but if you let that be a barrier to you, youll regret it down the line, if you know a bit about comedy and you find your own set funny then go for it, hell if worst comes to the worst and you die on stage, so what? these are people that may never see you again. ive seen comedians who have dies on their arses go on to win the angelic banana comedy smackdown not long after that! seriously i saw just go for it!!

oh yeah, hi everyone, im graham!! mate, and brother in arms comedian of galvasean!!

Earthhorse

Galvasean wrote: »

Hello. (and sorry for not responding to your PM, i only remembered it now!)

No worries mate, I figured you had bigger fish to fry or something!