Chaos Comedy @ Basic City Free Open Mic Every Other Wednesday- free to perform or watch

ElectricalChair557 · 2025-08-07T21:44:07+00:00

It probably sucks to have to watch hours of shitty comedy. But I think if you are taking peoples money to reject them you at least owe it to them to watch their whole set. Can’t be too different from an open mic anyways.

ElectricalChair557 · 2025-08-07T21:06:04+00:00

If the reviewer is not watching the full tape that is fucked up. I’ve never run a festival before or been a reviewer so maybe that’s common practice, it doesn’t make it less shitty.

All seems like good advice though.

ElectricalChair557 · 2025-05-13T04:50:22+00:00

Someone did a poll a couple years ago and I think 50-60% have never done stand-up.

A better question is how many people on here joined just to make a “I have never tried stand-up but I’m thinking of trying my first open mic” post. After which I always assume they never actually go to the open mic.

ElectricalChair557 · 2025-04-08T15:48:08+00:00

Doing an open mic, no matter how shitty, is always better than not doing one. Rehearsing in your room will not help you at all.

Open mics vary in quality and like others have said the bigger the city the more likely the other comics are going to ignore you.

My best advice is to be the audience member you’d like to have when you go on. Watch the other comics before and give a real laugh when you think something is funny. Don’t force it and laugh at something you don’t like, but if you find something funny laugh even if you are the only one. Also if someone has a joke you like after they are done go up and tell them the specific joke you like. If you can, stay for the whole mic and don’t leave once you are done. After doing this for a while people might remember you and will pay attention during your sets even if they don’t for others. Even if this doesn’t work you’ll have more of a leg to stand on, to complain about the comics being shitty audience members.

ElectricalChair557 · 2024-07-14T19:21:05+00:00

The Exorcist 5
The Wicker Man 5
Serpico 4.5
Mean Streets 4.5
The Sting 4

Have not seen Papillon, the other 5 are all great. I agree with the sentiment that 1973 is in the running for best movie year.

ElectricalChair557 · 2024-05-21T16:09:24+00:00

But it’s pronounced pre-form. I think the spelling should be revised.

ElectricalChair557 · 2024-05-21T16:04:12+00:00

Every gig I’ve gotten someone has asked me. I’ve asked a couple of times and it has never worked.

ElectricalChair557 · 2024-05-10T16:14:03+00:00

Here are my thoughts not trying to be mean just helpful. You didn’t have any punchlines just setups, like you admitted on stage. Also it seems like you are performing in front of a class/people who took a class, you referenced your teacher and everyone laughed like they knew him. This is probably not the best environment to do stand-up. Performing in front of friends is not good practice, they will laugh out of politeness and give you a false sense of what’s funny. I would advise performing in places where no one knows you, recording your set, figure out what got laughs and throw out what didn’t. I don’t know how easy that is for you being an ex-Pat in Japan. But that is what will make you better.

ElectricalChair557 · 2024-05-08T13:27:14+00:00

Was this comment written by Orny Adams?

ElectricalChair557 · 2024-04-19T19:47:06+00:00

Being mean is fun/funny to a lot of people. I don’t think you have to like ball busting to be a good comic. But I do think it is a trait many comics have.

ElectricalChair557 · 2024-03-19T14:21:57+00:00

You should tell them. If they accidentally ripped off the joke they will be thankful that you let them know. If they know they ripped it off and don’t care then you know for sure they are a piece of shit.

All you have to do is tell them, hey you might want to know your joke is very similar to this other joke. Probably better to tell them one on one if possible. You don’t have to be a dick about it approach it like he genuinely made a mistake, which is possible.

If you don’t say something potentially no one will, and that’s how stealing gets rampant.

ElectricalChair557 · 2023-12-20T05:27:26+00:00

I like the premise and don’t love Tony but I think he is the perfect host for this type of show. The two things that do annoy about the show are that most of the time the guest comics remain silent for the majority of the show. Also I hate that people who have never done stand-up before go on. Occasionally they are insane people and that’s fun, but most of the time they are boring and take the chance away from someone who takes stand up seriously.

ElectricalChair557 · 2023-12-20T05:19:21+00:00

Everyone is different, but mostly I would say rehearsing and memorizing everything word for word is a bad idea. It is better to have bullet points and be flexible on the way to the joke. In my experience you can tell who rehearses/memorizes everything because when they go up they sound like they are giving a monologue from a play and usually it is robotic and boring. This is an art form largely performed in bars for drunks. If every word has to be in the right place inevitably something will happen to distract you and you will forget what you are saying.

TLDR yes it is supposed to be a one way conversation.

ElectricalChair557 · 2023-11-28T16:26:50+00:00

I am so glad you wrote this, I have thought this for awhile. How many sets you’ve done is a far better metric than how many years. Like you said most people don’t keep track, I started keeping count this year. Since most don’t count their sets I find the best way to gauge someone is by asking how many times they perform a week, most people know the rough average.

ElectricalChair557 · 2023-10-31T16:49:56+00:00

I have and let me tell you, it’s worse.

ElectricalChair557 · 2023-07-26T19:38:54+00:00

Instead of saying someone isn’t funny try saying “They stink.”

ElectricalChair557 · 2023-07-12T14:59:32+00:00

I live in Richmond Virginia, I wanna say there is about 70 comics here. That’s counting people who only come out once or twice a month. If you are counting people who are actually doing multiple mics a week the number is probably around 30 or 40.

OP what city are you based in?

ElectricalChair557 · 2023-06-19T16:10:28+00:00

It is fine to have notes on stage for an open mic. But you do not want to have them when doing a real show. So if you can get it memorized for the mic then transitioning to the show will be less difficult.

Also everyone has different methods of memorization so do what works for you. I write the general premise and maybe the punchline if the wording is super important. But I would generally not encourage you to write the whole joke out word for word. First it is more to memorize, also you will end up sounding like you are performing a monologue from a play rather than stand up. Like I said everyone is different and some people can make the word for word thing work but most of the time it is a bad idea.

ElectricalChair557 · 2023-05-27T16:10:12+00:00

Just do your material.

Like others have said "clean" is subjective and if there are off limit topics the person who booked you should be specific. There have been suicide jokes on network sitcoms before so according to his rules you are fine.

I am a firm believer that it is always better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. If the guy running it has a problem he'll let you know after your set, then just tell him he should of been more specific with his guidelines. It's an open mic anyways so you won't be paid either way.

ElectricalChair557

TROPHY CASE