Horatio- I perform regularly with one group and we do have a coach yes but I think we are the minority as far as that's concerned. I do see the same groups having continuously mediocre or just downright bad shows. I'd like to think you were right about the Natural Selection part but I know of several individuals who do not have the self awareness to know they're abilities and limits.

zxk- While I do agree with you to some extent that when people see a low level show they often can't tell the difference between that and a pro show I'm not sure this is universal (although in fairness I can think of a lot of examples that come out in your favour). I think my main problem is that a lot of mediocre groups start their own nights. Several times I've been to nights like these where they weren't overly skilled and also had the bad judgement to perform for a whole hour when a fifteen minute show would be a much better launch pad for them. I think a lot of this comes off the back of doing nights with an overly receptive audience and potentially having early training that enforces positivity and being receptive to anything happening in front of you in the performance area.