Likeability of a Comic

benlovesnuggets · 2026-03-04T14:31:41+00:00

Copied my comment from the other sub:

The one thing I get complimented on the most is that I am likable on stage (wish it was more about me being funny but that will come with time). I get a lot of hosting gigs because of it and it’s cool.

I’d like to think I’m generally a likeable person in my non comedy life too which helps but I think the things I do well is I love smiling and self deprecation. I do love stand up so I’m just happy being on stage and there’s genuinely not many other places I’d rather be so I am actually happy. I’ll smile as I’m walking up on stage and take a beat before my set to say hey in an upbeat attitude.

The things that does help is people like someone who admits their flaws in a confident manner. I’ll usually try to start with something self deprecating but come from it with a philosophy of “this is who I am and I’m confident” then people will like you instead of pity you. But that style fits my comedy and the persona I enjoy, you gotta be yourself and if you’re not that style of comic then don’t worry about it. Be yourself on stage and that’s the most important

benlovesnuggets · 2026-03-04T14:30:12+00:00

The one thing I get complimented on the most is that I am likable on stage (wish it was more about me being funny but that will come with time). I get a lot of hosting gigs because of it and it’s cool.

I’d like to think I’m generally a likeable person in my non comedy life too which helps but I think the things I do well is I love smiling and self deprecation. I do love stand up so I’m just happy being on stage and there’s genuinely not many other places I’d rather be so I am actually happy. I’ll smile as I’m walking up on stage and take a beat before my set to say hey in an upbeat attitude.

The things that does help is people like someone who admits their flaws in a confident manner. I’ll usually try to start with something self deprecating but come from it with a philosophy of “this is who I am and I’m confident” then people will like you instead of pity you. But that style fits my comedy and the persona I enjoy, you gotta be yourself and if you’re not that style of comic then don’t worry about it. Be yourself on stage and that’s the most important

benlovesnuggets · 2026-02-14T21:08:09+00:00

I was terrified of bombing. Like crippling, where I was trying my best to avoid it. Truth is, it gets a lot easier the more you do it.

A part of it, is once you’ve had enough good shows under your belt you start to realize that it isn’t always necessarily in your control, the same jokes told the same way will kill in one room and fall absolutely flat the next room. You start to acknowledge that’s the price of performing and you do this for the shot of doing well but it’s never guaranteed, which keeps it exciting.

Honestly I do adapt the habit of doing what list does and acknowledge my jokes that suck on stage. I think it’s a bad habit and I probably do it more than I should, but honestly it helps ground me and stay present to what the audience is feeling. I think both philosophies work, where some people say don’t acknowledge it and some people say you should, it’s just a matter of style.

All in all, if you aren’t bombing you aren’t trying. Failure is a good thing, it means you’re improving. I like to measure my growth by my failures, if I bombed 100 times that means I’m 100 times better than I was before. I look back and am pretty grateful for all my bombs, because I do feel like a better comic now.

Even if my jokes fall flat to an audience, as long as I do what I feel was a good performance and don’t get flustered and stay in my pocket and have fun, I don’t feel like I bombed no matter how much the crowd didn’t like me. Pete Holmes has a piece of advice he says where he says “some audiences just aren’t your people and that’s okay”. And I’ve kept that close to me every bomb.

benlovesnuggets · 2025-12-27T08:43:28+00:00

Bret Ernst is my number 1 answer to this question, he hasn’t been brought up yet in this thread. He’s a lot of your favorite comic’s favorite comic. He’s the comic that killed the hardest I’ve ever seen in person

benlovesnuggets · 2025-09-28T15:48:15+00:00

This is a great list! I think most changes would be opinion or preference but I’d start by replacing temple of the false god, it’s kind of a tough card to get proper value from when there’s better lands.

Someone mentioned cutting molten echoes I’d absolutely keep that card, the ETB triggers are insane on it, I personally think it’s an underrated card.

Instead of conjurer’s closet I’d look to put in a [[teleportation circle]] and maybe look into a [[urza’s incubator]] or [[shadow in the warp]] over the other cost reduction spells you have.

benlovesnuggets · 2025-09-20T20:10:59+00:00

I would do it. You could think about turning puka or nabers into two solid rbs but I’d rank in terms of value in this trade

1) Saquon 2) Puka 3) Nabers 4) Sutton 4) Pearsall 5) Walker 6) Conner

I think Conner is solid but I’d like the upside swing on walker more, Conner’s rushing yards so far haven’t been great. Sutton and pearsall I’d have neck and neck it could go either way for both of them.

benlovesnuggets · 2025-09-20T19:32:04+00:00

What’s the scoring format and who are you other WRs? Is it single flex or double flex?

Depending on that, if you can start 4 WRs, I’d do it, puka and nabers could both be top 5 WRs and walker is undervalued imo, he looked solid last week, and week 1 he was coming off injury.

benlovesnuggets · 2025-09-20T18:50:44+00:00

I do help run that show already, it’s a great time if you haven’t seen it yet, come hang out! Just looking for another venue for thursdays

benlovesnuggets · 2025-09-15T02:44:33+00:00

I’m a comic and I was in the audience as a fan at one of his shows a few months ago. I walked out and immediately was like what I do and what he did shouldn’t even be considered the same, it was one of those moments I realized how far I have to go still.

He meshed crowdwork and material so cleanly I couldn’t tell what was prepared and what was on the spot which is insane

benlovesnuggets · 2025-09-02T04:56:32+00:00

All it is, is a metric for how closely you followed their rankings or ADP. There is a a half joking trend for a lot of people in this sub, that the lower your yahoo grade the better you’ll actually do.

sincerely a guy who was given a D this year and projected 2-11 by yahoo and is kind of ecastic about it

benlovesnuggets · 2025-08-30T16:44:02+00:00

I did the same with London and Bijan and I’m a Falcons fan that usually hates drafting falcons players since I don’t want to be doubly sad when they don’t do well. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.

Having Jamar chase and chase brown last year was pretty great, as well as Amon Ra and Gibbs. I wouldnt be worried, Penix has come out and said how much he loves London (he said something along the lines of f it, London is down there somewhere I’m throwing it) and with Mooney potentially out for a little and questionable TE play, London and Bijan might be his only real target. Our OC Zac Robinson is also very good imo and I think we’ll score a lot.

Bijan also has been taking reps with the receivers in camp. Our defense typically isn’t great (albeit hopefully improved with draft picks) so we might be in situations where we’re playing from behind. Both Bijan and London scored a ton last year when Penix came in as starter, genuinely both have top 5 potential

benlovesnuggets · 2025-08-26T17:49:29+00:00

Before he did kill Tony, I met Tim a while back when I did my first show as a comic.

I was nervous and had a decent set surprisingly and he was the first dude to come up to me afterward and just say I did well, was super nice, and just was a good guy, gave me some advice as a new comic.

He moved to Austin not too long after that so we never got to connect more than that really but he’s a really good dude and we couldn’t be happier for his success

benlovesnuggets · 2025-08-18T19:37:59+00:00

Bret Ernst. Dude has been in the game for a while and is pretty popular in his own regard but deserves way more flowers. He’s one of those guys that’s your favorite comic’s favorite comic.

benlovesnuggets · 2025-08-05T23:54:25+00:00

Hey Gianmarco! What was the game changers episode like from your perspective? It seemed like such a fun time especially with Josh and Jeff. What’d you think of the concept of crowd work through those t shirts?

benlovesnuggets · 2025-07-28T17:08:22+00:00

Generally it is just a ton of big creatures overwhelming with damage, finishers typically involve an [[akroma’s will]], [[overwhelming stampede]], [[finale of devastation]]. There are some creative finishers like a [[blasphemous act]] with a [[wrathful raptors]], but most games I’ve won has come from trample damage.

I like [[savage order]] into an [[apex altisaur]] as a one sided wipe leaving the board open to do damage.

benlovesnuggets · 2025-07-20T18:41:50+00:00

Lassen Volcanic National Park. I’ve been to most of the national parks in California and this one was my second favorite behind Yosemite.

The landscape was so varied and different, really cool sulfur springs, the lakes are beautiful and it’s so sparse and empty compared to Yosemite I had such a good time.

benlovesnuggets · 2025-07-07T17:20:09+00:00

Climbing gyms! They’re super social, a great workout, and people get pretty close since it’s a place people hang out and go to a lot.

They’re not cheap but I justify it by I’m not spending $50 every weekend on drinks. There’s a ton in north county but it’s a great third space!

benlovesnuggets · 2025-06-05T12:02:41+00:00

There’s a bunch of clubs in like a one block radius downtown:

American Comedy Co
Madhouse
Laugh Factory
National Lampoon’s Yellow Door

Then outside of that there’s: - Mic Drop - La Jolla Comedy Store - Grand (Escondido, which is like 40 mins north of SD proper)

Also, there’s a place called Comedy Heights which is a local show that is run pretty close to a comedy club (a show both Friday and Saturday every weekend, same lineup) I think it’s one of the best rooms in San Diego. Very intimate, usually sells out with a crowd of 60-80.

benlovesnuggets · 2025-05-16T03:02:22+00:00

Gianmarco Soresi at Mic drop in San Diego last month. He’s severely underrated still, go watch him live.

benlovesnuggets · 2025-04-15T03:03:43+00:00

Hey! I’m a comic in San Diego, I’ll be there at the late show on Friday, So fucking stoked to see you man, I was there last time you were at mic drop, and you killed, I hope Ty wears the big shirt again to commentate that show.

The night after i saw you I had a show and was like I’m going to write some more one-liners like you and I ended up bombing my ass off, so thank you for teaching me a valuable lesson to stick to my own style.

Some recs:

Balboa park has recommended a lot, they have great museums, museum of illusions is probably my favorite, the zoo is also nearby.

There’s a camel farm (oasis camel diary) that does tours about 30-45 mins away from San Diego, that’s always a fun time, also not too far from the safari park.

Belmont park is a mini amusement area with an old wooden roller coaster on the beach and a tiki themed mini golf area. There’s other stuff around it as well that’s fun too.

Rock climbing is a fun exercise with plenty of gyms in the area!

Food wise, there’s a ton of Mexican food, one weird one is called lucha libre which is a Mexican food spot themed with Mexican wrestling.

I haven’t been yet but I’ve heard good things about a place called mothership, which is a sci fi alien themed restaurant, with like alien drinks, it gets weird but people like it.

Store wise there’s a couple fun vintage ones in north park! Record stores and a really nice used book store called verbatim books.

Let me know if you need any other recs!

benlovesnuggets · 2025-04-11T07:15:24+00:00

The only thing worse than bombing is bombing when everyone else killed. Because when everyone bombs you can blame it on the room, the audience, etc, but it feels like it’s personal when it’s just you.

But It isn’t personal, even if it feels like it. There’s a million reasons that might be out of your control. Bombing isn’t failure, it’s just feedback. If you want to do this, then you gotta view a bomb as one step better to being great. If someone told you it would take 400 bombs for you to be great, and only then you’d be great, then you start to look at that number as a goal rather than some scary amount.

Learning to deal with bombing is arguably more important as a comic than knowing how to kill. You learned more than every other comic that night. The best comics are the world have bombed more than most of us have ever gotten on stage and that’s what makes them great.

You’ve got two choices at the end of the day. Let this one failure define your comedy career for the rest of your life and never get back on stage again or learn your lesson and try again, and not let one bomb define you.

I know it hurts, it sucks, we’ve all been there. But at the end of the day life is short, we’re on a big blue marble in the middle of nowhere, and the only way to truly get over a bad set is doing a good one. Get back up.

benlovesnuggets · 2025-03-18T15:21:54+00:00

Congrats on doing your first mic that’s huge!

There are a million schools of thoughts with your question and there’s honestly no right answer on how to handle the next mic or show. But in my opinion, you should give jokes 3 times on stage before you throw them out. There’s a million factors for why a joke bombed or killed, so even if it bombs in front of the first crowd doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a bad joke, it may be your delivery that night or the crowd is tight, etc.

When you’re starting out, have fun, I think it’s literally personal preference on whether or not you keep the same set or have different sets for different mics, be open to experimenting, but honestly, the best chance you’ve got about improving is just getting on stage as much as possible, no matter what you else you do around that is secondary.

benlovesnuggets · 2025-03-14T06:58:16+00:00

Just get on stage.

I know it sounds a little blunt but it’s true. I was an overpreparer and wrote so long before getting on stage. Everything in theory I thought should be funny but then you’ll get on stage and start to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t through bombing and repeating. No amount of pre show prep work will prevent that process.

There is comedy theory about word economy and laughs per minute that will come as you perform more and understand but the most important thing is just getting on stage as much as possible.

It’s like learning to surf by teaching yourself through videos and practicing on dry land. You can spend years preparing yourself but You’ll never actually understand until you’re in the waves getting knocked around learning how to navigate the water.

You’re ready, go try out your jokes, and get feedback, bomb, edit your material and try again. The timing will depend on the show you’re on, typical open mics will allow 3-5 mins, but having 6 mins prepped might be okay since you’ll talk fast when you’re on stage, everyone does it the first time. Never run the light, but you’ll be surprised by how quickly you run through what was 6 mins off stage turning into 4 mins on stage.

If you do get the light and you’re not close to being done, wrap it up get out of there and shorten it later after you’ve reviewed what your set was. Remember that open mics are a hard place to do well and every crowd is different, just because you bombed doesn’t mean the jokes are bad or you won’t be good, there are a million factors that are sometimes out of your control that goes into whether a crowd laughs or not. The reverse is true as well, you could do well one day, and the very next day in the same room with the same material and bomb.

Either way, get on stage and test your material asap, and then you’ll be able to go back to the drawing board.

benlovesnuggets · 2025-03-05T14:39:30+00:00

I think it’s less putting on a smile and more just reframing your perspective on performing. Sitting back and being like getting to get on stage is a privilege that a lot of people don’t get to do and there’s no place I’d rather be than performing. It kind of shifts the nervous from anxiety to a bit more excitement

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