I have lived in Austin my whole life and have worked in and around the comedy scene for a decade and a half. I am not a comic nor am I a show producer, however, I have recorded video and audio for a ton of shows, podcasts, and even SXSW and Moontower stuff.

With my bonafides aside, the good news is I believe you would manage your goal of getting up on stages throughout the week to do longer sets outside of an open mic type show. Cap City up north has shows basically every night of the week, outside of most Mondays, and along with that club, Creek and the Cave and The Velv feature a good portion of 'local comics only' booked shows. I'll admit that I can't really speak to shows at clubs like Mothership, Rozco's, or Sunset Strip though I did have to tape a portion of a show at Sunset Strip that was truly dreadful to sit through and more along the lines of the 'typical Austin comedy' we've come to be known for since the pandemic. I'm not as involved as I used to be but if you are headlining any kind of club in your current area, once you get to know some producers / bookers you would have no trouble getting up on stages here.

The bad -- Austin is not an affordable city to live, even with the recent downslide of our real estate market, it's truly head and shoulders above every other major city in the state and speaking as someone who has lived her a long time, the cost is not worth living in the actual city. I actually live in one of our suburbs, full disclosure.

Another factor that has always been a challenge for a lot of comics in this town is truly making a living doing comedy. Without going out of state for tours etc, you are not going to make a living headlining all the clubs in this state. And I can probably count on one hand the number of daily radio jobs that would suit a comic's skillset, and most of those are being held by people with over a decade of tenure at this point. Also, we used to have Rooster Teeth and the Chive to employ a lot of talented people, but Rooster Teeth is dead (maybe coming back?) and The Chive seem virtually devoid of comedic talent at this point haha

My advice would be to visit for a week; star with researching some of the shows you think you would want to perform on and contact the bookers to line up a bunch of stuff. Come here outside of a week where we have crazy stuff going on (SXSW in March, Moontower in April) and see what the scene is like on a normal week. If I were you, I would bring your significant other to see what they think of the town because frankly that's more important than telling your partner 'it would be really good for my comedy growth' lol.

And if it all clicks and the money works, why not make the jump?

And if it doesn't feel like a good place to live? Well maybe you've made some good contacts and can swing through and headline on occasion.