Have you been to our shows and thought “I’d like to try stand up comedy?” CONGRATULATIONS, you have just completed the first step of starting stand-up comedy!
🎤 We are starting this series “Just Sign Up” offering tips and guidance to starting stand-up comedy. This is not a writing course, there is no fee to pay, we just want to offer some encouragement and advice to questions we get asked often about how to start doing stand up. If you have specific questions you’d like to ask, shoot us a message!
This is called “Just Sign Up” from when Wayne Memmot (Owner Bombs Away! Comedy) started comedy. Before he took the stage for the first time, Wayne was obsessed with comedy. After graduating college, stranded in his home town of Cincinnati, Wayne sought out as many comedy shows as he could find. He wound up at Go Bananas Comedy Club for one of their Pro-Am showcases. After the show he asked the host of the show, Cincinnati’s own Gabe Kea, how to start doing comedy. Gabe responded “Just Sign Up” That’s all you have to do to tell jokes, sign up for some stage time and follow through.
Getting started in anything is daunting, but trying stand-up comedy for the first time is probably the hardest first step for many passions. If you want to start doing a different art, you can fail privately for years, and emerge as the artist you want the world to see.
Comedy is different, because the only way to do stand-up is in front of people, the only way to get better is in front of people, so most stand up comedians fail publicly for a LONG time before they get good enough at comedy. One of the best places to fail publicly is at an Open Mic Comedy night.
We recommend starting at a comedy specific open mic for a few reasons. 1️⃣ You will not be the first nor last person to not do well at that open mic if it doesn’t go your way. 2️⃣ Comedy at a music open mic, even at its best, can be very difficult. At a Comedy open mic the audience and venue are prepared to laugh at jokes. 3️⃣ The host at a comedy open mic, if they are a good host, will be willing to help you with your first night of comedy. There are many comedy open mics, but two really good ones in Cincinnati are ✅ Mondays @thehubotr hosted by @leonkimbrell ✅ Thursdays @chameleon.comedy.club hosted by @jonholmeslives
You can also join the Cincinnati Stand Up Comedy group on Facebook for a full list of all the open-mics in the City.
So write down a few jokes and go try them out!
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