Quote:
Originally Posted by Answer
When I was doing it consistently it was in the Maryland/DC/Virginia area. At most I'd do like 8 or so open mics or a competition in a month, which isn't that much. Some people go out 4, 5, or more times every week. I never really took it seriously enough to do the grind of constantly going out every night to perform, it's just something I'll do every once in a while if I'm bored.
If someone really wanted to pursue it as a career, you'd most likely have to start out doing about 250+ shows a year, do a lot of networking, try to find a venue that will let you host your own shows, and travel out of state quite a bit for little to no money. When you eventually get to the point of headlining locally (meaning you need at least 30 minutes of REALLY good material, you've most likely been doing it for a year or 2, and all the local comedians should be pretty familiar with who you are) you might make like $100 - $200 per show. It's like any kind of entertainment endeavor, it's really not that much starting out.
The DMV area had a ton of places you could perform on any given night of the week. I moved to Alabama about a year and a half ago and I think I've only done it twice since then. There's only a handful of places that do open mics and half of them are cigar bars which is weird to me. Plus I've been focusing on school so I haven't been writing many new jokes.
and to @ WRATH's comment, you're not gonna do an hour starting out lol. You'll be LUCKY if you can find anyone that will let you go on stage and do 15 minutes within your first year of performing. Most hosts will give you about 5 - 8 minutes tops, and I promise if you write 8 minutes of material and go on stage for the first time, you'll probably rush through it all and be out of stuff to say after 3 minutes. |
word man. im so deep in comedy nerd mode i've caught onto most the newcomers before they were anything, and listen to so many podcasts and shit where all they talk about is this.
i followed shane gillis from obscurity to being booted from SNL lmao. his podcast and appearances have been killing for a few years now. any of the philly guys make it down around where you were at? im not sure how wide the social circles are tbh. i think i catch on to comedians as they're just breaching past open mic circles and getting opening/mc spots and shit at places like magoobies(sp) lmao