Open Mics onwards....

Just wondering what's the normal path for performing stand up in ireland, I've done a few open mic spots around dublin the past year but nothing regular and they've been going well. I'm just wondering how the stand up circuit works, like how the best way to get gigs is to ensure i have a steady schedule of open mic spots to keep me learning and improving? Also how does one progress from say being an amateur performing at open mic spots to eventually getting money for doing stand up?

suppose i might aswell bump this.... suprising there hasn't been a reply.....

Damon Blake

Hey,

I imagine there hasn't been a reply because there's no real answer for you. You may be successful, you may not (and this may be why nobody has replied to your post below, the comedy scene here is quite small and if you were genuinely interested you could ask any of the comedians at any of the gigs and they'd answer it for you) and it depends on a number of things. I'll write some stuff out below that may help. Take it all as subjective from my point of view and please be aware that I ignore half of everything I say below. I have friends who are doing well and this is what they do to be that way.

best way to get gigs

You need to go to gigs. Hang out in the stairs, talk to other comedians, find out where the new gigs are. There's a big time commitment separate to just doing the shows. Book them though, do them, be nice about it, follow up at a reasonable time to do it again. Be a face that people can put your name to when you contact them looking for a show. If you do well but nobody hears from you or sees you for a few months, you're less likely to get a gig.

There's a double-edged sword in running your own gig. You'll get more stage time but if its the same crowd coming back it's hard to generate new material constantly. There are promoters who are comedians who will quid pro quo with you and that might help. Alternatively, if you run a show on the same night another promoter is running a show, they could get annoyed by that.

My friends who MC get more gigs than the ones who don't. You need either really good crowd skills or lots of material.

how does one progress from say being an amateur performing at open mic spots to eventually getting money for doing stand up

Getting paid to do stand-up means you have to do longer and you can't mess around with how long you can actually do, you have to be able to do it if you want to get recommended to it again. Pretend you can and you'll be caught out pretty quick. If you have ten minutes of solid material, you can't add another five with just padding. You need another solid five. Basically, opening paid slots do up to about fifteen, support is twenty and headliner is twenty five to thirty. That's how much material you need to have that works all the time, anywhere you go (it won't always, though).

Generally, to begin with you'll be bumped up to paid slots when the promoter feels like they've seen you do well enough to be paid for your time. Other venues might not though, depends how well you do at their shows.

If you want to get paid gigs you'll still have to do open spots at the bigger venues around the country and overseas. You'll also still do gigs for no money as favours, or to try out new material, or to stop yourself getting rusty. I'm not sure how many professional comedians there are in this country (20? maybe? who are only based in Ireland and make a decent living wage) but it'll be a while before you get to the point where you'll have to worry about giving up your day job.

Gerry McBride has a blog about gigging around the country at http://nopunchline.wordpress.com/, that'll give you an indication on how much work you have to do. The work can be its own reward though, depending on what you want to get out of it. If you want money, there's way easier ways to make a living.