open mic 33

Date: 19 June 2011
Venue 705 lounge, Hermosa Beach
topics covered: the joys of secondhand smoke, becoming my father, some unnecessary self-deprecation.

What things make an audience want to attend an open mic? Not comics mind you, but actual human beings who come to be entertained by comedy coming out of the mouth of another live human. In other words, an audience that will pay attention. I think two factors apply: the venue and the way the open mic is run and managed.

A good venue isn't necessarily a comedy club, but the idea of a dedicated space just for people who want to see the open mic helps a lot. Where the room is just 'the restaurant, with a stage in one corner', people who are just there to eat get roped in mostly against their will. Those people are bodies, but they aren't your audience.

The other factor is the organization behind the open mic. I've seen lottery-style open mics, I've seen sign up (sometimes weeks) in advance, I've seen open mics where the set list is mostly a merit-based system where people who are either regulars, or are bringing in lots of people get preference, but newer people have a decent chance of some of the shorter sets. One approach isn't necessarily better than the others, but merit-based lists produce the higher-quality shows for the audience. Some system which keeps comics from doing their five minutes and skiving off afterwards is always good.

What I've noticed is that the attention span of an audience is about 2 hours. Going longer can work if there's a hierarchy or some other idea that the comics going on later are better. The longer an open mic goes on, the more likely that people are going to check out because they just can't be bothered to pay attention.

So this is all a precursor to the ultimate point I'm trying to make about my performance on this night: I did badly, but it wasn't entirely my fault. I'd allocate it at about 1/3 me 2/3 the room. I'm not saying that this is a bad room, I'm saying that after almost three hours, a room that was good spoiled like milk.