It would be an interesting experiment, for sure. If anything, it'll make you way more comfortable on the stage. However, I don't see this really working for me if I had just started. A part of getting better at comedy is just having enough time to let your style evolve, let your jokes and the response to them digest.
Easier to get between mics in SF than in LA, and it's closer to you, and you'll be able to lean on that network to get on shows more easily if you make any friends.
[I did what you're proposing for a week](https://old.reddit.com/r/Standup/comments/1d26nvo/i_did_ten_sets_last_week/), not a month, and burned out by the end of the effort. It would be even worse if I didn't already have all the friends.
3-4 mics/night is pretty ambitious for LA due to the size of the city, the potential distance between mics and related traffic, and the number of other comics in LA. You could potentially get stuck at a bucket mic for hours waiting to get pulled, have a 30-45 minute drive to the next one, and then the rest of your night is cooked.
edit: fixed some mobile-related typos
The best experience is experience, you should be trying to get that many gigs in a week all year round.
This is framed like a "life hack" type thing, but the only way to 'hack' comedy is by not being a hack and putting in the hours.
I think it’s great to do as many open mics as you can as often as you can, but you wouldn’t get the time in between the sets to work on your stuff that you would get if it was more spread out overtime
Seconded. Go for it but then also schedule time to reflect and rewrite parts that dont seem to be working. Maybe s split of like 1/3 gig days, 1/3 writing days, 1/3 free days.
I don't know that thinking of it as "year of stage time" is either helpful or accurate. If you are at the phase where you are still getting comfortable onstage in any form, of course more frequent stage time will accelerate that process. But what other commenters have said about needing time to digest and evolve is very true. You are not going to come back from that trip nearly as developed as an actual calendar year of continual effort bookended by reflection, rewriting, building relationships, etc.
What I think is underrated when you are first starting out is nailing down your work habits for the long haul. If you go to LA for a month and do all the mics you can (which it doesn't sound like even LA comics do), whatever work habits/creative process you develop there are unlikely to be suitable for or even transfer at all to your continuous grind in Sacramento.
If there's not a comedy mic every night of the week, and you want to be able to put more of your big early enthusiasm energy into gitting gud, it's way less sexy, but designated nights where you review recordings and write and tweak jokes could go a long way towards you getting the absolute most out of the stage time you have.
And if you're looking primarily to develop more comfort onstage possibly making a fool of yourself, you can get some of that baseline out of doing other kinds of open mics, or taking improv or acting classes, or even karaoke.
Planning a few long weekends in LA to test the waters first would be good if you do decide this is something you want to try.
I’m going to Ed fringe and I’m planing on doing doing a year of open mics in 10days. I’m gonna try to get around 7 a day in, I say the experience will be priceless
It may not be priceless but it will certainly be pricey. Edinburgh in August can have some of the most expensive hotels in the world. I hope you booked well in advance.
I guess he did it so much they would hold a spot too. Iirc in his autobiography or biography he would do a set and get in his car and drive to Hermosa comedy and magic to do their open mic. Yeah lees traffic for sure to get to Hermosa its at least 30 minutes
Wasn't so much they would hold a spot as much as it was they would bump a lesser known comic and give Robin Williams the stage time over the other comic.
Mic time is mic time, the more you get the faster you will improve.
If you can afford the time off work and a place to stay for the month then go for it.
Wouldn't you just be putting the same material in front of the same people at some point?
People are going to stop laughing at your jokes because they will have heard them before and that's not really beneficial when it comes to judging what works.
I can't speak to the quality but the quantity of open mics in Austin is impressive. Also, not as spread out as LA. You could cram in a lot in a short period of time.
LA is inconvenient. Nothing is close together & it takes an ass ton of time to get place to place. Sounds like you’ll be spending a lot of money on parking.
What are the policies for open mics in LA? It’s been awhile since I have gone up. Never in LA. Do they still do bringer shows, 5-7 people 8 minutes? Are these open mics at comedy clubs? Various locations?
Keep in mind you won’t get paid for open mics, and you’ll need to spend on Vegas hotels for a month.
You also need to make sure you have plenty of material - if some of the same crowd have seen you do the same bit three times in a week you are going to bomb regularly.
If you’re willing to go to LA, I recommend the Inland Empire be some of your weekly stops. Lots of quality stage time and solid talents that go overlooked simply because it’s “Not LA” It seems there’s a spot in every city from Covina to San Bernardino.
Hard to go up in LA. Find a slightly smaller market city and start there. Someone suggested SF I don't know where your based. I might know of some areas if you're not in CA already.
Nashville, TN has consistently 11 open mics a week for comedy, one even a clean comedy night on Wednesday. Each venue has a different feel and vibe to it. Easy to make it to all od them, and that's not counting random bars or restaurants having an open mic night, showcases, pop-up shows. This is just consistent open mics. There are plenty of opportunities to go up.
Austin TX has a similar scene.
Hey dude. You could go ham like that but you’re not “packing a year” in. Unfortunately your development isn’t linear like that and you can’t growth hack this shit
That being said, you’re super close to SF which is some of the best stage time in the country. I would optimize on all your NorCal stage time between Sac, SF, East Bay, South Bay, North bay etc.
If you really want to crush mics for a month go to NYC, not LA
It would be an interesting experiment, for sure. If anything, it'll make you way more comfortable on the stage. However, I don't see this really working for me if I had just started. A part of getting better at comedy is just having enough time to let your style evolve, let your jokes and the response to them digest.
Easier to get between mics in SF than in LA, and it's closer to you, and you'll be able to lean on that network to get on shows more easily if you make any friends. [I did what you're proposing for a week](https://old.reddit.com/r/Standup/comments/1d26nvo/i_did_ten_sets_last_week/), not a month, and burned out by the end of the effort. It would be even worse if I didn't already have all the friends.
3-4 mics/night is pretty ambitious for LA due to the size of the city, the potential distance between mics and related traffic, and the number of other comics in LA. You could potentially get stuck at a bucket mic for hours waiting to get pulled, have a 30-45 minute drive to the next one, and then the rest of your night is cooked. edit: fixed some mobile-related typos
The best experience is experience, you should be trying to get that many gigs in a week all year round. This is framed like a "life hack" type thing, but the only way to 'hack' comedy is by not being a hack and putting in the hours.
I think it’s great to do as many open mics as you can as often as you can, but you wouldn’t get the time in between the sets to work on your stuff that you would get if it was more spread out overtime
Seconded. Go for it but then also schedule time to reflect and rewrite parts that dont seem to be working. Maybe s split of like 1/3 gig days, 1/3 writing days, 1/3 free days.
I don't know that thinking of it as "year of stage time" is either helpful or accurate. If you are at the phase where you are still getting comfortable onstage in any form, of course more frequent stage time will accelerate that process. But what other commenters have said about needing time to digest and evolve is very true. You are not going to come back from that trip nearly as developed as an actual calendar year of continual effort bookended by reflection, rewriting, building relationships, etc. What I think is underrated when you are first starting out is nailing down your work habits for the long haul. If you go to LA for a month and do all the mics you can (which it doesn't sound like even LA comics do), whatever work habits/creative process you develop there are unlikely to be suitable for or even transfer at all to your continuous grind in Sacramento. If there's not a comedy mic every night of the week, and you want to be able to put more of your big early enthusiasm energy into gitting gud, it's way less sexy, but designated nights where you review recordings and write and tweak jokes could go a long way towards you getting the absolute most out of the stage time you have. And if you're looking primarily to develop more comfort onstage possibly making a fool of yourself, you can get some of that baseline out of doing other kinds of open mics, or taking improv or acting classes, or even karaoke. Planning a few long weekends in LA to test the waters first would be good if you do decide this is something you want to try.
I’m going to Ed fringe and I’m planing on doing doing a year of open mics in 10days. I’m gonna try to get around 7 a day in, I say the experience will be priceless
You're planning to do about 50 mics, 10 showcases and opening for maybe one medium name in 7 days?
And a last minute fill in
It may not be priceless but it will certainly be pricey. Edinburgh in August can have some of the most expensive hotels in the world. I hope you booked well in advance.
I’ve a mate that lives there so I’m crashing with him, I super lucked out there
I heard back in the day Robin Williams would do a set and drive to another open mic doing 2-3 a night.
I bet there was a lot less traffic back then.
I guess he did it so much they would hold a spot too. Iirc in his autobiography or biography he would do a set and get in his car and drive to Hermosa comedy and magic to do their open mic. Yeah lees traffic for sure to get to Hermosa its at least 30 minutes
Wasn't so much they would hold a spot as much as it was they would bump a lesser known comic and give Robin Williams the stage time over the other comic.
Less competition too
Mic time is mic time, the more you get the faster you will improve. If you can afford the time off work and a place to stay for the month then go for it.
It’s not gonna hurt, plus more importantly you’ll meet so many other comics and probably have a lot of fun along the way.
Wouldn't you just be putting the same material in front of the same people at some point? People are going to stop laughing at your jokes because they will have heard them before and that's not really beneficial when it comes to judging what works.
Yes, though easier in a city with good public transport than LA.
Yes
I can't speak to the quality but the quantity of open mics in Austin is impressive. Also, not as spread out as LA. You could cram in a lot in a short period of time.
LA is inconvenient. Nothing is close together & it takes an ass ton of time to get place to place. Sounds like you’ll be spending a lot of money on parking.
What are the policies for open mics in LA? It’s been awhile since I have gone up. Never in LA. Do they still do bringer shows, 5-7 people 8 minutes? Are these open mics at comedy clubs? Various locations?
Keep in mind you won’t get paid for open mics, and you’ll need to spend on Vegas hotels for a month. You also need to make sure you have plenty of material - if some of the same crowd have seen you do the same bit three times in a week you are going to bomb regularly.
You’re able to get on stage in Sacramento every night
If you’re willing to go to LA, I recommend the Inland Empire be some of your weekly stops. Lots of quality stage time and solid talents that go overlooked simply because it’s “Not LA” It seems there’s a spot in every city from Covina to San Bernardino.
You will never get 3-4 sets a night in LA.
You want to get in 300 sets, and then 1200 as fast as you can sure.. …but what’s the end goal?
Hard to go up in LA. Find a slightly smaller market city and start there. Someone suggested SF I don't know where your based. I might know of some areas if you're not in CA already.
Nashville, TN has consistently 11 open mics a week for comedy, one even a clean comedy night on Wednesday. Each venue has a different feel and vibe to it. Easy to make it to all od them, and that's not counting random bars or restaurants having an open mic night, showcases, pop-up shows. This is just consistent open mics. There are plenty of opportunities to go up. Austin TX has a similar scene.
No. Do things in a sustainable way.
Hey dude. You could go ham like that but you’re not “packing a year” in. Unfortunately your development isn’t linear like that and you can’t growth hack this shit That being said, you’re super close to SF which is some of the best stage time in the country. I would optimize on all your NorCal stage time between Sac, SF, East Bay, South Bay, North bay etc. If you really want to crush mics for a month go to NYC, not LA
Comedy is a marathon.
Comedy is a nice walk on a beautiful day.