Hi

I am Donna. Last weekend I performed my first bit of stand up at Laughing Horse in Kingston and I loved it! I am wondering if anyone knows of anywhere a little closer to home (in the Southwest) that has open mic stand up nights?

Thanks!
Donna

How about this? http://openmicfinder.co.uk/ Its got all the open mics throughout the country the country, hope this helps.
good to find that there is other Janners on here also

I'm pretty sure that's MUSIC open mics and not standup. Did a search for newcastle to test it and it returned two local buskers nights.

Thanks Sam, I have tried that website, but I didn't find it much use- most of the information on there is quite old and the search facility on the site isn't very good. However, searching via Google, it brings the same site back with a few bars who I've called as some of the information on the site is over a year old!

Anyway, good results this morning, I've found a few bars in Plymouth who do open mic, although most of the people I spoke to weren't sure if the nights included stand up- 'Oh, that could be good, yeah, come along', so I'm guessing most of them don't usually involve comedy! It's like living in the dark ages down here sometimes!

Oh, and I'm a Janner by default- my dad was in the Navy, actually an Essex girl

I read somewhere that you shouldn't attempt stand up at an open mic music night. Never tried it myself but I can see waht they mean, buskers nights that I've been to aren't so much a 'paying attention' kind of environment in the way that comedy is.

No, I know what you mean, I wouldn't be comfortable doing stand up at an open mic night specifically aimed at music. The audience have come music, not comedy so I am definitely looking for somewhere that does comedy open mic.

Dear Sam, Nat and Donna,

I am the creator of Open Mic Finder and I am delighted that you guys are discussing the site. Let me first address the point of the information being quite old.... Yes some of it is out of date but notice how you were able to tell that fact. Many sites list event details but you have no idea when that information was last accurate. I personally have turned up at venues to find events no longer ran which is why I built the site. I make a point of giving the data a kind of "sell by date" so old events shuffle to the bottom whereas events who have been kept up-to-date by users raise to the top.

Secondly, I am very keen to serve all performance mediums including comedy. You can visit http://openmicfinder.co.uk/Comedy to see all the events listed that specialise in Comedy but as you will see there are not many. Anyone can submit events without logging in so if you do know of places please add them.

Once again, thanks for raising those points and feel free to suggest any more improvements.

Martin
martin [at] openmicfinder [dot] co [dot] uk

Hi Martin

Yes, it was good that I could see how old the info was, definitely a plus point. Also, I gather that it is up to the venues to keep you posted on what's going on. I take a look at the link you provided!

Also, I don't know whether it was just my phone, but the number for Good Companions didn't seem to work, although when I Googled the bar, the same number came back, but I do think Ride have changed their number as that one didn't work and Google returned another one!

All hail Martin and his fine site!

I for one am joining the Joiner!

@JoLaw - I don't think you can generalise about mixed-medium open mics being good or bad for comedy. I have found such a variety not just throughout the venues but amongst the audiences from week to week.

Take the Blue Lagoon in Bristol for example: I did my entertaining, funny and though provoking performance poetry and got a perfectly attentive audience who laughed in the right places, applauded at the end and a few even shook my hand. That is an event that does music and poetry. A few months later I went back hoping to get a similar welcome and I got deeeaad silence... complete indifference from an uninspired audience. So I think the lesson is to never judge an audience until you are stood in front of them. There must have been a way that I could have warmed that second audience up but for some reason I didn't manage it. I think the opening banter is key. Don't bowl straight in with you A-material because they're not ready for it. Instead chat some interesting shit, let them get used to the sound of your voice, help massage the audience from a state of mind geared up for music and toward that required for voice-only performances. If you succeed in doing so, tell me how.

My worst performance ever was at Ride in Plymouth. Bunch of ignorant first year uni students binge drinking and talking shit at the tops of their voices. It didn't matter if you were music, poetry or a big sweaty beat boxer, you stood on that stage and got ignored!

Incidentally, all the events I run nowadays do not have a bar. I find promoting drinking and promoting live entertainment contradict each other. Let the audience bring their own booze and they remain calm, steady and focussed on the purpose of the evening. They don't need to queue at a bar, there's no noise from tills, glass washers and voices taking orders. There's no ageing hairy alcoholics propping up the bar and talking about how times used to be. There's no bar managers encouraging staff to sell shots and collect empty glasses. Basically, remove the bar and a million problems disappear.

@sootyj - Thank you for the kudos! Please do submit all your favourite venues to the Open Mic Finder website and help promote events all across the land. It takes but a moment to submit the basic details and I fill in the rest of the info for you.

You do NOT have to be an event organiser to post an event! ANYONE CAN SEND EVENT DETAILS.

Hey,

I'm looking to start out in standup so if people have any open comedy venues they know of then hit me up, I'd be most appreciative.

xXx

Ooh, thanks for brining this thread to the fore, forgot that this had been asked before...

Just thought I'd share that we're trying out a new Comedy Open Mic Night in Plymouth on Tuesday 17th April. With any luck, if we get a good turn-out of performers and a few chuckles from the audience, we should be making it a monthly occurrence.

More details (e.g. timings, venue etc.) in my original post about this: https://www.comedy.co.uk/forums/post/862837/