Open Mic
Natural State Comedy's open-mics provide local comedians of all skill levels a stage to hone their craft, from absolute beginners to seasoned vets. Open mics are always free to attend for audience and performers alike and will almost certainly contain adult language/themes, so you've been warned.
For a list of all upcoming shows and open mics, click here to visit the shows section.
Are you interested in performing at a Natural State Comedy Open Mic? Awesome!! We'd love to have you come give it a shot.
But before you do, here are some tips and guidelines for our open mics:
- If you haven't been to an open mic before, you might consider coming to one as a spectator first. That way you have a better idea of how everything works and when you decide to give it a shot, you'll be able to concentrate on your material and not worry about all the other stuff.
- Show up 30 minutes before the show starts. There will be a host with a sign up sheet. Right before the show, we'll gather all the comics and draw numbers to determine the order.
- Typically, you'll get 5 minutes of stage time. Occasionally, if we don't have 15+ comics show up, we'll let you do a minute or two more. However, there's no minimum amount of time you have to do. If you only feel comfortable starting out with 2 or 3 minutes, that's perfectly fine. When you get down to a minute left of your time, the host will flash a light at you letting you know to start wrapping up.
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There's no topic off-limits and no censorship on language, however, if you use your stage time to throw out a poor attempt at "shock humor", your time performing on our shows will be short lived. So what can't you do on stage?
- Don't be a misogynistic mouth-breather. Don't be a hate-fueled bigot. Don't be a homophobic tool. Don't spew racist garbage. Don't use your stage time for a desperate attempt to be predatory towards the audience members or other comics.
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"Wait, what happened to free speech? Carlin must be rolling over in his grave..."
- We're not saying you can't be just as dirty as your evil little heart desires, by all means, go for it. We're not the "PC Police", but we as an organization have no tolerance for hate. We're not stripping you of your free speech, we're just letting you know you're free to find somewhere that isn't on our stage to go speak it.
- Why? Well, most importantly, we just don't stand for that and we don't want to be associated with anyone that does. Second of all, we produce shows. Shows need audiences. And if performers on our shows skip the humor and just seem intent on spewing hatred and purposely trying to offend our audiences to the point that it affects our brand and chases them away, well... we don't really need you on our stage, do we?
- This comes up very rarely, but when it does, depending on the severity, you will either be banned or you will be warned and if you don't adjust accordingly, you will then be banned from any and all Natural State Comedy events.
Still have questions? We'd love to hear them. Jump over to our contact page or drop by our Facebook page and send us a message and we'll be glad to answer them. You'll find out very quickly that this is a very supportive and close-knit comedy community that's welcoming to any and everyone and is always happy to help you get started on your comedy journey!