My name is Dan Wickes and I built a website for the global roast battle league. I’m a comedian who’s been performing and battling for about ten years and I put together a resource to track battles all over the world. You can see results, upcoming shows and full episodes from shows in any of our cities

About ~4 weeks ago, I posted my first ever standup set (since then I've gotten hooked) and got some great feedback. I just recorded a new set I did on Sunday and was looking for feedback on hints and tips etc.

This is my second 'completed' 4-5 minute set I've built out thus far. Trying to have 20-30 min complete by the end of October.

Hey guys,

I’m desperately trying to find the name of a comedian who is a licensed therapist and comedian. I loved her work and can’t remember her name. I’m pretty sure she is based in the east coast/nyc. She is lgbtq+ and was formerly a lesbian now bi. She has a trans husband and kids. She was a niche Twitter celebrity. She had a joke about knowing the DSM and using it to get her Dr. The prescribe her controlled anxiety medication. Does anyone know her name? I think she did a live show where Rachel McAdams was a guest star once.

TLDR; I’m looking for any advice from people who have experience running a comedy room, producing live shows, booking comics, and maintaining a good relationship with the venue.

CONTEXT:
I have an opportunity to produce a weekly Thursday comedy night at a really nice bar. The event space is its own separate room connected to the bar, seats around 30–40+ people, and we can close the doors during the show. It’s already well decorated and has a TV behind the stage that we can use for visuals when needed or just turn off during stand-up.

The owner is pretty open to letting us experiment with the room, but wants to make sure we’re not showcasing material that enables sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. I’ve written up a basic content disclaimer for comics, but I also feel like the easiest way to maintain some quality control is to avoid a completely show-up-go-up mic and book the spots instead. I have also talked to more experienced comedian friends about filling some Thursdays with shows the they produce.

Right now I’m booking the opening night. The plan is a four-comic showcase followed by an open mic. After that, I’d like to experiment with different programming instead of doing the exact same mic every Thursday. Some ideas so far are a booked mic, LGBTQ night, writing/premise shows, improv/ stand up, a night where comics get new headshots, completely booked showcases, etc.

Eventually I’d also like to experiment with ticketed shows if we can prove there’s an audience for them.

For anyone who has run a room before: What do you wish you knew when you started? How do you handle booking and comics who become a problem? How do you keep the venue happy without letting them dictate the comedy? What kind of financial arrangement should I be talking to the owner about if we start consistently bringing people into the bar or selling tickets?

Basically, I have a good room, an owner willing to work with me, and a group of comics interested in helping. I want to avoid fucking it up. The room is located in the US. Metro Detroit. Ferndale Michigan.

Went to see Jon Lovitz at The Landmark Comedyworks just outside of Denver last night. That was the worst live standup I’ve ever seen. His jokes were hacky and unclever, often punching down. It was weird because many of the jokes boiled down to just having “Jew” as the punchline. The staff were all awesome; very attentive and polite. The host/opener was good and definitely the best part of the show (I can’t find her name listed online and didn’t catch it last night). My husband likes his sketch comedy and tv shows, but we hadn’t seen his standup before. We left after about 25 minutes because anything was going to be better than staying and listening to unoriginal jokes about socialists. Ouf.

I'm amazed at how comedians can transform real-life events into something that makes everyone laugh.

I wonder what you actually have to study to become like them?

Some of my friends have never studied, but it just comes naturally to them.

It's people's favorite response when they hear that you are a comedian. What is your favorite way to reapond?

I saw Matt Rife perform at the Great Outdoors Comedy Festival in Vancouver, and I was honestly disgusted and deeply disappointed by his entire set.
I had tickets for the whole weekend and decided it would be good to see him live and judge for myself instead of basing my opinion on the few clips I had seen online. My 21-year-old daughter had warned me about him, but now I have seen it for myself.
He seems completely obsessed with talking about sex in the most vulgar ways possible. I understand that sex is sometimes part of comedy, but this was beyond extreme. He argued that the United States is behind the rest of the world and needs more legalized prostitution, encouraged people to start using drugs if they aren’t already, and told a disgusting story about attending a live sex show in Amsterdam with his best friend.
I’m not going to repeat everything he said because it was that revolting. He spent what felt like half the routine acting out masturbation. At another point, they put a close-up of his face on the big screen while he described a man climaxing with a soft penis, and then he spit out of his mouth to demonstrate what it supposedly looked like. Nobody needed to see that. It wasn’t clever. It wasn’t edgy. It was just disgusting.
I understand that some people think he is sexy, and maybe if I had only seen a picture of him, I might have thought so too. But after watching him perform, he became incredibly unattractive to me. His constant need to turn everything into something graphic and sexual felt unhealthy and honestly made me wonder what his issue is.
There was also a woman who approached from the audience and said something none of us could hear. It clearly bothered him, and he retaliated by going on and on about how her shorts were too short and how much cellulite she was showing. This was not even an overweight woman, although that shouldn’t matter. I don’t care how rude she may have been. Publicly humiliating a woman and attacking her body in front of thousands of people is not appropriate. Calling it “comedy” does not make it funny.
There were also two people with severe physical disabilities in wheelchairs near the stage. One had a sign saying “Roast me,” so yes, that person knowingly opened the door to being included. But the way Rife roasted both of them made me deeply uncomfortable. Maybe those two individuals were completely fine with it because they are fans of his, but I imagine many other people living with similar disabilities would feel very differently if they came across those clips.
Overall, Matt Rife came across as someone completely addicted to talking about sex in the crudest and most degrading way possible. There was nothing insightful or intelligent underneath it. It was vulgarity, humiliation and shock value passed off as comedy.
I will never pay to see him again, and I genuinely regret going. I hope more people start taking a stand with their dollars against this type of behavior. At some point, we have to stop shrugging and accepting this as normal simply because someone calls it comedy.

Hi, I am visiting NYC and would love to attend a show at the Comedy Cellar, preferably Friday (I am coming Mid September).
The lineup hasn’t been published yet, I would love for any help on is there a specific venue as in apart from the cellar (the other 2 ones) or a specific day/timings when the famous surprise acts drop in? And when should I reserve it? Are there any great acts on the lineup i should be looking for if and when it gets published and should I wait for it to get published or should I just reserve?

UPDATE: So, I booked a 12:30AM show Friday at MacDougal St. But now I noticed Louis CK is performing new material at 5PM sunday, which altho totally sort of eating into my itinerary, but would be crazy to miss louis ck perform for 15$ tho, wouldn't it? Also, is it okay if I reserve both and later decide? I understand it might cause logictical issues for them, but do people do this or no?

Nick Offerman has two hour long specials American Ham (2013) and Full Bush (2020) both of which seem like standup but he prefers to describe himself as a humorist

Comics seem to either tell stories about their life, make observations about society or just rapid fire jokes and punchlines. They also can do impersonations, sing funny songs or use props. Anything else?

Buenas buenas a todos! Llegué hace poco a Tenerife y me dedicaba al teatro y al Stand Up Comedy antes y quisiera continuar con mi pasión aquí pero no conozco todavía lo suficiente. Qué circuitos o qué lugares tienen Open Mic, qué artistas locales hay o qué sitios me recomiendan? Gracias de antemano a todos

Just saw someone post a similar joke I made that uses trans-fats as “fat trans” that got decent traction online. I think the joke I wrote is better cause it doesn’t punch down but idk is it pointless if someone else has also made that connection?

Extra question that is a little in line with the post: Do you keep jokes that you perform that feel familiar? Like you’ve already heard it somewhere or something. But also it’s possible that it’s just a feeling, so do you just rid it entirely or choose to believe that it’s just a feeling?

I've never really "gone pro" with comedy, just participated in a few small shows, all local events. I usually practice with friends and family and that obviously means my view of myself is totally skewed more positive than it deserves to be. It does not prepare you for the real thing. Recently I completely bombed and it absolutely devastated me. I spent hours thinking about it - you have probably heard this before - thinking about witty comebacks for that one heckler, reworking punchlines, maybe thinking of a completely different angle for a topic, and so on. It actually festered somewhat and made me totally irritable, like the following day I was thin-skinned, nervous, I got really angry; basically no self esteem.

How do you deal with bombing? Do you eventually become numb to it or does it hurt the same way the hundredth time as it did the first? Is there something a popular book on this that psychologically prepares or trains you for it? I'm looking for something like "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" by Jon Ronson but more practical.

Well. I experienced my full week of hostile crowds. That was a first for me. 😅😅

Hey guys! Today is Saturday and I‘m in town tonight to tell jokes. I’m only in town today, so I’m kind of in a bind. I could only find one open mic online and it seemed like more of a musical open mic that is ok with some comedy. Can anyone please tell me of any Saturday Night open mics in the valley? Distance is not an issue

Was nervous af performing for the first time. I think a few lines in the middle need polishing