Last night I did the Half and Half Comedy Show, hosted by Kamari Stevens. It’s a pretty good idea. The comics do five minutes, then have to riff on topics that the crowd submits before the show. Of course, when other comics are up, you see their topics and salivate over the possibilities , then you get up and draw a blank.
I actually tried this at my open mic a couple times, to mixed results. It’s went well, but the first time I did it, the first three comedians went up and said “These topics suck!” Then the crowd that put the ideas in got pissed. Backfire. Like clockwork, the next week I did the same thing. I picked up the topics and took them up to the stage. I flipped over the first one. Topic? “Shitty comedians.” Well played, crowd, well played.