I have been fortunate enough (read: talented and amazing) to win 3 major comedy competitions in my life. I have also lost a few, which were obviously crap and rigged, but let’s focus on the fact I won several. In fact, if you take away the six or seven I lost, I’ve NEVER LOST A COMEDY COMPETITION EVER. Pretty damn impressive, I think.
Here’s the do’s:
DO your best stuff. You have five minutes. Pick your best stuff over that new really cool joke about that indie band you just wrote.
DO memorize your set. It’s five minutes (some are longer). If you can’t memorize the stuff that you wrote, the audience will notice you reading off cards. I hosted a competition recently and one of the contestants forgot his jokes and said so. He didn’t move on. It takes a bit of practice – if it’s too much to ask, don’t get in the contest until you’re ready.
DO record your set. Contests are usually full of people. Be smart and learn from it.
DO practice. What? Actually do open mics and prepare a set for a contest? No, I’ll just do comedy once a month and bitch on Facebook when I don’t move on.
The don’ts (are there 2 apostrophes needed for don’t’s? don’ts?)
DON’T be fifty feet away from the stage when you’re up next. Every second of dead air an audience member starts checking their phone or starting a conversation. You’re not cool taking three minutes to get to the stage; your clock is running also.
DON’T use a stage name and not reference the stage name. “Next up is Graham Cracker Cobblepot!” (comic never once talks about graham crackers)
DON’T yell out OH! for your first “joke” if you don’t have a good football joke. It’s distracting without tying into your set. (For Ohio comics, mostly a pet peeve of mine. Example: “OH! (crowd yells IO!) You guys like frozen bananas?”) Yuck.
DON’T go over your time. You don’t win points doing seven minutes in a five minute set – you’re a dick or inexperienced.
I would reveal more, but you’ll have to private message/email me and send a check for $1000 for more info. Check out www.chriscoencomedy/ripoffnewbs for more info.