Bad Open Mic Chronicles: #1 The Inside Joke

Far and away the biggest reason for a fun show is the people on stage. If they can connect with the crowd and make them laugh consistently, week in and week out, that is the best drawing point you can have. Good performers will make good crowds. The performers deserve the lion's share of the credit when an open mic (or any comedy related show) does well.

BUT! Just like in any good Jennifer Aniston movie, there is always a but(t), atmosphere, lay out, and small details to a show can end up being the breaking point. And those things simply come down to the person/people running the show.

This is part one of many on things that I fail to understand yet have noticed (and have had other comics who attend many open mics second the opinion) that to me drag a show in a bad direction.

1: The Inside Joke:

Ever been standing around at a party where you only know a few people and throughout the night you hear others laughing at weird references as you stand their with a more blank face than The Blank from Dick Tracy? (I'm really starting to reach with these references.) Someone says, "Balls taste like bananas" and everyone cackles as you sit there and question if that has a separate meaning or was this person recently intimate with a much-to-do monkey. It's uncomfortable and when they inform you, "oh... I guess you jus had to be there" you tend to hate that monkey lover for the better part of the night.

An inside joke, on stage, that can be weaved in without the crowd catching wind you did it, is a fun thing comics do when repeating material to entertain each other, I get that, and support it. But when you do it on stage and it comes across like, "I'm only up here to entertain these three guys who came to sit up front for my set and will then return to the bar to make noises the second I'm done" - it makes people feel like like an outsider at a party.

If there is fifteen people at the show, and they all know each other, THEN let'er rip. It's not an inside joke if everyone gets it... it's just a joke. But, if there is even a couple of people there who won't understand it, don't make them feel unwelcome.

Instances I Have Seen

I have seen comics, who go on stage regularly, make references to another local performers material... when that performer isn't even on the show that night. I feel that needs repeated with pauses for dramatic effect. They make reference to... a guy no one in the crowd has probably seen... or if they have probably don't remember the jokes he did two or more weeks ago... and make reference to it in a "roasting" like fashion... when that performer is not even in the building.

On a slightly smaller scale, when someone makes a joke about a comic that is on the show... but hasn't performed yet. The regulars will get it, because they are familiar with the names and are probably acquaintances, if not friends, with most of the performers. To everyone else you might as well have been talking about the imaginary friend you had when you were eight (or still have... not judging). It's like making fun of a town someone is going to for the first time next week. Once they visit there, they might understand, but if they haven't been inside the city limits they aren't going to know what the town smells like.

How To Stop The Problem

People do Open Mic's to have fun. That's what they are for, it's a small thing and not everyone who goes on stage does, or should, take it seriously. You can't control what people say on stage before you know what they are going to say. From my basic understanding of physics as well as my growing and somewhat disappointing understanding in the lack of time travel, seeing into the future isn't possible. But after a few times to the plate, if the batter constantly swings at pitches low and away, pretty good chance they are going to swing away. Everyone, at some point, has made an inside joke on stage, it's natural when nervous to talk about what you know. I have found a simple, polite explanation generally solves this problem. Once you explain, that eventually if they continue to go on stage, they're friends won't be around to get those jokes... it does make someone want to broaden their jokes - because there is a universal truth in comedy, and that's when you start out, bombing is scary.

If that doesn't work... be blunt and just say, "Hey Doug... shut up... no one cares about your buddy Skeeter! (That was a reference to an old cartoon... which is a good pull if you use to watch it... but if you didn't... well... then you just wouldn't understand.)

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**Disclaimer** This is NOT in any way meant to be taken as advice or fact. This is simply observations I have noticed and strictly opinion. I am in no position to tell any one, at any time, and in any field, what is correct and what isn't.