Best place to do first gig in London

[leftism]

Hello,

I'm almost ready to perform my first open spot.

Can anyone recommend a good place in central London for my first go?

I've found a few open nights that I'm considering. Rudy's Revenge and LaughterShock at the College Arms.

Ideally not 'bring a friend' nights as I'm a secret stand up!

Cheers!

[jason simmons]

Hi Leftism,

Well done for dipping your toe in. As you've already mentioned the College Arms is a good gig to do and Philip Jones (the host) is a nice guy. You've also got Pearshaped Comedy on a Wednesday which is a nice small room in central London and runs on a Wednesday.

The Comedy Bin also run a number of good nights across the capital so you can gig almost every night of the week with them. That's to name a few if you need anymore pm me and I'll have a dig through some other nights.

All the best,

Jason.
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[MikeFinley]

I'm in an identical position myself. Really wanting to start hitting the open mics. Are there any really friendly places to start? College arms looks good, going to email those guys.

Cheers!

Mike

[Martin_Caine]

Go for the one nearest to you, it will go exactly the same way, your 2nd one willbe harder though
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[leftism]

Thanks guys.

Cheers Jason. Watched a couple of your videos. Very likeable and funny. I was really rooting for you to beat the gong!

Is it the done thing to let the promoter know it's your first performance? Or willl that put them off? Cheers

[jason simmons]

Hi Leftism,

Thanks for your comments maybe next time I'll beat the gong. You could let the promoter know it's your first time but, tell them not to let the audience know until after you've performed as I got introduced as being fairly new once and it annoyed me slightly because I didn't want the audience to pre-concieve my act as being new.

When I've seen promoters reveal that it was their first performance after their act it's worked well as people are either suprised at how good the act was considering or understood why some of their material might not of worked.

Anyway it's a long journey and like you I'm still at the beginning so get out there and keep getting out there as you'll have some good and some not so good experiences with comedy.

With regards to more gigs, others I can recommend in London are: Gigs run by the laughing horse (Islington, Hammersmith, Green Park), Wits End in Aldgate on Sundays and although I haven't done it yet I've heard good things about Dirty Dicks in Shoreditch they also film your set for £5 so you can use it to send to other promoters. Best of luck with your first gig hopefully, I'll see you around and let us know how you get on.

All the best,

Jason.
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http://www.facebook.com/#!/RunawayComedyClub

[Sean Cosgrove]

Mine was at Pear Shaped.

[Timfrome]

I made my debut last year at the Kings Head,Crouch End.

Thursday night is their new act night, 16 acts approx and its all run well and not a bring a friend type gig. Audience is pretty supportive aswell.

Its a legendary venue for comedy ( i.e its been going a long long time)

my gig really well and gave me the confidence to go onto other gigs.

http://www.downstairsatthekingshead.com

Good luck wherever you start.
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Tim

[Stephen03]

Try Comedy Virgins in Stockwell or A Spoonful of Poison n Stockwell.

[MikeFinley]

Thanks for all the advice in this thread. Got my first ever gig booked for the 20th of August at the College Arms. I'm now officially terrified. Good to have a deadline though!

[Barcy Dussell]

Hi there,

I too am a new stand up type person. I'm doing gigs in Brighton & Hove but want to start doing London gigs early as well for a bit of variation and experience. The Kings Head looks interesting, but having trouble navigating the website. Is it run by the venue or is it someone else who runs the new act night?
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I am here.

[Sean Cosgrove]

Good luck, Mike - next step is to write the set and learn it inside out!

[MikeFinley]

Thanks! How the hell do you practice a set though? I'm a musician and that's easy to practice, just keep going until it sounds right. How do you do that with talking though? Surely the timing and the rhythm is so dependant on audience reaction...

I guess if I know the material well enough then I'd be able to change it up easier. I've just answered my own question, haven't I...

[Sean Cosgrove]

Bear in mind I have only been going a few months myself, but here's what I would do.

First, type your set up, in full, as you think you will say it. Double space it and print it out.

Now go through with a highlighter pen and mark where all the laughs are. If you can't find them, it means the audience won't either; you need a re-write. If they are very far apart on the page, then that's okay but they'd better be big when they do come. Even if it's intended, 20 seconds of silence can seem LONG.

Assuming there are enough laughs, in the right places, and the audience know where to find them (remember, you are a comic, not a mate telling his holiday escapades down the pub, so you need punchlines of some sort or another) the next step is to learn it.

Take a pen and read through it, aloud. Wherever the wording is clumsy, edit it with your pen. When you've got so many edits you can no longer follow it, then edit it on-screen and print out a clean copy. Especially cut out any words that you're tripping over or which do nothing except delay a laugh (as opposed to building tension.)

Now see if you can summarise your set from memory into a list of single words or bullet points.

Now take your bulleted list and try to reconstitute your set from memory. If you get stuck, look at the print out, but try not to keep reading once you're past the tricky bit.

When you wake up the next morning, try to do the whole thing from memory. When you think a laugh is due (i.e. one that you highlighted) PAUSE, imagine hearing the laugh and then carry on.

If you keep alternating between these methods - read-throughs, bulleting, rebuilding and trying to do it from memory - you will soon have 80% mastery.

Now time it as you do it from memory. You're looking to come in at about 5 mins at this stage, maybe a little over. Much more than that and it'll over-run on the night - are there any weaker bits that you can cut or save till later?

Keep practising and cutting if need be till you are not making any mistakes you can't find your way back from, and you're doing it in 4min30 to 4min 50. Congratulations - your first set is written and you are ready to conquer Olde London Towne. In fact, you will probably know your stuff better than some of the other acts on the bill, but that's surely a good thing.

Does everyone else do this or is it just me?

[MikeFinley]

Thanks, that's unbelievably useful. Just copied and pasted all of that. Maybe I'll try to learn all that off by heart whilst I'm at it. Thanks again!