How To Break Into the Comedy Scene In Your City

3 min


Being any type of performer is notoriously difficult, as it is typically very difficult to find consistent work. In order to be successful and make a living, one must first “break into” the scene and become an established figure. This can be especially difficult in fields such as comedy as their typically is a smaller demand for comedic performers as opposed to more popular live performers such as musicians and singers. Even though breaking into the comedy scene may be difficult, it definitely isn’t an impossible task. By doing certain things and with a little luck, someone can have a really solid chance to break into their local comedy scene. By following these steps, someone can greatly improve their chances. Here’s how to break into the comedy scene in your city.

Constantly Create Material

One thing that separates great comedians from average ones is the amount of material that they can create. Great comedians like Aiko Tanaka, John Mulaney, and Dave Chapelle are always on the lookout for new material, and are always looking for ways they can incorporate aspects of their lives into their comedic routines. This allows them to have a wide range of new content that allows them to stay fresh and relevant with new audiences. No matter how good your joke or routine is, if you repeat it over and over again it will eventually become stale. You should be constantly creating new material for your performances and always on the lookout for inspiration.

Practice Makes Perfect

The saying practice makes perfect is a statement that rings true in many areas of life, but it is especially true in the comedic world. Stand up comedians are successful through their perfect delivery of jokes and impeccable timing. These are things that cannot be achieved without lots and lots of practice. Once you have created your routine, you should practice it by yourself dozens of times in order to get the delivery and timing perfect. After this, you should then move on to practicing your material on friends and family. Doing this will allow you to see what parts of your material works and what part of your material doesn’t. If you truly want to be a successful comedian, then your comedic material should be practiced many times before it is ever delivered on a stage.

Book Gigs

Once your material is created and rehearsed, the next step is to ensure that you actually have a venue to perform at. When you are just starting out and are trying to break into the scene you should definitely focus on quantity instead of quality. This means that you should book as many gigs as possible to get your name out there and some experience under your belt, rather than being picky or selective of what gigs you take. The hope is that as you perform more and more, you will be more comfortable with being on stage and playing off the audience. In addition, the more gigs you have, the more likely it is that you will be noticed and the more likely you are to break into the scene.

Ensure You Have Income

One of the lesser known ways to ensure your comedic success is to ensure that you have a steady flow of income to support yourself. This means that you will likely have to work a day job for the beginning of your comedy career. While at first this may seem counterintuitive, as you will likely want to dedicate all your time to launching your career. However, when you first start out you likely will be making very little money and will only have a handful of gigs. If you don’t have another source of income to support yourself, then you will quickly fall into debt and will have to give up on your dreams of breaking into the comedy scene. Although it will be a lot of work and will require great time management, you should still hold a job until your comedy gigs can start paying the bills. Once this happens and your career is secure, then you can quit your job and begin focusing all of your efforts on your comedic career.

Network   

One of the most important aspects of breaking into your local comedy scene is to network and ensure that you know the right people. By knowing people such as venue owners or people in charge of hiring you can greatly increase your odds of being hired for a gig. This means getting around, talking to, and forming relationships with important people in your industry. Networking is important in all industries and all jobs, but especially in live entertainment. You could be one of the funniest comedians in the world, but if you don’t network or get your name out there then you likely will never be discovered. Try to find that important connection that will help your breakthrough, and your big break will likely come sooner rather than later.

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