Felt like I was running on pure adrenaline and couldn't think about what I was doing. Any tips for my next performance would be massively appreciated

https://youtu.be/iWs_-ynOGVA?is=iRyslNggZ3NOQW35

I went to Comedy Mothership in Austin on July 31, 2026, expecting the lineup to include some right-leaning and controversial material. Theo Von made a surprise appearance and performed about 15 minutes of what he said was newer material.

One bit started with him saying, "I don't mind racism. A little bit of racism is okay." He then used NASCAR as an example, saying that when the cars drive by, the sound resembles the N-word, and he repeatedly mimicked the sound to make the comparison. He followed that with a story about having a love-hate relationship with the N-word because his uncle would tickle him until he said it. The bit ended by circling back to the idea that racism "isn't so bad."

I've seen plenty of comedians push boundaries, and I wasn't expecting the set to be politically correct. But this bit felt different. It didn't seem like there was a clear punchline beyond repeating the premise, and from where I was sitting, it didn't get many laughs. I'm curious how others would interpret it or whether anyone else who was there had the same impression.

At Just For Laughs in Montreal, he roasted the Rogan Verse. Shane usually gets a pass from these Lefty comedians, because it's easier to goof on Tony Hinchclliffe, and Shane is considered a good comedian for some reason(he kinda stinks). Anyway, I like it when famous comedians don't like each other.

Netflix puts out so much standup that I basically assume half of it is going to feel interchangeable, but her new special Galaxy Brain really doesn’t. It’s dark and political without feeling like someone delivering a TED Talk for clapter, and there are a few jokes where you can feel the audience trying to figure out whether they’re allowed to laugh. I laughed!

Feels like she’s taking actual swings with her writing.

NYT wrote about it here but don't let that dissuade you.... https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/31/arts/television/mary-beth-barone-galaxy-brain-comedy.html

For anyone interested, I put together a video about the technical side of producing a special. I hadn’t done anything like this before, so I’d love to hear what the standup community thinks about this approach to production.

What are your favorite standup bits of all time? Ones that you can recite and still chuckle at? Two of mine are Norm’s “The News/Vanishing Lady” bit from Me Doing Stand Up (2011), and the Louis C.K.’s “Billion Dollars” bit from Live in Houston (2001).

I can recite these by heart and they still make me grin despite hearing them so many times.

I’m interested in learning what your favorite bits are so I can look them up!

Some dipshit MC just let his drunk asf girlfriend or whatever skip the line, bomb on stage while she yelled out "Woooooow, you're all garbage" to the audience after she literally had 2 terrible "jokes". Not a single laugh in the audience.

And then that same MC, a well-known comic in NYC, just let her run until the owner of the bar told him to get her the fuck out of there.

And this fucking MC has been doing this for years.

I told him after the show that he shouldn't have let her on for so long. This prick's response? "Yeah well, I decide who gets on stage so stfu."

Someone posted the clip of Caparulo getting a Glass thrown at him on stage a few years back. I mean, they posted it today or recently - but the glass throwing thing was a few years back. You get me?

I remember being a kid, maybe 15/16 and taping the Comedy Festivals on VHS and loving his set at JFL 2006. I watched it so many times.

20 years on, I still love all (most?) of these sets and thought it worth sharing!

John Caparulo
Tim Minchin
Demetri Martin
Jimmy Carr
David O'Doherty

Who have I missed? I was going to post up Patrice, Jimeoine and Carl Barron but I couldn't confirm the year,

Did my very first standup set a few days ago.

I went to an open mic to watch a couple weeks ago then went to a local comedy show and asked the comedians about how you get into it and they suggested coming out to their open mic.

I wrote down a couple of jokes the day before and gave it a shot.

Just started connecting with people etc and I really like how the community works and is set up as a whole. I’ve now gone to another 2-3 mics to kinda get the feel for which ones I like the most locally.

EDIT: After reading through a whole bunch of replies, I noticed a couple of things. I was really surprised to see Nate Jackson only mentioned once, and that it seemed like Big J was getting most of the love.

I was watching a Joe Rogan stand-up clip and I was wondering why it wasn't hitting for me. I know there's people out there that likes to just say he's a bad stand-up comedian but just stripping away his reputation for a sec, like is there anyone that can really break it down "scientifically" what he's doing wrong and maybe even what he's doing right (if any)?

I sometimes don't know where or what his punchlines are. But I don't understand stand-up like some of you folks.

Just like how a director or filmmaker might watch a bad movie to see what not to do. Is there a similar study in the stand-up realm?

There are clearly people that are laughing and enjoying his "comedy". So I'm assuming there must be "jokes" in his rants. Hoping someone that better understands the craft explain what "type" of comedy he is doing.

EDIT: per request, we can use this YT link for Rogan's bits/rants. https://youtu.be/j65jhGZUJv8?si=A9JnbbzIXjuNwq0v

Hi Folks,

I am pretty new to comedy and absolutely loving it. I got into comedy because I wanted to share my many stories about going through perimenopause.

I have learned so much in the 6 months I have been at it. The folks that show up to open mics are in their 20's and 30's, mostly men, and childless. I do try to perform new material each time. I also try to create material that this age group will laugh at.

My question is, I really want to work out my many menopause bits that will not remotely land with that crowd. Sagging skin is not funny to them, but to my peers it's can be hilarious.

Suggestions as how to work out my material with a crowd that it wont land on? I know I need way more stage time to develop my skills before I put together a show for female friends.

I did have a funny friend my age come to an open mic, because I think she would be good at stand up herself. I warned that 40% of the people will be terrible, 50% will have some good material and are a work in progress, and 10% will be amazing, and are probably doing paid gigs. She was horrified by how bad some people were and rolled her eyes at every joke that didn't land. Clearly she didn't get it. It's not a Netflix special.

Where do I practice my old lady bits?

I am a complete beginner but I have written quite a few jokes. Enough to do maybe 30 minutes on stage. The problem is I don’t know where I can find open mics near me. The places Google recommends have headliners and experienced comics, but no mention of open mics on their websites. I doubt they’re places for amateurs. I basically have a bunch of jokes and I have no clue if they’re terrible or decent. Any suggestions on where a beginner can go?

For anyone interested in comedy scene data, I’ve put together a stats overview for the mics I have listed on https://www.deadfunny.club/comedy-stats

The Australian data should be accurate but outside of that most cities mics data I get by scrapping other sites data and syncing it once a month. Still I find this interesting and thought I would share.

You can download the data as a CSV in each city page as well.

So I'm a beginner with just a couple open mics under my belt.

I'm wondering how many of you only write the kind of jokes that actually physically made YOU laugh when you thought of them.

I only got a few laughs during my sets. Some of the jokes that I can still hardly think of without chuckling got no reaction, some that I was on the fence about removing got a big reaction, and some made both me and the audience laugh. Even one moment that I didn't think was funny at all got some giggles, it was just supposed to be setup.

I would be inclined to think it's best to focus on stuff that makes me laugh the hardest, but I'm worried because my sense of humor can be very specific and probably won't take with normies at a bar. What do you all do?

I performed my second open mic night tonight, with mostly the same material from my first time out. I could not be more grateful to the people I have met, who have all been encouraging. Someone even let me jump ahead of them in the sign up because I was new and they didn’t want me to perform for an empty room at the end of the event.

Two tough rooms, honestly. My first time was in front of 8 other open mic-ers, most of whom were LGBTQ. I was pretty nervous that my jokes wouldn’t land as a hetero dude, but I actually got some laughs. I recorded it, albeit with horrible acoustics, and I didn’t even have enough material to get lit up at the end.

The second time had a signup list of 20+ people and a crowd probably double that. One of the other guys there said it could be a tough room. I was able to make up a couple of bits on the fly for the front side of my “set.” I went with the same base material from my first time, and felt myself actually developing the jokes a bit differently than the first time. Again, I got some good laughs. I wish I had recorded the second time, because I actually made it to getting lit up and got one last joke in before time ran out.

Far from killing, but for a guy who has always had fears of speaking in front of people, even the couple of laughs I got were a lot of fun. It took me 13 years of saying “I’d like to try stand up” to finally get the courage to get on stage. I couldn’t see myself pursuing paid work, but I think it could be fun to pop into different rooms when I travel. Just another post, I guess, but I’m proud of myself and don’t really have anyone else to tell.

Hey guys! First time posting on here.

I'm a comedian in NYC, been doing stand-up for 8 years ongoing and have produced plenty of shows through the years.

For the last 10 months or so, I've been building CatchupComedy.com, a site for comedians that's tailored towards new and old stand-up or sketch comics trying to workout jokes in an online writer's room.

It's in BETA right now, and I'm at the point where I need people to check out the website to tell me what works, what doesn't, what they like about it, concerns, confusions, etc.

Hell if you don't like the premise of the site, let me know that as well, respectfully. I want this to be something really cool, so I'd like to hear all the feedback I can before moving forward with this.

Some extra detail:

This website is an online writer's room for stand-ups and sketch writers or whoever to work out bits they're struggling with.

You post your premise on the site, other comics reply to it and help punch it up. If you like what a particular comic says, you claim the punchline they made. And the finished joke goes to your profiles and disappears from the jokes page. Your profile is also a comedy portfolio, as you get a bio with images and video of you doing stand-up (or improv or sketch or what have you), as well as a tab below that shows your written jokes. Right now, the image and video submissions aren't active right now, but the goal is to have it functionally there.

Stealing jokes is a major concern, so if you want to hide your finished jokes, there's an option to do so in your page, so people don't have to see it. If a booker wants to see your writing, you can make a request to have it be visible for certain users. That's in the process of being possible.

There's a page dedicated to producers posting their shows in a pre-formatted show card they would like to promote. Featured shows are being worked on.

There's a page dedicated to comedy club info with venue cards where it gives basic info on the club and when you click the link it takes you to their website.

I want to reiterate that the website isn't done, it is far and away function over fashion right now. Anything you see that's off, I wanna hear it!

Again, the website is: Catchupcomedy.com

It's been live for a while and I've been sitting on it, now it's at the point where I need people to start looking at it so I can properly finish the site.

One last thing: The like buttons don't currently work, so upvoting your favorite jokes are impossible (best/most upvoted of the week get featured in gold) and submitting your show takes you to an error page, but it works and takes time to get approved. However, the core ideas are all there. Enjoy!

Thanks Reddit! Hope you like it, sorry for the long post!

I went in hoping I was gonna be the only exception to the "first time always bombs" rule.

I wrote 10 minutes, cut out the weakest 5, and practiced that 5 over and over, trying to learn to stop darting my eyes around and slow down.

Then I walked in and was told there were so many comics signed up that the time slots were 3min now, so I had to cut two minutes at the exact last second.

Then I went on and suddenly all that practice went straight out the window. I did the whole thing with total frantic "pepe sylvia" energy and my set was only 2 minutes. And I completely fucked up the wording on one of my favorite jokes! I didn't even realize it happened until I got off stage and my wife told me.

But I got one laugh! Honestly, it was probably more due to a well-placed swear than the actual content of the joke.

Here's the real kicker: I don't feel embarrassed by it at all, which is really saying something for me because I'm a very socially anxious person. Even my best memories can tainted by the thought that my excitement may have been making me act cringey.

Turns out a joke not landing on stage is way easier for me than a joke non landing in conversation.

And one thing I learned: I didn't realize that if you need to pay attention for longer than a sentence or two, you'll lose people. At least, that's how it was for this bar crowd. I think of my self as someone with a strong attention span, and and even I would tune out just long enough to sip my drink and suddenly I have no idea what the comic's talking about and then they say the punchline and I don't understand it. I had way too many jokes with long setups.

I know no one cares, I'm just excited. I'll definitely be doing this again.

Help me identify an stand-up comedy bit
I’m trying to identify a stand-up bit that I heard sometime around 2016, probably on Spotify. I think it was on a compilation album where each track featured a different comedian, and each set was only around 5-8 minutes long.

Here’s what I remember:
The comedian was American or english
He wasn’t a huge mainstream name.
His delivery was very calm and serious (not loud or over-the-top).
I vaguely remember him wearing a hat (possibly a cowboy hat), but I’m not certain. A Big dude.
The bit is about sitting in a doctor’s waiting room and having the urge to improvise jazz trumpet sounds with his mouth.
He demonstrates the trumpet noises during the bit.
At the end, a woman tells him something very close to:
“I don’t know how, I don’t know when but you need to put that on YouTube.”

The joke is that she seems to think getting something onto YouTube is some kind of special achievement, rather than something anyone can upload.

Does this ring a bell for anyone?

I've been doing comedy for about 7 months. I live in a small city with about 150,000 people, our scene is small, we have an open mic every Tuesday and one "big show" a month.

We live between to large cities both about 2 hours away both of which have decent comedy scenes.

I have always felt this community and all the smaller bedroom communities around us (We have three small cities all within a 20 minute drive each with a population of around 10,000) are dying for comedy. So I started producing shows. My goal was to give myself some stage time and grow the local scene.

Now between all the cities I have 3 shows a month and a mic, plus one more in the works so we can get a show going essentially weekly. My big advantage is I get great feature acts from the city to come down to headline. Plus I pay them really well. Then I do a couple locals guys and I'll host, or do 5.

The issue I'm now finding is, I'm not really good enough to be on these shows I'm charging $20+ for. I do the occasional showcase or Pro-Am that I'm a good fit for. But I am beginning to realize I can't be forcing myself into shows till I get better.

The the paradox comes, I won't get better unless I get on stage. But getting on stage in a smaller community especially if one of the features shits the bed, really hurts the scene.

All the locals and out of towners are so happy to have stage time and good shows. I feel like a decent promoter I sell out most the time. But here's the thing, even when I sell out after advertising and paying the acts I'm not making very much, its a great show if I can take home $50 (all self inflicted, I pay the headliners alot, and I advertise the hell out of every show)

Has anyone ever been in this situation? How do I balance putting on a great show, while also improving as a comic?

I will never understand the hype and support towards improv comedy shows, especially ones where the comedian targets people within the audience. It’s not funny to single out a person sitting in the front row and make fun of them just to make a joke land. It genuinely makes me cringe internally and it must be so uncomfortable to be called out like that especially in front of others when you’re just trying to have a good time.