{"id":94,"date":"2022-08-31T17:09:57","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T17:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opencomedy.com\/news\/?p=94"},"modified":"2026-04-13T17:18:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:18:55","slug":"grow-comedy-audience-how-to-grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opencomedy.com\/news\/grow-comedy-audience-how-to-grow\/","title":{"rendered":"How to grow comedy audience: How To Grow An Audience For Your Comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Grow Comedy Audience<\/strong> is essential for comedians. <\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every comic needs an audience. An audience is the difference between standup as a hobby and a career. An audience can get you booked, can pay your bills, can change your life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now how to grow an audience for your comedy?&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like a best friend in a campy Rom-Com, I\u2019ve made a list of three main things (and a bunch of little actionable pieces of advice) you can do, both in person and online, to give yourself and your audience the highest chance of finding each other.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those Three Things Are:&nbsp;<\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Community<\/b><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Consistency<\/b><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Persistence<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They look a bit different in person and online, but those three key points are how you\u2019re going to grow an audience for your comedy &#8211; and get to write the material you like, because that\u2019s what <\/span><b><i>your<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> audience will want to hear.<\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Community<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just like anything else in life, remember the golden rule: Don\u2019t Be A Dick.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You need to be funny to make it in comedy, no doubt, but the days of the tormented genius are over. No one cares how good your set is if you\u2019re a nightmare to work with. No one\u2019s going to book the lone wolf who only punches down. No one wants to be on a lineup with the creepy dude who makes comics of any gender feel uncomfortable.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Actionable Advice: Be A Good Community Member<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You exist within a community, so start acting like it. Not Social Climbing, but actual community building. <\/span><b><i>Finding people around you not to utilize, but to collaborate with.&nbsp;<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That little bit of effort goes an infinitely long way in getting you booked. My friends Balyah and Eddie literally produce a show called \u201cThey Were Nice To Me,\u201d where they book comics who &#8211; you guessed it &#8211; were nice to them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And where do they find these people? Community events like <a href=\"https:\/\/opencomedy.com\/open-mic\">open mics<\/a> and shows. I know you might roll your eyes at calling them a community event, but that\u2019s really what they are.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Audiences can tell when the people on stage enjoy what they\u2019re doing. It\u2019s a vibe thing. And honestly a logistics thing. Things just run smoother when everybody involved gets along.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And when they don\u2019t? It\u2019s a nightmare.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was on a 3 hour long, sold out, un-airconditioned show at a pretty well-known club. Objectively the worst show of my life &#8211; mainly because the producer was terrible to work with. And the audience could tell. They clearly were there for a good time &#8211; like most audiences are &#8211; and got robbed of that by a man who was just trying to get as much money from the audience as he could.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You need to be professional and funny to get somewhere in comedy. I\u2019ve seen it happen repeatedly, where talented people shoot themselves in the foot because they think they\u2019re God&#8217;s gift to comedy. There\u2019s so much work that goes into building an audience in comedy, being nice is the easy part.&nbsp;<\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Consistency<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cBeing Discovered\u201d is all about being at the right place at the right time. To be entirely honest, it\u2019s mostly luck. There are thousands of talented comics who never found an audience for one reason or another. It\u2019s a lot of luck, but most of the time, it\u2019s because they didn\u2019t stick it out long enough to let their audience find them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So you need to show up. Now, I\u2019m not saying put the rest of your life on hold for comedy (in fact, that would be worse, because then the only thing you have to inform your comedy\u2026is comedy. And people can only handle so much meta.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The only way you\u2019re going to find out what works is if you keep trying. Getting up consistently, however often you can, is key to not only developing your craft, but getting exposure from other comics and, if you\u2019re lucky, the occasional audience member.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><i>Actionable Advice: Become A Mic\u2019s Regular<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have at least one mic that you go to once a week. It\u2019s okay if you miss a few here or there, but try to stay &#8211; surprise &#8211; consistent.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My first regular mic was in a warehouse closet in Bushwick, which you could only get to via a rusty fire escape. But that weird little closet was the highlight of my week. That\u2019s where I met all the most important people in my professional and personal life. The people you meet in a closet or a dingy dive bar are going to be the same people headlining tours and festivals years down the line.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re just starting out, it can and should be the same mic every week so you get comfortable with the host and the other regulars. Just be sure to try out some new jokes every time, building on rather than refining your old material.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re more experienced, try to be a regular at a few different ones .Definitely try to get out to a wide range of clubs and audiences to start refining your 10 minutes by getting a feel for which jokes work on different crowds.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consistently showing up in the same places and building those connections is the first step to building an attentive, loyal audience<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Actionable Advice: Posting Consistently<\/b><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This advice carries over to apps like IG and Tiktok. Post regularly. Make content. There\u2019s an infinite ocean of scrolling waiting to steal your audience&#8217;s attention between the times they see your content.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Post consistently, on whatever schedule you want, but consistently. If you post a new clip every week, then that\u2019s all you do, but the algorithm and your audience will get used to your videos coming on their feed once a week.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Record your sets (at shows preferably, but if there\u2019s a mic you know you do well at, then record those too). Post clips of them. Respond to every comment. It\u2019s cringy, I know, and nobody wants to reduce themselves down to a sound bite, but that\u2019s the world we live in. So you might as well have fun with it.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And you don\u2019t have to just post perfectly edited standup clips. It\u2019s your page, your brand, your career. Do whatever you want. Think of it like this: Instagram is your Business Card\/Portfolio, TikTok is for shitposting. Post unpolished jokes that just pop in your head while you\u2019re brushing your teeth or commuting to work. Just make sure that you\u2019re writing and putting out videos regularly, regardless of how many views you get.<\/span><b><\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Persistence<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite what TikTok might have you believe, you can\u2019t build a retentive audience if you aren\u2019t doing something long enough to have fans. The wide majority of people stop doing comedy in less than a year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you can make it past that, you already stand out significantly. I\u2019m not gonna lie, there\u2019s a reason most people quit &#8211; it\u2019s rough out there. If you\u2019re trying to do it alone, it can isolating at best, and self-flagellation at worst.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Learn early that stand up isn&#8217;t going to be easy. You\u2019re going to bomb. You\u2019re going to crush. You\u2019re going to have more mediocre sets than you can count. Learning to ride the highs and lows of this industry will make your life easier. And the best way to do that is with people who get it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you keep going back to mics, you should actively try to surround yourself with people who you admire, who\u2019s style and perspective is different from yours. A varied circle will challenge you to be better, and seeing what their niche is will help you find yours.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My writing partner is my perfect compliment. They were more monotone, but I do big gestures and act outs. I\u2019m into storytelling, but he\u2019s an amazing one-liner comic. Writing together, we get to mix and match it all. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Note: Writing as often as you go up is going to help you find your voice and perfect it.)&nbsp;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><strong><i>Finding Your Niche&nbsp;<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stand up is all about having a specific perspective. You\u2019re trying to make people give a shit about what <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">you<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> have to say. You have to find a perspective that feels authentic to you <\/span><b><i>and<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> resonates with audiences. You\u2019re only gonna do that by writing and performing. A lot.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The traditional way of doing building an audience around yourself was going to mics to get discovered by a booker and fighting for stage time at clubs. You were writing for one type of audience, no matter who you were as a comic.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now with social media, there is a platform for anyone to have a voice, and an infinite number of niches with an audience for your silly little jokes. Use the right hashtags, learn what the algorithm likes (which is a whole other article but TL;DR Verticle Videos, Strong 3 Second Hook, Captions) and you\u2019ll get sent right into your audience\u2019s little black mirror.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Actionable Advice: You Don\u2019t Need Permission!<\/b><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anyone can build an audience if they have the confidence and the resources &#8211; which really is just a stable internet connection. You can produce a comedy show right now. Seriously. Just find someone you get along with in your local scene or on opencomedy.com and connect with them. It\u2019s that easy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have friends now who have been producing comedy shows since they were in high school &#8211; simply because they made it happen. If you\u2019re reading this article, you can look up a venue near you to produce a show. You can reach out to comics you know and throw together a show in less than a week, you just have to take the actual steps to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">No one\u2019s going to tell you you\u2019ve become good enough to deserve an audience. You have to do that for yourself. You have to make things happen and believe enough in yourself to convince other people to believe in you too.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Grow Comedy Audience is essential for comedians. Every comic needs an audience. An audience is the difference between standup as a hobby and a career.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":96,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stand-up-comedy-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opencomedy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opencomedy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opencomedy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opencomedy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opencomedy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/opencomedy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":834,"href":"https:\/\/opencomedy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions\/834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opencomedy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opencomedy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opencomedy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opencomedy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}