Everyone is a Comedian: Putting on an Open Mic Night at Your Bar

Have you been wracking your brain and trying to come up with a fun promotion that will get more people to come into your establishment? If you are like most bar owners, you are probably constantly thinking of ways that you can increase the number of patrons that you have. A great way to attract more people is to have an open mic night for stand up comedians.

How is adding comedy to your bar going to help? It is a fun event that you can promote easily. People are going to see it as free entertainment, which it is. It can create an influx of customers into your bar, including friends and family members of those who are performing. More people in the bar equal more money in your pocket.

When you are putting on an open mic night for amateur comedians in your town, it isn’t as simple as setting up a PA system and letting anyone who comes by step up on the stage. Well, you could do that, but you will quickly find that it devolves into an unorganized mess. Instead, take some time to come up with a plan. The following tips should help you to get started.

The first thing you need to do is have a sign-up sheet. You can have one at the bar as well as on your website. Let people know how long they have on stage – generally up to five minutes, perhaps more if you have fewer people heading up to the microphone. Second, you need to let people know what the ground rules are concerning their jokes. You could give them complete freedom, or you might want to let them know that they should steer away from certain types of jokes if they might upset your regular clientele.

Third, make sure that you institute a two drink minimum and make sure that people are able to order soft drinks if they don’t want to drink alcohol. Fourth, never charge an entrance fee to the people who come to watch or for the people who are up on stage.

It might take you some time to get all of the wrinkles ironed out, but it is worth it. Once you have the ball rolling, consider doing this once a week. You may want to choose to hold it on the weekend since more people are going to be likely to come out and watch and drink.