First Mic

Ira Cross
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A show where comics talk about their first time on stage.

  1. -4 дн.

    Two Improv Theaters in One Town Will Always Fight | Tara DeFransisco

    Tara DeFrancisco doesn't have a bombing-at-an-open-mic story. A director told her she'd never be the lead - that's where the comedian starts.   She's the first improviser to sit down with Ira Cross on First Mic. Her path runs through an Ohio University professor who taught a stand-up class and told her to go to Chicago; through iO, Second City, and ComedySportz, where she was among the roughly one percent of the city's 10,000 improvisers who ever got paid to do it; and back home to Columbus, where she and Rance Rizzutto built The Nest Theatre, the only dedicated improv theater in a city of two million.   If you're wondering how to get started in improv comedy, she answers it plainly: find a training center, take the class, and understand that it's a team sport before it's a solo act. She settles the wardrobe question too - dress like you're going on a really good first date, where you want to impress each other and you're still yourself.   Plus: why two improv theaters in one town always fight and what a third one fixes, what 400 people in Riga, Latvia taught her about live comedy, and why Columbus being good at everything might be the thing holding its identity back.   Recorded at Rehab Tavern in Columbus, Ohio.   💬 Improvisers and stand-ups — which one is harder to start? Settle it in the comments.   🎙️ Follow Tara DeFrancisco: Instagram: @taradefrancisco Web: taradefrancisco.com The Nest Theatre: nesttheatre.com   🔗 First Mic is part of the Indie Comedy Collective: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective   #FirstMic #improvcomedy #columbusohio

    Two Improv Theaters in One Town Will Always Fight | Tara DeFransisco

  2. 3 сент.

    He Filmed 4 Specials in a Church Before He Turned 21 | G Davis

    G Davis was 17 at his first open mic — at the Columbus Funny Bone, not a basement — and he didn't bomb. He killed. Then he built the whole stand-up career backwards. G walked into a real club on a break from college with his grades falling apart. Jason Banks, Kenny Mock and Bobby Dodds were at the bar. Jason leaned over three seats and whispered the line that got him through it. What came next was out of order and it worked: four live-recorded specials at his church, The Potter's House, between 18 and 20 — a 220-seat room he didn't pay for, three rooms sold out back to back, and a full hour on stage every month before he'd done a real road year. If you want to know how to deal with hecklers, G's answer is the most specific we've aired: never humiliate them, just talk to them, and fire them up so respectfully that the whole room ends up laughing — including the heckler, at himself. He also gives the segment no other guest has: how to start producing your own comedy shows, and why producing and performing are two different jobs. Plus a backyard Don't Tell show at a woman named Peggy's actual house in San Diego, and the Florida move that makes this one a goodbye. Filmed at Rehab Tavern in Columbus, Ohio. Comics — did you kill or bomb your first open mic? Tell us in the comments. 🎙️ Follow G Davis: Instagram: @gdavisofficial TikTok: @gdavisofficial Facebook: /iamgdavis (see Flag 2 — Facebook handle differs from the one stated on camera) 🔗 First Mic is one of the shows under the Indie Comedy Collective banner: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective 📅 Catch G live: Late September — St. Pete, FL, with St. Pete Stand-Up and Don't Tell Oct 9 — Latrobe, PA, with Next Stop Comedy October — Don't Tell Pittsburgh, three shows that weekend #FirstMic #standupcomedy #columbusohio

    He Filmed 4 Specials in a Church Before He Turned 21 | G Davis

  3. 27 авг.

    Sometimes You Just Aren't Funny. It's Not the Algorithm | Cam Steele

    Cameron Steele only started doing stand-up to get better at his radio job. Six years later: 200K on TikTok and a Michael Jackson parody past 1.7 million views. Before comedy, Cameron was the night guy at WZIP, the University of Akron's student-run station — 7 to 10 PM, 2017 to 2020. "I was your drive home." Somebody told him stand-up would make him sharper on air, so his first open mic happened in the student union coffee shop, by the Starbucks. He wasn't serious about it. His station manager, Chris Keppler, was the one who noticed people were actually laughing. His first paid set came later at Versified Expressions in Akron, where Anthony "Amplified" Evans handed him fifty dollars and let him rock out. Then his mom told him to get on TikTok. If you're wondering how to go viral on TikTok, Cameron gives away the playbook: check your analytics and post when your followers are online, write captions for search, ride trending sounds, stay on current events, and leave a video up when it flops — his million-view Michael Jackson bit did 1,000 views on day one. He also covers how he handles hecklers (get there first), the note Nef Johnson gave him that fixed his impression bit, and the hardest thing a comic must accept: sometimes it isn't the algorithm.   Filmed at Rehab Tavern in Columbus, Ohio. Comics — what's the one video of yours that flopped and then took off months later? Tell us in the comments.   🎙️ Follow Cameron Steele: Instagram: @cameronsteelecomedy Facebook: Cameron Steele YouTube: Cameron Steele Comedy TikTok: Cameron Steele Comedy 🔗 First Mic is part of the Indie Comedy Collective: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective   #FirstMic #standupcomedy #columbusohio

    Sometimes You Just Aren't Funny. It's Not the Algorithm | Cam Steele

  4. 20 авг.

    The Guy Who Runs Your Open Mic Bombed at Zeno's Too | Lukas Mateus

    Should you move to LA to do stand-up comedy? Lukas Mateus did, and came back. He bombed his first open mic in a Columbus basement with exactly one friend watching. Ten years in, Lukas is 40, works at a grocery store, hosts the Tuesday open mic at Rehab Tavern, and has never once posted a headshot with eight tour dates on it. He's fine with that. Here he breaks down what actually changes when you leave: in LA you pay for nearly every mic, so everybody stays, watches, and networks, and at the Hollywood Improv a booker sits in the back with a laptop keeping a file on every comic who goes up. In Columbus you can do a mic for free, spend five bucks, and have a great night. The trade-off is stakes. Nothing is on the line here, and he thinks that's simultaneously the scene's best feature and its ceiling. He also flatly refuses to give advice, which turns into the best advice any comedian has given on this show. If you're weighing your own first open mic: expect to bomb, expect to not remember it, and expect the recording to sit on your phone for a decade before it's any good. That is the job. What is the smallest crowd you have ever performed for? Tell us in the comments. First Mic is filmed at Rehab Tavern in Columbus, Ohio. 🎙️ Follow Lukas Mateus: Instagram: @bloodxshower X: @bloodxshower Podcast: Just The Essentials 🔗 First Mic is part of the Indie Comedy Collective: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective #FirstMic #standupcomedy #columbusohio

    The Guy Who Runs Your Open Mic Bombed at Zeno's Too | Lukas Mateus

  5. 13 авг.

    He Forgot the Safe Word for Kicking Out a Heckler | Jesse Pimpinella

    How to deal with hecklers, from a comic 14 years in: Jesse Pimpinella befriends them first, then lets the whole room turn on them. Jesse's real first mic was at 18, in the back of a Belleria pizza shop in Cornersburg — the Youngstown Comedy Syndicate, one show a week, Fridays only. Bomb in Columbus on a Monday and you fix it Tuesday. Bomb in Youngstown on a Friday and you wear it for seven days. Before that it was an eighth-grade talent show, a high school lock-in, and a punishment stoop at Catholic school recess where a kid who'd taped a Ron White special worked out a tight five on a captive audience. Fourteen years on he has two specials streaming on Roku, two albums that hit #1 on Amazon, and the story of phoning Amazon to report the chart as broken. He also made zero dollars the night he filmed — camera crew paid, lights paid, curtain guys paid, club paid, ticket money kept by everyone but him. His advice for anyone circling their first open mic: write down on notebook paper why you're doing this, and keep that paper for the rest of your life. Recorded at Rehab Tavern in Columbus, Ohio, one week before Jesse plays the Columbus Comedy Festival. What's the best heckler handle you've ever watched live? Drop it in the comments — Jesse said he's answering every one. 🎙️ Follow Jesse Pimpinella: jessepimpinella.com   🔗 First Mic is one of the shows under the Indie Comedy Collective banner: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective   #FirstMic #standupcomedy #columbusohio

    He Forgot the Safe Word for Kicking Out a Heckler | Jesse Pimpinella

  6. 6 авг.

    Columbus' Best Open Mic Is Inside a Strip Club | Terrance TheGawdshow Davis

    Terrance "ThaGawdshow" Davis signed up for his first open mic in Columbus and left before going on. The second time, he didn't get a vote. A comic he knew texted him to come watch her set. When he walked in, she told him she'd already put his name on the list. The only material he had was a throwaway line he'd made up over pizza an hour before. It flopped. He went to another mic the next night anyway. That's the start of a run that became the 670 East Show, a co-produced night for 400 people, a Funny Bone slot during the comedy festival, hometown showcases in Mansfield that sold out in under 48 hours, and a monthly comedy night in the one room in Columbus nobody thought comedy could work in. If you've ever thought about trying stand-up and talked yourself out of it, this is your episode. Terrance is blunt about what actually happens at your first open mic: the barrier to entry is genuinely low, the other comics are more welcoming than you're expecting, and your first set is supposed to be bad — the point is whether you come back. His one writing rule: don't dumb it down. Write to your own intelligence level and let the audience come up to you. Also in here — getting left on read by a booker and deciding to book himself, a guy who paid $50 to get into a $12 show, and the single best heckler comeback we've had on this show. Comics: what happened at YOUR first open mic? Tell us in the comments. 🎙️ Follow Terrance "ThaGawdshow" Davis: @thagawdshow on Instagram, TikTok, Threads, Facebook and Bluesky (spelled out on camera: T-H-A-G-A-W-D S-H-O-W — see Flag 2) 🔗 First Mic is one of the shows under the Indie Comedy Collective banner: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective #FirstMic #standupcomedy #columbusohio

    Columbus' Best Open Mic Is Inside a Strip Club | Terrance TheGawdshow Davis

  7. 30 июл.

    The Heckler Had a Microphone Too | Andrew Rudick

    Andrew Rudick knows how to deal with hecklers because he used to be one — he heckled his own best friend at his first open mic. Andrew's first mic was a music-and-comedy open mic at Baba Budan's, a long-gone divey bar on the University of Cincinnati campus. He went up, thought he killed, bombed. The second time, the friend he'd heckled threw a banana at his face on stage as payback — biggest laugh of the set. Fifteen years and a touring career later, his honest answer on hecklers: appear calm even when you aren't ("we're both actors"), win the room before you try to shut anyone down, and remember that you have a microphone and they don't. Then Andrew tells the story where all three rules collapsed — a Cincinnati Police Department "Real Men Wear Pink" benefit at a casino, where the drunk MC heckled him through his own DJ mic and had to be separated from him by other cops. He still had 15 clean minutes left to do. Plus: why Cincinnati is the most central city in America to tour from, what Geoff Tate taught him, Pat McGann on crowd work, how Maria Bamford pays her openers out of pocket, and the established comic whose only advice to a brand-new Andrew was "Quit" — then came back ten years later asking Andrew for advice. Filmed at Rehab Tavern in Franklinton, Columbus, Ohio. Comics: what's the worst gig you ever said yes to? Tell us in the comments. 🎙️ Follow Andrew Rudick: Instagram: @andrewjrudick Website: andrewrudick.com 🔗 First Mic is part of the Indie Comedy Collective: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective 📅 Catch Andrew live: Aug 21–22 — headlining Comedy Plex (Oak Park, IL / Chicago) Aug 28 — headlining Commonwealth Comedy Club, Cincinnati (two shows) Aug 29 — headlining the Columbus Comedy Festival, 9:15 PM at Seventh Son Sept 17–20 — Asheville, NC Sept 25–26 — headlining Comedy Corner Underground, Minneapolis

    The Heckler Had a Microphone Too | Andrew Rudick

  8. 23 июл.

    Embrace The Suck | Ty Moore

    Ty Moore's first open mic ended with a headliner running on stage and taking the mic out of his hands three minutes in — and honestly? He was relieved. Twelve years later, he hosts Bobo's, the Monday-night comedy open mic at Cafe Bourbon Street, one of the most beloved stand-up rooms in Columbus, Ohio. On this episode of the First Mic podcast, Ty tells Ira Cross the whole origin story: getting cut from Ohio State's Fishbowl Improv thirty minutes after the audition, signing up late at the Scarlet & Grey Cafe (now Threes) and going up after midnight on $3 Miller Lite drafts, and the May 27, 2014 set that finally made comedy stick. If you're wondering what to expect at your first open mic, this is the honest version: the list fills early, you might not go up until 12:10 AM, and it's fine to suck. Ty's rule for every new comedian — "Embrace the suck. Learn from the suck." — might be the best advice this show has aired. And his real answer to how to deal with hecklers: match their energy, keep the crowd on your side, and aim the roast back at yourself before you aim it at them — illustrated by a country-club gig and a heckler named Princess. Filmed at Rehab Tavern in Columbus. Comics: what time did you finally go up at YOUR first mic? Tell us in the comments. 🎙️ Follow Ty Moore: Instagram: @tysnotfunny X/Twitter: @tysnotfunny Catch him hosting the open mic Mondays at Cafe Bourbon Street, and Tuesdays at The Attic Comedy Club for Two for Tuesday. 🔗 First Mic is part of the Indie Comedy Collective: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective

    Embrace The Suck | Ty Moore
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A show where comics talk about their first time on stage.

Информация

  • Автор
    Ira Cross
  • Годы выхода
    2026
  • Выпуски
    41
  • Ограничения
    С ненормативной лексикой
  • Авторские права
    © 2025
  • Сайт подкаста
    First Mic