Perform For Us
DO NOT CONTACT THE VENUE.
Phone calls/emails to the venue are not accepted as signups.
All show slots are booked via email only to CurtShackelford@verizon.net.
Comics must be 18 years of age or older to perform at our shows.
There is no “show up and go up” walk-in signup.
When emailing requests, please put the Venue name and date you want to do in the subject header in this format:
“RiRa Wed. 10-26-2013” “Topaz Thurs. 11-19-2013” ”Hyatt Sat 12-03-2013”
If there is space available on that show you will receive a confirmation email indicating you are on. If you do not receive an email confirmation reply within 4 hours, that means there are no spots available for that show. Try another date.
Each comic must signup individually themselves. You can sign yourself up, but if you have a friend who wants to get on also, they must email us directly themselves to signup.
FIRST TIMERS: Are you a beginner, “newbie”, trying standup for the first time? Email CurtShackelford@verizon.net to signup.
VETERANS: (more than 6 months experience): please email us a YouTube video link of your standup act. Do not send “media kits” that we have to dig thru to find your YouTube clip. Send YouTube clip link in body of email at top, so we can view it quickly. We get approx. 25 videos a day and if we have to dig to find your clip we will have to skip it. Email: CurtShackelford@verizon.net.
OUT-O’-TOWNERS: Just passing through? Send us a YouTube video link of your act and the dates you’ll be in the DC area. Email: CurtShackelford@verizon.net.
If you’ve submitted videos before and did not hear back from us, please submit a new video after 6 months more experience. 6 months more stage time can sometimes result in a huge leap in the quality of your act. Email YouTube video links to CurtShackelford@verizon.net
We currently run 3 weekly comedy open mic shows in the DC-MD-VA area.
These amateur night open mikes are great places for beginners or comics new to the area to perform standup comedy in front of a live audience for the first time.
Most open mic amateur nights are held in noisy “open” main areas where you’ll be competing with TV’s, video games, phones ringing, bartenders making blender drinks, people who came to chat with friends and are not interested in hearing your comedy, etc—all the normal noise you here in a typical bar. This “background noise” will make your job of capturing the crowd’s attention all the harder, adding to the already stressful situation of performing standup comedy for the first time.
For live standup comedy to work, it must be done in a properly structured environment.
Our shows are held in separate “dedicated” rooms that are distraction-free and filled with focused , behaved audience who are there specifically to see comedy, so they won’t be chatting away only paying half-attention.
There are many other open mic amateur nights in the DMV area, but ours are the best. Ask any veteran comic in the DC area and they’ll tell you our shows are the “best rooms in town” for a newbie trying standup comedy for the first time.
Wednesday and Thursday night: open mics at RiRa Irish Pub in Arlington, Virginia and the Topaz Hotel in DC have 10 spots ranging from 3-10 minutes depending on your skill level.
Saturday night: showcase at the Hyatt Hotel in Bethesda, Maryland includes a paid MC 10mins spot, paid 15minute Feature spot and a paid 30minute Headliner spot. We also have 2 unpaid 3minute spots reserved for first-timer “Bright New Faces” that go on just before the Feature and Headliner.
If you do well at our weekly “public” shows, we’ll use you for our paid private party gigs that pop up randomly throughout the year.