Open mic at Shanghai happens three nights a week. I plan to review the other nights, as the dynamics of a room can be different based solely on the night a room plays. For example: the person producing the show, Noah Rubin, told me that Sundays gets the least attendance and Fridays the most. Know that I performed on Mother’s Day, which may very well have influenced the outcome of that night, that more people may have attended, had it not been a holiday. But first the stats. The room is standup only, been going on for about a year. Signup is first come first choice. Parking is on the street, but there is also a lot to park very close to the venue. Talent normally gets 5 minutes, but if attendance is slight, you will get more stage time. The night I performed, we got ten minutes. The room goes from 7pm to 9pm, followed by karaoke, if you’re so inclined to stay afterwards and enjoy that. The business is a full bar, with pints of beer running $7. The stage is a platform stage, harboring a mic, stand and chair. About eight feet to the left of the stage – in between is the entrance to the bathroom – is a sound system that the host announces talent from. The room seats about 60 who can see the stage, and ten or so more seats where you can hear the performer but not see. A large screen TV playing movies on mute stays on during the show, but it’s not a distraction, if you intend to see standup. The signup sheet came out at 6:38pm, and because my friend and I were first to arrive, we signed up first, taking the third and sixth spot. When no one signed up in the first or second slot, I ended up going up first. The signup sheet indicated 26 slots, but Noah told me it never fills that much, especially on Sundays. By 7:04pm we had six signups. We had ten people in attendance, including the bartender, Cliff, and host Robbie Schroeder, when the room started at 7:07pm. The host opened with a set, then introduced me from the stage. Future talent was introduced from a second mic at the music station, where the host played music on and off as comedians walk to and from the mic. The room consistently had 10 peeps in attendance by 8pm. However, the numbers were down by the time the room ended at 8:40pm. Again, I will review the other nights, but this is the night that gets least attendance. And being Mother’s Day, perhaps that influenced the number of comedians who would normay had come. I remember commenting when I finished my set that, “You were a quiet audience but a good one.” I said that because I could see they were paying attention, the comics, rather than immerse themselves in their own notes in preparation for their stage time. Yes, I got individual laughs here and there, especially from the host, but I get that for the number of people present, I knew not to expect barrels of laughter from the crowd. This room is worth doing. You’ll probably have more success on another night at Shanghai, with attendance always higher on those nights, but that should not stop you from doing the room on Sundays, too.
Open mic at Shanghai happens three nights a week. I plan to review the other nights, as the dynamics of a room can be different based solely on the night a room plays. For example: the person producing the show, Noah Rubin, told me that Sundays gets the least attendance and Fridays the most. Know that I performed on Mother’s Day, which may very well have influenced the outcome of that night, that more people may have attended, had it not been a holiday. But first the stats.
ReplyDeleteThe room is standup only, been going on for about a year. Signup is first come first choice. Parking is on the street, but there is also a lot to park very close to the venue. Talent normally gets 5 minutes, but if attendance is slight, you will get more stage time. The night I performed, we got ten minutes. The room goes from 7pm to 9pm, followed by karaoke, if you’re so inclined to stay afterwards and enjoy that.
The business is a full bar, with pints of beer running $7. The stage is a platform stage, harboring a mic, stand and chair. About eight feet to the left of the stage – in between is the entrance to the bathroom – is a sound system that the host announces talent from. The room seats about 60 who can see the stage, and ten or so more seats where you can hear the performer but not see. A large screen TV playing movies on mute stays on during the show, but it’s not a distraction, if you intend to see standup.
The signup sheet came out at 6:38pm, and because my friend and I were first to arrive, we signed up first, taking the third and sixth spot. When no one signed up in the first or second slot, I ended up going up first. The signup sheet indicated 26 slots, but Noah told me it never fills that much, especially on Sundays. By 7:04pm we had six signups. We had ten people in attendance, including the bartender, Cliff, and host Robbie Schroeder, when the room started at 7:07pm. The host opened with a set, then introduced me from the stage. Future talent was introduced from a second mic at the music station, where the host played music on and off as comedians walk to and from the mic. The room consistently had 10 peeps in attendance by 8pm. However, the numbers were down by the time the room ended at 8:40pm.
Again, I will review the other nights, but this is the night that gets least attendance. And being Mother’s Day, perhaps that influenced the number of comedians who would normay had come. I remember commenting when I finished my set that, “You were a quiet audience but a good one.” I said that because I could see they were paying attention, the comics, rather than immerse themselves in their own notes in preparation for their stage time. Yes, I got individual laughs here and there, especially from the host, but I get that for the number of people present, I knew not to expect barrels of laughter from the crowd.
This room is worth doing. You’ll probably have more success on another night at Shanghai, with attendance always higher on those nights, but that should not stop you from doing the room on Sundays, too.