Becoming a Stand-Up Comedian: How Do You Make It?

The question I'm asked most often, by aspiring comedians and fans alike, is "How do you make it?" While being a full-time comic may be a ways off from many young comics - and, perhaps, not even a goal for some - I still feel there is value in giving new comedians an understanding of the steps needed to become a professional, working, full-time comedian.

In previous articles, I've discussed a myriad of issues that comedians of all levels face. In this article, we'll take a look at the process to becoming a full-fledged professional comedian.

The Base

You should not attempt to be a full-time comedian without the following:

1. 30 minutes of strong material. THAT MEANS 30 MINUTES. Not 25, not 22. In comedy, it's always better to be six months late than six days early.

2. Significant stage experience, including time spent at the MC level. This is important for bookers to take you seriously, but mostly because thirty minutes (the typical length of a feature spot) is a long time to be on stage. You need to have learned how to manage crowds, how to handle jokes that don't work, how to ad-lib, and the like.

3. Money saved and/or a stream of non-comedy-related income. Even full-time features have to scrape by. If you are going all-out to be a comic who works 40-50 weeks a year, you are going to have take gigs for a loss (such as MC work, in hopes of being promoted to feature); spend money to travel for guest sets; pay website, printing, and mailing costs; and, by the way, feed, clothe and house yourself. The overwhelming majority of features work about 10-20 weeks their first year, meaning there had better be money in the bank, and hopefully a free bed to sleep in when you're not working.

Getting Booked

I've heard some comics comment that it's harder to get booked as a feature than as a headliner, since there are probably more features out there (and theoretically the same number of spots). This is especially true when you are just beginning as a feature, with little experience, few, if any, club recommendations, and likely nothing on your resume to make a booker take note. The biggest hurdle you face as a new feature is that there are hundreds of self-proclaimed "features" who are nothing more than open mikers, but who send out press kits and call and email bookers relentlessly. You will have to work hard to differentiate yourself from them.

Many clubs will ask for a 30-minute tape. But, if you're not a working feature, where can you get a good 30-minute tape? This is where the MC experience comes in; many comedians, myself included, did their first feature gig at their home club. Often, a feature or headliner calls in sick, or a car breaks down, and the club reaches for its best emcee to fill the middle slot. (If you aren't the best emcee at your club, put off those feature aspirations and write some more jokes.)

Featuring at your home club, however, will be a rare occurrence; most clubs have a six-month rule, which means you cannot feature more than twice a year (possibly less if you're still a regular emcee.) Secondly, many clubs aren't keen on moving their MC's up to feature, since it means adding another feature to an already full roster while losing a solid opener, which is usually more difficult to replace.

So, how do you get booked? Recommendations are usually the way that MC's make their first jump. Oftentimes a headliner will work with an MC and offer to bring him or her on the road with them for a week - this is, in fact, how my first road work was booked. (And, as mentioned in earlier articles, this is why developing personal relationships with the other comics is so important.) Without a body of feature work, extensive club references, and an impressive resume, recommendations from key comics are the most important asset a new feature can have.

Moving to Full-Time

In my mind, the most difficult step in the process from first-time open-miker to national headliner is the hump between part-time feature and full-time feature. As mentioned before, you need to have either a very sound financial base or a generous friend or family member who can take care of you as you climb the ladder. In order to work 50 weeks a year, you're going to have to work 30 weeks; in order to work 30 weeks, you'll likely have to work 10. It can easily take two years or longer to get from part-time to full-time feature, no matter your talent level; it simply takes time to network, have tapes seen, get references, and even to get booked. I was approved to work at two clubs in April; I likely won't perform at either until 2008, since both have already filled their 2007 calendars. There is usually at least a six-month lag between the time you are "approved" by a new club and the time you cash your first check from them. And, in the meantime, you have rent, phone bills, food costs, ad nauseum. And it's hard to find a day job with the flexibility that a working comic needs.

Many funny comics have been sidetracked during this period; it can be difficult enough when you're single and have few, if any, outside responsibilities. Throw in a wife/fiancée/boyfriend/girlfriend, a sick parent, student loans, and a myriad of other factors, and I believe this is the most difficult time to be a comedian.

How It Works, If It Works

If you can make it over that hump, becoming a full-time feature is simply putting together a jigsaw puzzle of dates, clubs, and bookers. You start out with a base of three or four clubs and bookers, and simply build. If you have 10 weeks in 2007, you hope to keep those 10 weeks in 2008 and add perhaps 10-20 more weeks. By 2009, you should have first dibs on many of the weeks at the clubs you first worked, and you can continue to add new clubs, trying to "route" your work. (i.e. try to work a week in Chicago, then Cincinnati, then Louisville, then Atlanta, cutting down on your travel). It's a process that gets easier as you go on, as the booker becomes more familiar with you and you become a more valued member of their comedian roster. The move to headliner works the same way; one club will headline you, then another; then you can try and leverage that work to move up in existing clubs or headline new rooms. It's a constantly evolving, endlessly challenging process; it requires diligence, organization, and persistence. As you add more weeks, you will make more contacts, work better rooms, and obviously become a better comedian; from the road, many comics move to New York or Los Angeles to take their shot at television and the movies. How you proceed is up to you; but getting to full-time is the most important, and arguably the toughest, step of them all.

This article was originally published on Suite101.com. Subsequent changes have been made.