Stand-up comedy - has anyone done this?

This sounds interesting. I was half-drunk in a bar one night some thirty-odd years ago (okay, maybe more than “half”) and I was easily persuaded to get up on stage for an open-mic thing. I had nothing prepared. I didn’t have a “schtick” or any kind of routine. I was not “a comedian”, but I had been telling some stories at the bar that my friends of the time thought humorous, so… I started telling them into the mic. I guess it went okay; after all, I’m still here. I didn’t even wet myself, and I’m not so great with stage fright, either.

My recommendation is to do it sober. It won’t kill you. It won’t even hurt, even if you get some hecklers (I think I did). You probably won’t even notice them. Most of the audience is on your side just from watching you come out on stage; they want to like you. If you don’t hurt them, they won’t hurt you.

I am a comedienne at heart, and I am striving towards doing an open mic night myself. I have a basic outline of material and am very strong in improv and quick witted, good delivery and excellent memory and retention of my material, because it is based on my everyday experiences and life situations.
I think that this will be an opportunity for you to face your fears and feel really good about challenging your anxieties. I am a natural extrovert, don’t have a shy bone in my body, however, that initial walking out on stage is scary and intimidating even for those of us that are confident and outgoing. I am having the most trouble with my intro. and wanting to have audience participation.

Maybe a good choice for you is to follow a strong audience participation theme.
I plan on doing my stand up routine for an outdoor audience at a local cafe that caters to the river rafting tourists in my community. I have decided after my initial “opening” that I am going to stage a ” coolest river sandals” contest, I am going to ask my audience to hold up their feet and take applause-o-meter votes on coolest river sandals, then offer a token “prize”, to be determined. lol

I think the better prepared ( rehersed) your routine, the more confident you will feel.
Bottom line, when tackling our fears it always comes down to just DOING it!
Congratulate yourself for taking this step, every little step promotes more confidence and like anything, the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

GO BABY GO! ;-D

My suggestion is to include this uncontrollable bowels thing into your bit.

I’m the lead singer of a band, and have done musicals before. I’ve put myself in front of up to several hundred people at once and performed. And yep, it’s nerve wracking as sh*t. Even now, after having done it for around a decade, I still get nervous before going on in front of just 20 or 30 people, let alone the hundreds I’ve done before. But honestly, once you’re going for a few minutes (or a couple songs in for me)... it just starts to flow and you aren’t really nervous anymore. You start just having a good time.

Til then, I’ve found it helps to not focus your attention on any one person, but rather areas of the crowd.

@tedd: Playing in a band in front of an audience is a piece of cake compared to raising a child.

Nah, I prefer to sit down.
I took part in the sun-tanning olympics, I just got bronze.
I saw a documentary on how ships are put together, it was riveting stuff.

@gailcalled Uhh… I mean I would agree, but I fail to see the pertinence here…. lol