Try These Open Mic Tips Tomorrow at Cole's Bar!

He'll be slinging drinks behind the bar, so feel free to ask Coleman how he made his dream of owning his own bar a reality.  And between moments spent strategizing your own corporate escape, catch sets by the denizens of Chicago's open mic scene.

Open mic'ers can be anyone from top local folks-comics who make a living doing stand-up to first timers, and that is one reason the scene is so cherished.  All acts sign up for stage time the night of the show and all acts get the same length set-usually 3 to 5 minutes.  Open mic nights can run long (popular Sunday room Schubas puts up about 45 comics a week), sometimes painfully so (think watching filthy clown acts or performing to a room of four people), but they are the best way to stay connected to other comics in the community and to work through new material.

Wanna try your hand?  Here are a few tips to get you ready for your first set:

1.  Write down your material ahead of time.  Most comics arrive with notebooks of jokes in hand, and it's fine to take your notes on stage with you at an open mic.
2. If a joke doesn't hit, move on.  Don't sweat a failed joke.  Even professionals are working out their new material.  Take the silence in stride and start your next joke.
3. Exit gracefully.  If the room's host has given you the light, that means they are expecting you to wrap it up within the next minute.  Acknowledge that you've seen it and wrap things up.

The Cole's (Miner's Daughter) Open Mic runs Wednesdays at Cole's Bar.  Sign-up at 8 PM, show starts at 8:30 PM.