If you are at the point in your standup comedy “career,” where you’re trying to get booked on shows or get booked more often, here are 10 tips to work on for 2026:
Make your material about you
Standup isn’t just telling jokes about stuff. The audience wants to connect with you. If you are doing material about airplane food and “remember this movie that came out in 1993?” what do they know about you? Mine material from your life or that reflects your unique point of view.
Don’t read notes on stage
Comedy is making a connection with the audience. Reading from notes breaks that connection. Reading notes from your phone really breaks the connection.
Alternately, don’t have your material so memorized it seems like you’re reciting by rote. You want it to seem like you are having a conversation with the audience and you’ve never uttered these words before, even though you’ve told these jokes a thousand times.
Be confident
No one will laugh at your jokes if you don’t believe they will. So be confident every time you perform that the audience is going to crack up. You got this.
If your set does not go well, you can’t get down. One of the hardest things you have to learn early in comedy is to push through setbacks and find a way to get the laughs the next time.
Don’t be too confident
The Catch-22 of comedy is that you need to be confident, but we have seen many comics who bomb time and time again with the same stuff and think they did great.
Don’t be that comic. Always be willing to improve material. The audience is the ultimate judge of whether your jokes are funny or not. Listen to them.
Read the room
You’re at a VFW post. All the guys and half the women are wearing red MAGA hats. Probably not the best time for those Trump jokes. That’s an easy call, though.
Pay attention to the audience when other comics are performing. If they bristle at certain subjects or respond well to others, use that information to your advantage.
Be professional
If you are reaching out to a booker or club about being on a show or open mic, you don’t have to try to be funny. Just be professional. And include your name.
You would not believe how many emails I get from comics where the email address is something like 69champ@yahoo.com asking to be on a show. They don’t leave a name or anything. Don’t make the booker respond to ask who the heck you are.
Work clean if you can
There are lots of comics that are funny but too dirty for many of the shows I put on at breweries or wineries and such. If you can have at least a PG-13 set, it opens up a lot more options. No one has ever complained that a show was too clean.
Be prepared
If you are ready to reach out to be booked, you should have decent headshot of you with a plain background (not you on a dark stage with a microphone), a good video of you doing 5 minutes with audience laughing and email address and social media that make it easy to find you.
If you don’t want your family or co-workers to know you are doing standup, you are not ready to be booked.
Be easy to reach
Your first big break may be a call from the club saying they need a host that night. Or bookers may reach out asking if you want to be on an upcoming show. If you check your emails, texts or messages once a week, bookers are going to move on.
Promote yourself and your shows
If you are serious about comedy, you should have social media accounts to promote upcoming shows. These should be in whatever name you use to perform. Bookers and clubs love comics who promote shows. When you do, be confident in your posts, such as “ This show I’m on Friday is going to be great!”
Not, “I don’t know if I’m all that funny and don’t know any of these other comics on the show but if you’re not doing anything else on Friday, come on out, I guess,” which I see all the time.
If the booker gives you a flyer for the show, use it to promote.
Want more?
Louisville Laughs is offering Comedy Writing and Performing classes on Feb. 21 and 22 at TEN20 Craft Brewery in Louisville with instructors including Keith McGill and Bret Sohl.
If interested, you can register here.
Good luck!
