Information
for Comedians
Please know this info before you sign-up.
Hi
everybody!
This
is Jay Benedict Brown. Wit's End Comedy Club and I are
pleased
to announce the return of "Survival of the Wittiest",
Wit's End's New Talent Search and Contest. Every
other Thursday, Wit's End will present shows to its customers
featuring new talent, and as part of that show, the top
new talent will participate in "Survival of the Wittiest".
In
addition to the contest, there will be several slots during
each show for new talent comedians not participating in
the contest that night. These slots are open to virtually
anyone, including participants in other contest nights.
Overall, it will provide some of the highest quality stage
time in Denver.
There
is a lot to read here, but please take the time. If you
don't, there are a lot of determined comics who will. And
they will be the ones who won't shoot their foot off.
PRIZES
The
winner of "Survival" (and perhaps others) will
receive a week of work at Wit's End as an opener. This could
be a great way to get in the rotation at Wit's End.
SIGNING
UP
You must sign-up for each show in which you wish to perform.
Of those that sign-up, three will be selected to be in
the
contest that week. You may want to bookmark this site right
now. If you used a link from another site to get here,
and
that site goes down, you can still get here thru your bookmark.Click
here to go to sign up.
Consistent sign-ups help you get slots
faster. Even if you can't be at a show, sign-up and say
"I can't make it for this show, just keeping in the rotation"
in the comment. That way I don't see gaps in your sign-up
history. Sometimes the only thing that seperates one person
from the next is consistency of signing up. This isn't
by design, it just has to do with my scanning of the sign-up
history...sometimes I miss someone who has signed up a
lot, but with holes in the sign-up history.
SIGNING
UP FOR THE CONTEST
There
is no separate sign-up for the contest. Of those that sign-up
for each show, 3 will be selected to be in the contest.
It is not an "open" contest.
SIGN-UP
SCHEDULE
You may sign-up for a show until 11:59PM the Tuesday before
the next show. The roster for the show will be posted the
day after that, (Wednesday) after 8:00 pm.
We
will also have a stand-by list each show with a 7:30PM deadline
for signing up.
ROSTER
FOR A SHOW
Roster
for the next show will be available at www.JayBenedictBrown.com/wits/next_roster.htm
It is your responsibility to check the roster to see if
you are on. You will not be contacted by phone or email.
SELECTIONS FOR
A SHOW
The main purpose of the Wit's End New Talent
Search and Contest is to find comedians to be openers/MC's
at Wits
End. These people are added to the Approved Openers list
and get regular paid bookings of an entire week as an
MC. If you are just starting to sign-up, you will notice
it takes quite a while to get your first slot. And it
might be quite a while till you get your second slot
if you are brand new to comedy. However, once we see
you can do 5 minutes competitively, you will
then get into the contest and get significantly more
slots in general. The shows are heavily weighted in
favor of people that are
in this
category.
Keep finding
other
venues to build your time.
There is no "required
amount of time" or "required number of shows" you
must do to advance. Your advancement is solely based
on our judgement of your skill level. Some people will
move up much faster than others.
CHOOSING YOUR
MATERIAL FOR WITS END
There are material guidelines on the "Next show's
Roster" page, but in addition here are some other topics
that come up a lot:
Working the crowd is discouraged on New Talent/Survival
of the Wittiest Nights. Working the
crowd is a great skill to have and the ability to do
it is almost necessary
to have a long term career in standup. The reason we
discourage it on New Talent nights is because it makes
it difficult to evaluate your ability to be reliably
funny. We put a heavier emphasis on reliability over
brilliance. We understand that during the course of your
set you may have deal with someone talking to you, but
in general, try to ignore the first yell and just go
on and be funny. That usually quiets someone down. If
it doesn't then you may have to deal with them. Do it,
then get back on track. And once you get them quiet,
don't go back after them.
Topical material with a short life is discouraged. Once
again, we want to see reliability, and if you material
is going to go away, that won't be reliable. However,
be aware some things appear topical, but in fact have
a long life. Those are terrific. A bit about Hillary
Clinton is probably still viable. A bit about what Hillary
Clinton said on her last trip to China probably is not.
Keep bringing your best set. Once again,
this is a reliabiity issue. We will tell you when to
start showing us other
stuff, and this is usually a good sign because we have
been convinced you have that killer 5 that will always
work, no matter what the conditions or audience. Don't
assume we want to see new stuff.
HOW
TO POSTPONE OR CANCEL A SLOT
If you have a slot in an upcoming show, you may cancel or
postpone your slot up to 24 hours before the show without
any penalty. If you cancel after that, or simply don't show,
it will be a very long time before you get another slot.
To postpone or cancel a slot, Contact
Jay. Also, put the phone number for the club (303-430-4242)
in your cell phone. That way, if you hit bad traffic on
your way to the club, you can call the club and let us know
you are on your way.
SHOW
and CONTEST SCHEDULE
Further up the page is a schedule of upcoming shows. It
is basically every other Thursday. If you are on, you
must
check-in
at the club by 7:30PM or your slot will be given to someone
else.
There
will be 3,4 and 5 minute slots available. We will give you
the amount of time we feel you can cover well. All "Survival"
contest slots are 5 minutes.
You
may enter the contest multiple times in the opening rounds
until you win or we run out of slots.
You
must stick to your allotted stage time. This is a vital
skill to learn if you want to become a professional comedian,
so we will be pretty strict on this.
LOCATION
OF SHOW:
Wits End Comedy Club is located at 6080 W 92nd Ave, Westminster,
CO. From 92nd Ave, turn south on Harlan then turn right
immediately, just before the Conoco station. Wits End
was formerly located two blocks south of this location.
FORMAT
OF SHOW
The MC/Opener for the upcoming Wednesday-Saturday shows
will host and MC the show. There will then be 2 slots
for New Talent comics, followed by 2 contestants in "Survival
of the Wittiest". The feature act for the week will
do 25 minutes and the headline act for the upcoming week
will close the show
with a 45
minute
set.
ENTRY
FEE FOR CONTEST
There is no entry
fee for the contest.
JUDGING
OF THE CONTEST
Ballots will be distributed to the audience and
only their votes will determine the winner.
There
are two possible penalties for contestants. If a contestant
uses more than two f-bombs, they will lose 20% of their
votes for each f-bomb used after the two.
If
a contestant goes over their time, they will lose 20% of
their votes for each 30 seconds they go over time.
BECOMING
AN OPENER AT WITS END
The prize for winning "Survival of the Wittiest"
is a week as an opener at Wit's End. This means we are looking
for some skills in addition to being funny... in particular,
the ability to be funny without being shocking. Excessive
use of the f-bomb or graphic sexual content is discouraged.
This isn't a morality issue or what-we-think-is-funny issue,
but more one of practicality. The audiences at Wit's are
accustomed to a certain kind of comedy presented in a certain
way. That includes an opener/MC that is funny, gracious,
and not too graphic. We will try to become familiar enough
with your act to let you know what we like and what we feel
doesn't work for our stage. Until that time, feel free to
"pitch" any bit you think might be questionable
to me. I will let you know if it's OK to try. Once again,
we don't claim to have any objective judgement on what is
funny, just what we know works for our audiences.
We require any
comedian we advance onto the performance roster to sign-up
for the Thursday night shows at least once a month. You
may not ever get on, but we want to keep the quality of
our Thursday night shows high, while adding as many
comedians
to the roster as possible.
Comedians on
the roster at Wits for less than 2 years may enter the contest
and are heavily encouraged to sign up for New Talent slots
in general.
Club
Conduct
(If you get stage time)
- You must
check in 30 minutes before show time or your time will
be given to someone else.
- You must
stick to your time, if you do not you will not be asked
back.
- You may bring
up to 4 of your friends and family free of charge. Just
have them give your name at the door. If you need more
than 4 tickets,Contact Jay.
- You are entitled
to free non-alcoholic beverages (water and soda) but you
must purchase any specialty or alcoholic drinks.
- You are not
allowed in the bar area or green room. you must remain
in the area designed by the club.
- All
performers must show up on the date scheduled. Failure
to do so will result in being denied future opportunities
for stage time.
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