How to Host a Comedy Show

Last updated January 13, 2025

This is a brief write-up on how to host a comedy show.

Get them to behave as a group

Your primary objective is to get a room full of individuals to behave as a single group. To do that, get them clapping/wooing together three times. If you get the audience making noise right from the start it will make them feel less self conscious about laughing later.

“How’s everybody going tonight?”
”Wooooo!” [1]
”We can do better than that. How’s everybody doing tonight?!?”
”WOOOOOO!” [2]

You might think this is hacky, but no one cares. The audience wants to have a fun time. The comics want a hot room. Management wants everyone to buy more plates of mozzarella sticks and glasses of Chard. No one is going to think your welcome is hack.

Talk to Some of them

This may seem counterintuitive given the “behave as a group” note above, but getting to know a few specific audience members will help draw people out of their shells. It’ll also create organic openings for you to make a few jokes early in your hosting set, which gets everyone used to hearing the rhythm of jokes. And…it’ll get people clapping together a few more times. Here’s how I do it:

Initiate a conversation. I start with general topics like geography.

“Make some noise if you’re from out of town!”
”WOOOOO!”

Single out someone who clapped/wooed and talk to them. You don’t have to make a joke, but it will help get them laughing organically.

”Where are you from, sir?”
”Mississippi.”
[to audience] “Give it up for Mississippi…” [3] “Is this your first visit north of the Mason-Dixon Line?”

And you’re off to the races.

You could stay on geography—”Anyone else from out of town?” “Anyone from another country?” “Anyone from a Union state?”—or you could move on. You can steer the conversation toward a topic for which you already have material. I have material on being married, so that’s where I go next.

“Make some noise if you’re married!”
”WOOOO!”
”How long have you been married, miss?”
”22 years.”
[to audience] ”Give it up for 22 years!” [4] “To the same person?” or “What’s the key to making it 22 years?”
”Open communication.”
”That’s a good one. For my wife and me, it’s having a nice even division of labor. At home, I make all the jokes, she makes all the money.”

Next you could talk to someone else, you could pivot to other material, or you could…

Cover House Rules

Depending on the club, you may need to cover some house rules. I frequently host at Bananas Comedy Club, and they don’t have any house rules. Once, I hosted at a club that gave me an entire single-spaced page of do’s and don’ts to cover. Don’t ask if anyone is celebrating a birthday. Do talk about our drink promotions…

In general, remind people to keep their phones in their pockets, on silent, or better yet, off. Remind them that heckling is disruptive and passé. When I host at Gotham Comedy Club, I’ll tell them that we’re taping these sets.

“We’re taping the show tonight. The comics will review the tapes so we can get funnier. Some comics use the tapes to send in to late night shows. I’m sending mine to my mom as proof of life. ‘How can we make these tapes great?’ you ask? Laugh. That’s it. If you like a joke, laugh; if you don’t like a joke, laugh harder.”

When covering house rules, I find it helpful to insert a joke, hence the proof of life line.

I will update this page as I think of other topics. I’m already thinking I need to add a troubleshooting section… How to handle hecklers, what do to after a comic bombs, etc.

If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments below.

Bananas

This is my fart face.

This week I worked at Bananas Comedy Club, a new club for me. I hosted five shows, one for Collin Chamberlin, a NYC-based comic from Pittsburgh, and four for Mary Lynn Rajskub, an LA-based comic from Trenton, Michigan. I’m not sure why where they’re based or where they’re from is important for the purposes of this entry, but I’ve already written it and am too lazy to hit delete.

To get out ahead of the “how’d you book that?” question… On Tuesday night, an agent called me and said a mutual connection had referred me to him and asked if I was available to host a show Wednesday night and then four more over the weekend. Wiff and I had plans for Wednesday night, Valentine’s Day, but she was fine canceling because a) she supports my career and, b) she wouldn’t have to fake a headache.

There’s kind of a joke among some comics that we’re all just waiting for The Industry to knock at our door. Ninety nine out of a hundred times it’s pure fantasy. But this agent’s call on this Tuesday night was the one time out of a hundred where the fantasy was real.

I mean sure, the shows were in a hotel conference room. And sure, the hotel was in New Jersey. But it was work and I had a blast doing it. The shows were bananas. The audiences were the apeshit. And it was an honor to monkey see monkey do that club.