3 ways to book local comedians
Why Book A Local Comedian?
As someone who has been performing comedy across the United States of America for over 8 years now, I am always surprised by amazing comedians I find in the oddest places. Some of the best nationally touring comics are based out of places you might not expect! I’ve found great comedians in Billings, Montana, Louisville, Kentucky, and Morgantown, West Virginia. There is comedy talent all over. You might find a great opportunity to hire a high-quality comedian for a fraction of the cost if you know where to look. In this article, I’ll let you in on 3 tips, tricks, and methods for hiring/booking local comedians.
How To Book A Local Comedian
1) Local Comedy Clubs & Venues
If your city has an active comedy scene there is more than likely a local comedy club (or clubs) . It is important to know that comedy clubs can vary greatly from room to room. Some clubs run “traditional shows” where there is an opener/host (Usually local) and then a feature and then headline act. More often than not the feature and headliner come from out of town. The other common show a comedy club might have is a “showcase show”. These shows tend to have anywhere between 5-12 comedians on the lineup, all running shorter sets. If a club does almost only “showcase shows’ they are referred to as “showcase clubs”. All because a show is in a “showcase club” doesn’t mean it has lower quality acts, these are more common in Austins, La, Chicago, and NYC where there is a high amount of local comedians that can headline and are just looking for stage time. What showcase rooms usually have in common is that they feature local acts. If you’re looking for local acts try to find a club with at themed show or a lineup with many names on it.
You can call into clubs and ask who they would recommend locally and they more often than not can provide great insight. In many cities the local comedy club act like a bit of an agency for comedians. If you would rather pick for yourself go to a show and ask a comic after their set. I recommend asking right as they get off stage, because sometime a comic will head straight to another show. If you miss the comic, ask the host of the show, they should have the comics contact information.
2) Local Comedian Facebook Pages
Just about every state or city has a Facebook page for comedians. Often they’re under the name of something like “Ohio Comedy Scene”, “Iowa Comedians”, or “Chicago Suburbs Comedy Scene”. These pages can be tricky to navigate, and often if you don’t know what to post you can end up getting harassed by new comics or spammed by underqualified candidates. I would recommend asking for a 5 minute clip to review or past clubs they’ve worked to help weed out open mic comedians.
Make sure you have a price point ready for your event, and don’t feel like you need to go through every submission. It should be obvious who is a professional and who isn’t usually video & headshot quality are good indicators, but feel free to watch a few minutes of every comedians clip. Be wary of comedians sending you a list of clubs they’ve played at or number of states they’ve done shows in. If you get one of these lists, I would ask how long there sets were on these shows. Sometimes a comic will do a bunch of club mics out of state open mics, and then claim them as credits.
(I’ll admit, I did this when I was a few months into comedy)
3) DM Them
You can often find comedian posting their own clips on social media. I would look up relevant #s like “#XYZCityComedy” or locations that they might tag as places they’ve performed at. Go to your local comedy clubs page and search who has tagged the local comedy club in their clips. If you already know the comedian you want to book, I would recommend you reach out over Instagram or Facebook. If you want a timely response and to show you’re not spam I would comment on a clip and then send them a DM along the lines of, “Hey I really liked your joke about _____, I am booking for ______ on __/__/__ at _:__ I need a comedian who can run __min of material _____(other restrictions or relevant information)___ our budget is $____.”
4) (bonus) Send Me A Message
I have worked all over the US and can usually send you in the right direction. I just want to help people find the right comedian for their event!
I far from know every comedian in North America, but I do have a network of hundreds of comedians who also know hundreds of comedians, and might be able to fins you somebody local.
If nothing less, I can get you started in the right direction. just reach out on Instagram and I will get back to you within a week with information on local comedians. Please consider the first three methods before trying this.
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