Hi folks,

Has anyone here ever tried vent in a comedy club? I know plenty have done it but I was wondering whether any of the regulars here have tried, and if so how did it go?

Hi Zuke -
I used to do pretty much strictly comedy clubs and 'comedy nights' in bars and lounges.
Like with any type of performance - the more you do it, the better you get at reading and dealing with different types of audiences.
I have worked comedy clubs where the audiences are all hammered to clubs where no swearing was allowed.. you just have to be adaptable.
Another thing about comedy club audiences is that if they smell a 'structured routine'.. they will eat you alive. Your act needs to seem spontaneous and as non-scripted as possible to really connect with modern comedy audiences - at least in my observation. At the same time - it all boils down to the quality of the material.. it has to be funny!
There is also a politics to some comedy clubs for variety acts.. A lot of comedy clubs don't want vent or variety acts and want to just focus on 'purist' type stand up comedy... which is too bad. My personal opinion is that Funny is funny.. but I am biased to allowing variety artists into comedy clubs I guess
Damien