I will never play another open mic as long as I live

I used to think I had stage fright. Now I know: I have open-mic fright. There is something so intimidating about being in a room full of extraordinarily talented people, waiting for hours to play your two songs and then get off the stage in a rush. And when you fuck up, it hurts double, […]

The space between open mics and real shows

For a newish performer like myself, there exists a huge chasm between playing at open mics and playing real shows. Open mics are about getting stage time, working out kinks in your songs and your act, and for me, working through performance anxiety (and not the kind where your penis doesn’t work). But open mics […]

More Jokes at Open Mics

Once again, I tell a joke at an open mic and it just dies. That’s three this week. I’m pretty confident it was a good joke tonight, but people don’t expect a singer-songwriter to pull out a stuffed panda who talks to the crowd in the first place. Whatever. They’ll just have to learn to […]