Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?

I'm trying up standup comedy this summer -- open mics for now.

I thought it would be absolutely terrifying to be in front of a bunch of strangers and try to make them laugh, but it turns out if you're prepared, it's not that hard. Open mic crowds are benevolent and don't expect you to be the next Richard Pryor or George Carlin anyway, and I don't "engage" the public at all; I just tell my jokes.

I try to come up with new material each time so there's some work to do, but it's fun.

Good luck! I am happy to know that you don’t do crowd work, which has become fashionable now. I remember Big Jay Oakerson’s roast where someone pointed out that crowd work is what you do when you don’t have any material :)

Crowd work almost always comes down to race or profession of the audience. It can be funny only in so many ways.