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When you are new to comedy, you are dumb. If you are new and reading this, you are thinking of other comics that are new and dumb. You should try looking in the mirror. Because, you do dumb shit. You act in ways that you wouldn’t at a new job and because you are new to comedy, you don’t look at it as a job yet. But the people you are around, the people who are running the mics or shows you are pursuing, look it as a job. And because of this conflict in viewpoints, you can develop a bad reputation very quickly. You don’t realize you are being delusional. Or you don’t see that asking to headline a club is insane even though you have only done comedy 4 times. Or you can’t understand why the club owner got mad that you sat in the crowd with your friends and started talking to them during another comics set. But these actions and many others can put you in the doghouse before you even really get started in comedy.
Unfortunately there isn’t a comedy etiquette official handbook to guide you when you start out. I mean, I wrote this great article that should be the handbook (https://funny.laughstaff.com/you-have-an-act-but-dont-act-like-a-dick-35d2b6342c59) but because there is no one to tell you what not to do, sometimes we do things that develop a bad rep. And that lack of self awareness can be perceived as cocky, delusional, arrogant and quite frankly a pain in the ass to…
