People love to watch comedians and the best comedians usually end up either in LA or NYC, because of the ample opportunities for stage time and movie roles. Recently I went to NYC to see if doing stand-up comedy in New York City is as great as people make it out to be and it was better than I even thought. The scene in New York City for stand-up comedy is the best that I had experienced so far. When I live in South Florida and if I want to perform in 2 rooms a lot of times it can take me two to three hours to pull this off due to the rooms being spread out so far apart. Also in South Florida you won’t be able to perform on a Saturday night unless you are on a booked show and on a Friday night you are lucky to be able to perform in one room. However when I was in New York City and I wanted to do comedy I could have performed in three rooms on a Friday and I did stand-up comedy in a couple of rooms on a Saturday night. Basically in New York City if you want to do stand-up comedy three times a day for at least five times a week you are able to pull this off.
The reason why going on stage is so important is because the only way you are going to know if they joke is any good is by seeing the audience’s reaction after testing it out in multiple rooms. If you only do two rooms a week in South Florida it can take you a few months to come up with 5 minutes of material while in NYC due to them having so many opportunities for stage time you are able to come up with 5 minutes of material in a few weeks.
Another thing that I noticed about comedy in NYC is that the comics use word play and place a significance on words when telling their jokes. The comedians from NYC are so talented that I saw a freshman from NYU tell jokes and he was so good that he could feature (Tell jokes on stage for 20-25 minutes) down in South Florida. NYC comics’ jokes tend to be concise and to the point. In case you ever go to NYC and you watch some great comedy without paying $40 for the cover charge and two drink minimum then go to Stand-Up NY, Laughing Buddha and Klimat Lounge (It’s a one item purchase minimum). If you are a comic and you want to get stage time than make sure you register online (It’s a $5 charge) to be put on the list at badslava.com. If you don’t register online than you most likely won’t be able to get on stage.
There is no city such as New York City and there is no comedy scene in the world like the one we have in NYC.