What were you hoping to achieve from the first Smiley show?
Honestly, all I was hoping was that someone showed up and that I felt confident and calm enough to see everything through!
How do you feel the show went?
It was such a lovely, cosy evening with very accommodating staff, enthusiastic open mic’ers, fantastic performances from the booked acts and MC, and great to have a lovely mix of patrons to perform to. We had people from Portugal, Amsterdam and Barcelona and great feedback from them afterwards.
What was your favourite aspect of the evening?
The environment, it felt intimate and relaxed.
Is there anything you’re likely to change for the next one?
Not really. I’d like to encourage more people to come and more marginalised groups always, but I’m happy with how we are ticking over for now. Hopefully word will get out that it’s a great little night even if you are very new to open mics.
What are your hopes for the show going forward?
I’d love to keep it going, build it up as a reliable recurring event and book a few interesting experienced acts to lead each one.
What do you hope Smiley will contribute to the comedy scene?
I hope it will contribute a little light hearted fun, joy and happiness to the struggle of honing your comedy skills! And be thought of generally as an accommodating and inclusive event.
Do you have any advice for anyone hoping to get on the Smiley bill?
Just turn up pretty much for an open mic spot!
I am fairly new myself to open mics, I’ve only done about 20 performances myself altogether so far. So I feel like I’m hardly one to give advice.
However, I’ve muddled 3 points that have been valuable to me as a very new participant in open mics, with some context from my professional writing experiences too. Maybe they will be helpful, maybe not ha;
1. Try to come prepared with a reliable 5 mins of rehearsed, written material that you are 70-80% sure will be funny to others in at least a couple of parts.
2. Ideally rehearse it out loud beforehand so you can establish rhythm, pacing and added emphasis where it’s needed.
3. I also read this and think it’s great advice for newbs, ‘try to land a joke in the first 30 seconds’ if you can. It warms up the audience and gets them onside for the rest of your set.
My final bit of ‘advice’ is to try to chat to and learn from the more experienced comedians on the bill too. They’ve done and seen it all baby!
To find out more about Smiley, you can follow the show on Instagram.
