Tips on hosting (#1: Be selfless)
Hosting a show is like hosting a party; your job is to make sure everyone else is having a blast.
The host of a party doesn’t always have the best time – they’re working. Good ones know the key is to make sure everyone else is grooving.
It’s similar with comedy. A host’s job is to make everyone else on the show looks good and to create the best conditions for laughs. If you’re great at it, you’ll always get stage time.
It definitely requires a different set of comedy muscles than “straight” standup though. A good place to start: Five Unbreakable Commandments of Hosting a Comedy Show from master MC James Mattern.
1. Be Selfless.
2a. The time you do is only to service the show and the other acts.
2b. Do Not Do Bits After the Last Act.
3. The last act is not the headliner.
4. Give the performer the intro they want…
An excerpt:
The key to hosting is realizing that you are not the star. Showcase shows in NYC and LA are exactly that. A SHOWCASE. It’s there to serve as a buffet. A bunch of flavors and styles for the masses to enjoy. The crowds are full of unique people. They are all snowflakes. Even if the show is booked perfectly, there is a great chance that not every act will connect with 100% of the audience. That’s where the host comes in. Hopefully the trust that you build up front leads the audience into embracing acts that they usually wouldn’t.
And if the act doesn’t connect with everyone (or, in some cases, anyone) then the job of the host is to get the crowd reconnected. Win back their faith and make them enjoy the show and help erase any moments they didn’t enjoy.
good stuff! i like the canadian system for three-person shows (or what i've been told they do), where the host there is more experienced than the middle act. makes lots of sense, compared to here, where the least experienced person is often the host of a three-person show at a comedy club. better to have a more experienced person start it off. have we talked about that? we are now! thanks for sharing, bud, as always!