Nef Johnson didn't sign up for his first open mic. A friend signed him up behind his back, a comic onstage started roasting him, and he went up with exactly one joke to defend himself. That was 2019, at a comedy tent near Cloud City. Then COVID hit, then his daughter died, and stand-up stopped being a hobby. "I'm a comedian out of trauma," he tells Ira Cross. "My life only exists on stage." Six years later Nef runs shows at The Attic Comedy Club and has the least sentimental read on the Columbus comedy scene you'll hear all year — that half the comics in town are "doing karaoke," chasing applause breaks and flyer credits instead of the work. He breaks down the "antenna" every comic needs (learning to tell a house laugh from a pity laugh from a support laugh), why you haven't really started until year four or five, how he invokes hecklers on purpose instead of fearing them, and what Damon Wayans meant when he told Mark Gregory to "go deeper." If you're wondering what to expect at your first open mic, or how long it actually takes to get good at stand-up comedy, this one answers it honestly: you won't know what you're doing for four or five years, and the only thing worth chasing in the meantime is greatness. Recorded at Rehab Tavern in Columbus, Ohio. Comics — what's the laugh you thought counted, that didn't? Tell us below. 🎙️ Follow Nef Johnson: Instagram: @neffrizzle Facebook: Nef Johnson Watch his series Not Even Funny — link on his Instagram 🔗 First Mic is one of the shows under the Indie Comedy Collective banner: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective #FirstMic #standupcomedy #columbusohio
Robin Williams did 40 minutes right before him, and Dana Carvey warned the room it was about to get brutal. That's not an exaggeration. In the early '80s, San Francisco was a comedy mecca, and the Thursday night mic at Cobb's Pub was hosted by a local guy named Dana Carvey. Mike signed up, got the last slot, and then the biggest star in the world walked in and did forty minutes past closing. The bar was closed. People were standing up to leave. Mike went up anyway, and he bombed — while his buddy Bob held hands with the woman Mike had brought along to watch. Forty years later he's an Emmy- and Writers Guild-nominated TV writer with credits on Real Time with Bill Maher, The Drew Carey Show, Ellen and Grace Under Fire, and he's still doing mics in Columbus. So what should you expect at your first open mic? Mike's answer is blunt, and better than the encouragement you usually get: you are going to suck, and that's fine, because walking on stage is the whole achievement. He also breaks down how to get into a TV writers room without an Ivy League degree, why he only goes on stage with a plan, why there's no Juilliard for comedy, and what Columbus comedy is still missing. Ira Cross hosts. Recorded at Rehab Tavern in Columbus, Ohio. What's the worst spot you've ever been given on a lineup? Tell us in the comments. 🎙️ Follow Mike Larsen: Instagram: @writemikelarsen Website: writemikelarsen.com 🔗 First Mic is one of the shows under the Indie Comedy Collective banner: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective #FirstMic #standupcomedy #columbusohio
Tara DeFrancisco doesn't have a bombing-at-an-open-mic story. A director told her she'd never be the lead - that's where the comedian starts. She's the first improviser to sit down with Ira Cross on First Mic. Her path runs through an Ohio University professor who taught a stand-up class and told her to go to Chicago; through iO, Second City, and ComedySportz, where she was among the roughly one percent of the city's 10,000 improvisers who ever got paid to do it; and back home to Columbus, where she and Rance Rizzutto built The Nest Theatre, the only dedicated improv theater in a city of two million. If you're wondering how to get started in improv comedy, she answers it plainly: find a training center, take the class, and understand that it's a team sport before it's a solo act. She settles the wardrobe question too - dress like you're going on a really good first date, where you want to impress each other and you're still yourself. Plus: why two improv theaters in one town always fight and what a third one fixes, what 400 people in Riga, Latvia taught her about live comedy, and why Columbus being good at everything might be the thing holding its identity back. Recorded at Rehab Tavern in Columbus, Ohio. 💬 Improvisers and stand-ups — which one is harder to start? Settle it in the comments. 🎙️ Follow Tara DeFrancisco: Instagram: @taradefrancisco Web: taradefrancisco.com The Nest Theatre: nesttheatre.com 🔗 First Mic is part of the Indie Comedy Collective: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective #FirstMic #improvcomedy #columbusohio
G Davis was 17 at his first open mic — at the Columbus Funny Bone, not a basement — and he didn't bomb. He killed. Then he built the whole stand-up career backwards. G walked into a real club on a break from college with his grades falling apart. Jason Banks, Kenny Mock and Bobby Dodds were at the bar. Jason leaned over three seats and whispered the line that got him through it. What came next was out of order and it worked: four live-recorded specials at his church, The Potter's House, between 18 and 20 — a 220-seat room he didn't pay for, three rooms sold out back to back, and a full hour on stage every month before he'd done a real road year. If you want to know how to deal with hecklers, G's answer is the most specific we've aired: never humiliate them, just talk to them, and fire them up so respectfully that the whole room ends up laughing — including the heckler, at himself. He also gives the segment no other guest has: how to start producing your own comedy shows, and why producing and performing are two different jobs. Plus a backyard Don't Tell show at a woman named Peggy's actual house in San Diego, and the Florida move that makes this one a goodbye. Filmed at Rehab Tavern in Columbus, Ohio. Comics — did you kill or bomb your first open mic? Tell us in the comments. 🎙️ Follow G Davis: Instagram: @gdavisofficial TikTok: @gdavisofficial Facebook: /iamgdavis (see Flag 2 — Facebook handle differs from the one stated on camera) 🔗 First Mic is one of the shows under the Indie Comedy Collective banner: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective 📅 Catch G live: Late September — St. Pete, FL, with St. Pete Stand-Up and Don't Tell Oct 9 — Latrobe, PA, with Next Stop Comedy October — Don't Tell Pittsburgh, three shows that weekend #FirstMic #standupcomedy #columbusohio
Cameron Steele only started doing stand-up to get better at his radio job. Six years later: 200K on TikTok and a Michael Jackson parody past 1.7 million views. Before comedy, Cameron was the night guy at WZIP, the University of Akron's student-run station — 7 to 10 PM, 2017 to 2020. "I was your drive home." Somebody told him stand-up would make him sharper on air, so his first open mic happened in the student union coffee shop, by the Starbucks. He wasn't serious about it. His station manager, Chris Keppler, was the one who noticed people were actually laughing. His first paid set came later at Versified Expressions in Akron, where Anthony "Amplified" Evans handed him fifty dollars and let him rock out. Then his mom told him to get on TikTok. If you're wondering how to go viral on TikTok, Cameron gives away the playbook: check your analytics and post when your followers are online, write captions for search, ride trending sounds, stay on current events, and leave a video up when it flops — his million-view Michael Jackson bit did 1,000 views on day one. He also covers how he handles hecklers (get there first), the note Nef Johnson gave him that fixed his impression bit, and the hardest thing a comic must accept: sometimes it isn't the algorithm. Filmed at Rehab Tavern in Columbus, Ohio. Comics — what's the one video of yours that flopped and then took off months later? Tell us in the comments. 🎙️ Follow Cameron Steele: Instagram: @cameronsteelecomedy Facebook: Cameron Steele YouTube: Cameron Steele Comedy TikTok: Cameron Steele Comedy 🔗 First Mic is part of the Indie Comedy Collective: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective #FirstMic #standupcomedy #columbusohio