How To Host

It's the first paid gig you're gonna get in the club scene, learn how to do it well

Sammy Obeid and I coexisting oh so many years ago.

The first phase of learning how to do stand up is all about surviving on stage for five minutes. Concentrate on that until you can reliably turn in a tight five.

The next step is working on getting booked on showcases, on your way to being a paid regular at your local club. Being a good host can make you valuable to showcases, and its the first job you get hired for at local clubs, so it makes sense to learn how to host.

The host is so important to the success of a show. They’re the first person on stage, they set the tone, kickstart the energy, they get the audience clapping and cheering by pulling them out of the passive consumption mode we default to in this age when live entertainment is the exception to the rule.

If you volunteer to host at your local open mic, there’s a good chance they’ll take you up on it. Even if they have a regular host, they’ll appreciate having someone to cover for them when they’re not available or just in need of a break. Also, when you’re not hosting, volunteer to go first. Nobody wants to “take the bullet” and go first, but its great practice learning how to warm up a cold audience.

Be aware that you have several jobs when you’re hosting. Obviously, you’re a comedian and you’ll do your best set, but you’re also there for Cheerleading and Housekeeping. You can do a great job as host without your material killing, and conversely, you can kill with your set and not be a good host.

Your set: Most headliners will prefer you not do a lot of crowd work, even if they plan on doing crowd work, maybe especially if they plan on doing crowd work. If in doubt, you can always ask them.
Another thing to keep in mind is that longer jokes are more challenging when the audience is still warming up, and they don’t know you, so you’re winning them over. Stick with mostly shorter jokes, especially at the top of your set.

Cheerleader: In my last post I recommended new comics not worry so much about being hacky when starting out. I think you might also have to accept being a little hacky to be a good host. “You ready to have a good show? I can’t hear you? I SAID, are you ready to have a good show?” In case you didn’t already know, they actually could hear you. Yeah it’s cheesy, but if it gets them making noise, its a good thing. You have to wake the audience up, tell them to cheer, to “give it up”, actually model for them what clapping looks like.

When Sammy Obeid was first getting started I had the privilege of booking him for The Coexist Comedy Tour. His set was great, of course, but I loved his approach to hosting. He would lead the audience through every step of clapping. “Hold your hands up in front of you, go head, get them up. Okay, now take them and slap them together. You hear the noise they make? Okay, now do that repeatedly, harder, and faster! There ya go...” At this point the audience is clapping, and then he’d quickly shout “Now please welcome your first comic of the night, Keith Lowell Jensen!” and they had to respond, it’s deeply ingrained social behavior, but they were already clapping before he said my name, so their only choice was to clap more, louder, maybe add some cheers. And when you can make people behave like they’re excited, they believe that they’re excited.

Say the name last! Notice Sammy didn’t say, “Keith Lowell Jensen is here. He’s great. Clap for him.” This may seem like a small thing but it makes a huge difference, so much so that it’s the main thing I drill new comics about when they’re hosting for the first time. Say The Name Last! The audience is trained to clap when they hear the name, and any words after the name will lessen the response. Say the name a little louder, say it with enthusiasm, and say it last! I’m gonna repeat that one more time; say the name last.

Ask the comic how they want to be introduced. You can make sure you get their name right, find out if they have any credits, and in general just find out what they prefer in their introduction. I’ve more than once had women tell me they don’t want their gender mentioned in their intro. They also don’t want to introduced as sexy, hot, etc. Say they’re funny. Funny is good. I’ve also heard comedians take extra steps to not have their opening joke stepped on because the host decides to make a joke while introducing them. “This next guy is called a stand up, but he’s sitting down” while introducing a comedian in a wheelchair for example, and yes that example is based on something I personally witnessed happening, repeatedly. On another occasion a host wanted to introduce my friend Daniel Humbarger as Daniel Hamburger. All three of us comics begged the guy not to. He did it anyway. Nobody laughed, and Daniel had the awkward opening of explaining what his actual name was.* Introduce comedians the way they want to be introduced, and introduce them with enthusiasm and praise. You did your set, now you’re supporting someone else’s set. (Buy me a root beer sometime and I’ll tell you stories of times I didn’t manage to take my own advice on this one, with disastrous results.)

Standard etiquette is to not do material between comics. You say hello, pump them up at the start, and then you do your set, and after you do your set you’re in host mode the rest of the night. Occasionally the club or the headliner might ask you to make an exception to this rule. I’ve only run into this when I had a really good set and the feature or guest set bombed. The headliner might ask if I have a good short joke or two, nothing more than two or three minutes, to kind of win them back. I could count on one hand how many times this has happened though.

Speaking of comics bombing, be nice. Never score a cheap laugh by acknowledging another comic’s bomb. It’s one of the only times acknowledge isn’t the right choice. One other exception to the acknowledge rule, don’t make too many comments about the crowd being small. This is fine to do as a headliner, but the host pointing out that the headliner didn’t draw a big crowd won’t likely be appreciated by said headliner, or by the club.

Housekeeping: The club will have things they want you to say to the audience but they often have too much on their mind and they may forget to tell you these things until the last minute. When I would host, I liked to get to the club early and ask about announcements so I could get them down, figure out the best way to do them, and not get caught off guard. Almost always you’ll want to encourage the audience to tip their servers, and to be patient with their servers. I’ve seen headliners remind the audience that a comedy club isn’t like a restaurant, the whole crowd gets seated at once, and the servers are doing their best to get everyone taken care of quickly. Don’t roast the servers, don’t objectify the servers, be the servers best ally. Remember, you’re in the service industry too, you’re purpose is bring the people out so that they can sell them drinks and nachos. You’re all on the same team, and you’re lucky enough to have the funnest job. Be nice.

In addition to encouraging them to take care of their servers, the club may want you to plug their website, mailing list, and/or some upcoming shows. I would usually do this immediately after the feature, try to keep it efficient, not too wordy but be sure you get the information in, and try to sound like you’re sharing information you’re excited about, which hopefully is actually the case. Then shift to giving the headliner the best introduction of all time. “Are you ready for your headliner?”

And there are clubs that give you a huge amount of information to read. Just do your best. I think it’s a terrible idea, but that’s on the club. You gotta make the best of it.

At the end of the night, after the headliner says goodnight, you might need to let the audience know that the servers are finishing up their tickets as quickly as possible, encourage them to pick up a flyer on their way out, and to visit the website, but you’re not gonna say much. The show is done, and you’re just saying goodnight. Keep it short and sweet.

There’s still room to be creative and original. One of my favorite hosting sets ever was turned in by Brent Weinbach. Brent was just starting to work his way through the club hierarchy but he was already one of the funniest comics I’d ever seen, and incredible weird and unusual. I couldn’t imagine how he was going to handle the cheerleading and housekeeping part of the hosting gig. I don’t even remember who the headliner was. I was there to see Brent. I was sure that awful, or wonderful, it was gonna be something completely unique. Brent walked onstage in character, “Yo, yo, what is UP, SacramenTO!” He hosted by playing a cheesy, but effective host, and then introduced “Your first comic of the night. This dude is really weird, right? You’re gonna love him. Give it up for Brent Weinbach!” Then he walked to the edge of the stage, mimed shaking his own hand, and came back as his usual self. Did his set, which killed, and then brought “the host” back again, and he did the rest of the night in that cheesy character. It was clever, brilliant, and it got the job done.

I’d love to hear about times you’ve seen a host, or been a host, who nailed it, blew it, or made it their own. And as always I’m here for any questions you may have.