Stand Up London

This web site was initially created in February 2010.  The main purpose is to provide a place for new comedians to find out about open mic comedy gigs where they can hone their craft.  Although there are similar resources available online, they tend to be one of two things:

Facebook-based lists

Facebook is very useful for finding gigs and getting updates from those who run them.  However, it isn't nearly as flexible as a dedicated web site, and any lists of gigs are high-maintenance for the people running them, not so easy to search for the people using them.

There are two other problems with Facebook-based resources.  First, not everyone has a Facebook account - although anyone serious about finding open mic comedy gigs really ought to have.  Second, a lot of people with day jobs find that they are blocked from accessing Facebook when they are at work.

Dedicated comedy sites

The other place where you can get information about open mic comedy gigs in on dedicated comedy sites.  The main problem with them is that the open mic stuff tends to get drowned out amongst all the professional events.  With so much comedy on, it becomes more of an effort to separate the gigs where you might get a chance to perform from those where you haven't a hope in hell until you've either got 2000 performances under your belt, or a few appearances on Mock The Week.

Stand Up London to the rescue

So this site was born as a way of providing a resource that isn't in Facebook, and that only covers the open mic circuit.  All of the information on the site is freely available elsewhere on the Internet.  Promoters are encouraged to submit and maintain information about their own gigs, and anyone can create a sort of comedy CV for themselves.  Gigs are categtorised in different ways, making it easy to find gigs that suit you, whether you want to bring or avoid bringing some audience, book ahead or turn up on the night, etc.  In addition to the list of gigs, there is also an event calendar that shows, as far as possible, when all the gigs are on; and in some cases also indicates who is performing.

Almost all of the information on the site is available to anyone.  A few features are only available to people who register, but registration is free, and only exists to prevent arseholishness, e.g. attempts to vandalise the site.  Members can comment on just about any element of the site, any page, any gig, any person.  There isn't a discussion forum as such, because the entire site can be used as one big discussion forum.  Members also get access to one particular page that creates a big list summarising all of the known gigs, based on all the information stored on the site.

There is a little advertising panel on one side of the screen.  That helps to cover some of the costs of keeping the whole thing up and running, but only a small fraction of those costs.  The rest is covered by the guy who runs the site, himself an open mic comedian, and just someone who wanted a good resource for finding gigs.

So enjoy, or register and enjoy even more.

It's only as good as you make it

If you find this site useful, then please sign up, and take a few minutes every now and again to help it stay useful by:

• adding details to The Gig Guide or The Gig Calendar for any gigs that you know about and which aren't on the site - regardless of whether or not you run them
• adding a comment pointing out any inaccuracies you have spotted
• providing feedback on a gig that you've done

If you take just a little bit of time to do that, and everyone else who uses the site does the same, we will all benefit from having good, accurate information about all the open mic gigs we all know about.  And that's no bad thing at all.  Everyone wins.