TIPS FOR
Open Mic Hosts
Every town needs an open mic. A proper city needs one every night of the week.
Running an open mic can be a simple operation—mic, list, host, done. Or you can trick it out with features, competition, pre-show workshops, and infinite other variations.
Whatever your format, you’ve gotta pick a venue, set the schedule, and bang out at least some basic rules. And you’ve gotta promote the event.
Here’s a collection of advice—gathered from open mic nights across the US (including my own)—to help open mic hosts and organizers create an event that hums and set your local talent up for success.
The Shift to Digital Open Mics
One of the things I say a lot when I try—and I try often—to convey just how great an open mic is (or was) is that you just had to be there. In the room. In the space. With all the other people. Breathing in the poems and the music… …and the air. Which in most states...
12 Tips for Open Mic Hosts: How to Be Flexible, Fair, and Fluid
Let’s say you host an open mic, or you will soon, or you want to. I'm gonna assume you’ve done your time as a performer: You’ve seen good hosts (let’s hope) and maybe a few bad ones (equally instructive). You’ve got ideas. You’ve got opinions. But maybe you're looking...
A Few Questions: With Your Host, Benjamin Molini
This is the sixth in a series of interviews with some of the best hosts I’ve seen on my informal tour of open mics across America. This week, it's the host of Tongue & Groove in Raleigh (which I co-organize): Benjamin Molini. Ben and I met at an open mic and have...
A Few Questions: With Your Host, John Dancy-Jones
This is the fifth in a series of interviews with some of the best open mic hosts I’ve seen on my informal tour of open mics across America. This week is a bit different. John Dancy-Jones hosted an iconic open mic at The Paper Plant in downtown Raleigh, NC, for eight...
A Few Questions: With Your Host, Madison Mae Parker
This is the fourth in a series of interviews with some of the best open mic hosts I’ve seen on my informal tour of open mics across America. The idea is to pull back the curtain on what it takes to be a host, what hosts want out of an open mic, and how to make an...