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.
A Few Questions: With Your Host, Jorge Mendez
This is the third 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 event...
A Few Questions: With Your Host Lewis Mundt
This is the second 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...
A Few Questions: With Your Host, Honest Lewis
This is the first 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 event...
A Few Questions: Expert Tips from Seasoned Open Mic Hosts
When open mics are Your Thing, you go to a lot of open mics. You see different formats, different venues, different house rules. And you see how each host welcomes people in, tees up the rules, manages the list, introduces performers, and does all the other things...
RHINO Poetry Open Mic — How to Host a One-Off Event
The Triangle—where I call home—has its share of strong, steady poetry events—slams in Durham and Chapel Hill, page poet affairs at bookstores in Chapel Hill and Fearrington Village, and a monthly series brilliantly titled “Two Writers Walk Into a Bar.” (That one’s not...