Booking Gigs
Once you feel confident in your material and comfortable with your delivery, you may want to try and start booking gigs. You could try and get an agent, but you won't need one right away. What you will need is some sort of demo recording to shop around to clubs. You'll most likely start out at a comedy club as the emcee, introducing other acts and doing a short set. If you do well, the club might ask you to come back as a feature. Another comic on the bill might remember you, too, and ask you to be part of a future bill he or she is on. That's why you should always network -- remember that comedy is a community. It's all part of working towards headlining your own show.
Learn how to market yourself. Use the Internet, for starters -- sites like MySpace and Facebook are good tools to network and advertise yourself (MySpace played a big part in launching Dane Cook to super stardom). If you're technologically savvy or know someone who is, you might consider having your own website, where you could include publicity information and even some of your comedy. Don't be afraid to sell yourself.
Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Every comedian, at some point in his or her career, will bomb -- that is, will tell jokes to a crowd that doesn't laugh at all. Maybe the comic's rhythm is off that night, or he or she is distracted. Maybe the audience is inattentive or just not feeling it. Even the best comics in the world have bombed at one time or another. You will too. It's not the end of the world.
In fact, bombing can be a valuable learning experience. It can help you weed out material that isn't working -- though you shouldn't give up on jokes after only one tepid reaction. It can also help you develop skills at "working" a room; getting an audience back after you -- or a comic before you -- is bombing is the mark of a skilled stand-up. Plus, bombing is probably the worst thing that can happen to you, comedically speaking. Once it happens and you see that it's no big deal, you'll see there's nothing to fear and get a new boost of confidence.
