There are many reasons for open mikes, mics, whatever however you spell it. Open mics are an opportunity. What exactly you do with that opportunity will depend on mostly on you. First off, there really isn’t any hard rules. Not that there aren’t any rules, but there are no rules about the rules. Every open mic is different. Sometimes open mics are called open mics, but they aren’t actually open mics – they are closed mics or something entirely different, but we’ll start at a fairly common type of open mic. Usually most open mics are a variant of this type.
A common open mic format is basically a regularly occurring event where people come together for the opportunity to take a few minutes, often referred to as a “slot”, as the center of attention. This could be every Wednesday at a certain coffee shop from 8pm for example. There is usually a host that will let the open mic participants know how the particular open mic functions and keep the “show” moving along. The slot may be a set amount of time or number of songs or just til the crowd says “boo” and this is great about open mics. Each one is different. Some are for only music and require everyone to remain quiet and respectful of the artist on the mic, while others may be geared toward only comediennes or poets or there could be a mix. Additionally, as I mentioned, different open mics have different rules like some allow profanity while others prohibit “hate speech” while still others may require a performance fee and another may be genre specific or have age limits up or down. This freedom for formats can either been seen as a frustration or an opportunity and I hope you come to see the latter.
Obviously, the type of open mic you attend or seek out has much to do with your intention. You may be an artist looking to try out some new material, but then again, maybe you’re just coming to meet new people. There is an opportunity to meet new songwriting partners, band mates, producers, engineers, and if you’re a producer, then open mics are a great place to find new artists and or bands to work with. I remember there was an open mic I went to a few times that had a painter/illustrator who would come to listen to the musicians and singers, but also would make portraits of the performers. He was amazing and his name is D’Artist out of Las Vegas. He would often then offer to sell the work to the artist if the artist wanted him to finish the work. I also have met people who make t-shirt merch, book shows at the same spot or another, as well as just new fans. For a while last year, I went out to a bunch of open mics just to practice my photography skills despite normally going to open mics as a singer-songwriter. I even found a cool place to get ribs in my city when a chef happened to have a pop-up at an open mic.
Whatever city you live in though, there is probably an open mic in your scene and if there isn’t one, then I encourage you to start one up. At a bare minimum though, I think you need to have a small PA setup with a mic and a mic stand. You may need a way to plug acoustic guitars in as they are very popular or even an aux cable for running pre-recorded tracks to be played along while a singer or rapper performs. You should also have at least a piece of paper and a pen to write down names of people who want to perform, but I’ve also just done this on my phone. I, myself have run/hosted many open mics and I co-hosted one with a friend for a few years and it was a great experience since normally I was just a performer. As a live sound engineer, I had to learn to get people dialed in and sounding good in just a couple minutes or almost immediately and although I had plenty of hiccups and made lots of changes as the open mic grew, it really was great. Made good money hosting it too as we were essentially booked as entertainment for the evening at a local restaurant. Figuring out how to be a part of the community somehow will definitely help keep your open mic running, but even if you don’t host one, be a part of your community. You performing something that is amazing or something terrible may inspire someone else and, just do it. If you do fail, then you’ll be able to get better and often open mics have repeat people coming every week or whatever so you start to get comfortable with the people there and they can help you AND YOU CAN HELP THEM. Network, fail forward, learn, and take advantage of the opportunity that open mics afford because they are far too often overlooked or worse.
Finding open mics can be difficult as they may change time/venue, cease to operate, or fail to promote properly. I find the best way to find one is to find one and then ask others there about others. Another great was is to just search the web for “open mic [insert your city]” and usually you’ll find a bunch. There are some great resources available that list them like OpenMic.US which is run by my friend David Craver or Openmikes.org, but you can find em on Facebook and the like as well. Another buddy of mine had an amazingly successful one that you had to sign up over 6 months in advance to get on at a place called Eddie’s Attic in Georgia and he eventually opened another you can find at https://eddieowenpresents.com . A friend of mine used to run one that filmed the performances and posted them on Youtube for a long while as well as having some performers on a local tv channel out of a local dive bar. Anyway, have fun. Oh and I almost forgot, you can just be an audience member too. Plenty of new artists need someone to listen and you find a unpolished gem out there.
If you have questions you can’t find the answer to regarding open mics, shoot me a message or comment below. I’d be glad to help.
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