How to Host a Comedy Show
Last updated July 25, 2025.
This is a brief write-up on how to host a comedy show.
Get them to behave as a group
Your primary objective is to get a room full of individuals to behave as a single group. To do that, get them clapping/wooing together three times. If you get the audience making noise right from the start it will make them feel less self conscious about laughing later.
âHowâs everybody going tonight?â
âWooooo!â [1]
âWe can do better than that. Howâs everybody doing tonight?!?â
âWOOOOOO!â [2]
You might think this is hack, but no one cares. The audience wants to have fun. The comics want a hot room. Management wants everyone to buy more mozzarella sticks and Chard.
Talk to Some of them
This may seem counterintuitive given the âbehave as a groupâ note above, but getting to know a few specific audience members will help draw people out of their shells. Itâll also create organic openings for you to make some jokes early in your hosting set, which gets everyone used to hearing the rhythm of jokes. AndâŠitâll get people clapping together a few more times. Hereâs how I do it:
I start with general topics, like geography.
âMake some noise if youâre from out of town!â
âWOOOOO!â [3]
Single out someone who clapped/wooed and talk to them. You donât have to make a joke, but it will help get them laughing organically.
âWhere are you from, sir?â
âMississippi.â
[to audience] âGive it up for MississippiâŠâ [4] âIs this your first visit north of the Mason-Dixon Line?â
And youâre off to the races.
You could stay on geographyââAnyone else from out of town?â âAnyone from another country?â âAnyone from a Union state?ââor you could move on. You can steer the conversation toward a topic for which you already have material. I have material on being married, so thatâs where I go next.
âMake some noise if youâre married!â
âWOOOO!â
âHow long have you been married, miss?â
â22 years.â
âGive it up for 22 years!â
âWOOOO!â [5]
âTo the same person?â or âWhatâs the key to making it 22 years?â
âOpen communication.â
âThatâs a good one.â [Now I segue into material] âFor my wife and me, itâs having a nice even division of labor. At home, I make all the jokes, she makes all the moneyâŠâ
Next you could talk to someone else, you could pivot to other material, or you couldâŠ
Cover House Rules
Depending on the club, you may need to cover some house rules. I frequently host at Bananas Comedy Club, and they donât have any house rules. Once, I hosted at a club that gave me an entire single-spaced page of doâs and donâts to cover. Donât ask if anyone is celebrating a birthday. Do talk about our drink promotionsâŠ
In general, remind people to keep their phones in their pockets, on silent, or better yet, off. Remind them that heckling is disruptive and passĂ©. When I host at Gotham Comedy Club, Iâll tell them that weâre taping these sets.
âWeâre taping the show tonight. The comics will review the tapes so we can get funnier. Some comics use the tapes to send in to late night shows. Iâm sending mine to my mom as proof of life. âHow can we make these tapes great?â you ask? Laugh. Thatâs it. If you like a joke, laugh; if you donât like a joke, laugh harder.â
When covering house rules, I find it helpful to insert a joke, hence the proof of life line.
I will update this page as I think of other topics. Iâm already thinking I need to add a troubleshooting section⊠How to handle hecklers, what do to after a comic bombs, etc.
If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments below.