Nominee for dumbest idea of '07?

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on March 5th, 2007

Just got an email from a reader in Edmonton. He sends along the following and says that it comes from the folks who run Yuk Yuks in that city. We have no reason to believe it’s not real.

“From this point out Yuk Yuk’s amateur nights will now be called “Crash and Burn Night”. This means that if you are not doing well we will be playing sounds of disasters over top of your set. This rule stands for Amateurs and Professionals alike. Some of you may not feel comfortable with this. If so for lack of a better term…Too bad so sad.”

To put it another way, the imbeciles who run Yuk Yuks in Edmonton have elected to turn their pro-am night into a Gong Show.

Is there a better time in your young comedy life to experiment or tinker with your onstage persona and your material than when you’re doing the open mikes? And is there a more pressure-packed time than your first year or two? It’s an anxious, thrilling time and the last thing a young sprout of a comic needs is some moron in the sound booth playing you off with the sound of howitzers and grenades.

And does a pro need some bitter douchebag in the back of the house deciding when the crowd has had enough?

Who’s running that show up there in Edmonton? Is anyone running it? If there is anyone actually running the show, it’s clearly someone who has zero respect for comedians and for the art/craft of standup. And a policy like this one could (should?) eliminate any self-respecting pro who might considering mounting that stage while this policy is in effect.

Coordinating talent is a tricky business, especially for an open mike. If the talent coordinator (or the club manager… or the bartender… or whoever it is who is that determines who goes on) truly wants to improve the pro-am night, he/she could hire a better emcee, cut the weaker acts down time-wise, give the stronger acts more time (thereby encouraging the pros to show up, rather than chasing them away), gently (and privately) tell some of the weaker acts to give it a rest for a few weeks, hold the occasional seminar to improve skills (we’ll gladly come in conduct a mini-seminar for the local talent, if we’re booked at your club!) or actually pay an act to close out the show. Videotaping the amatuers and letting them walk with a tape is another great way of upping the level of proficiency. It’s also a great idea to let the acts perform wherever and whenever they want– more stage time equals better comedians– we’ve always been puzzled by the clubs who have a policy that forces a comic to choose between clubs. Publicly humiliating the acts is something that should be avoided at all costs.

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