“Anyone can go up on any given night and just do five minutes. If you have any love for making people laugh or smile, you should go for it.”
— ANTON MATYUSHIN, LOCAL COMEDIAN
The casual jokes you’ve made amongst friends have been met with booming laughter, and you now yearn for a stage skimpily clad with a single mic and stool. Here’s the good news: it’s all yours.
“[Stand-up comedy] is one of the few performance arts where, as long as you can talk for five minutes, you can just get up there,” says Maxwell Xavier, a local comedian and co-producer of the open mic show Ratboy Comedy. “You either find out it’s the thing you want to do, or you have a cool story.”
For folks who want to try their hand at stand-up comedy, Calgary’s got a beginner-friendly show nearly every weeknight. The barrier to entry is as low as it can be — all you need is exactly one morsel of courage to give it a go.
Writing Your Set
When it comes to preparing your jokes, local comedian Anton Matyushin says that starting out can actually be a leg up when brainstorming material. “When you’re five to 10 years in, comics have written a lot about their life and experiences. Your first [five-minute set] is a blessing and a curse — it’s scary, but it’s also nice because there’s so many things you can talk about.”
Inspiration for jokes can come from anywhere at all, so it’s all about taking notes. “Over the course of the day, I’ll try to keep tabs on stuff that I think was funny or interesting,” says Matyushin. “But if I don’t get any of that in a day, I’ll sit down, set a 10 to 15 minute timer, and just write nonstop. From there, you comb through to find the good stuff.”
Watch and Learn
It’s generally a good idea to attend open mic shows before performing in order to get familiar with the structure, the audience and to see how comics interact with the stage. Doing so can eliminate some uncertainty during an already nerve-wracking walk up to the spotlight.
Every Wednesday at the Laugh Shop’s pro-am (professional-amateur) show, the headliner hosts a comedy workshop before the show, which touches on topics like writing practices and how to navigate the comedy business. To refine your craft on your own, Alberta-raised and Juno-nominated comedian Faris Hytiaa recommends attentively watching your favourite comedians and local performers to study the way they structure their jokes.
“See people live and go see headliners you’ve never heard of,” says Hytiaa. “There’s so much to learn from stage presence, voice control, mic technique, and different writing and delivery practices.”
Getting Onstage
Ultimately, the magic has to happen in-person. For Xavier, giving newer comics stage time in front of an audience is top of mind when he pieces together Ratboy’s lineup. “You can’t do comedy off-stage. You can prepare for it, but it’s not the real thing until the crowd is involved.”
Most open mics will allow each comic to perform a five minute set, also known as a “tight five” when the set is composed of the comedian’s strongest or most reliable material. A few moments before your time is up, the organizer will flash a light at you from the back of the room to indicate it’s time to land your last punchline and give way to the next comic.
“People don’t realize how fast five minutes on stage goes by,” says Matyushin. “If they knew, I have a feeling maybe more people would try it.”
Both Xavier and Matyushin’s first stand-up sets were at Ratboy, a $5 open mic comedy show that takes place at Vern’s every Wednesday night. The show regularly sees professional comics who are testing out new material, folks trying their hand at comedy for the first time and everyone in between. “And it’s a cheap show, so [it’s great] if you’re young and broke,” Hytiaa says. “Or old and broke. It’s 2026, the economy spares no one.”
And in the grand scheme of it all, the stakes are lower than they might feel. “People are going to forget pretty fast unless you do something monumentally insane,” says Matyushin. “Worst case, you don’t get any laughs and you get off stage. No one’s going to die.”
“Anyone can go up on any given night and just do five minutes,” adds Matyushin. “If you have any love for making people laugh or smile, you should go for it.”
Open Mic Shows in Calgary
The Comedy Cave | Mondays at 7:30 p.m.
To perform, speak to the host in-person after a show.
Tubby Dog | Mondays at 8:30 p.m.
To perform, message @justanopenmic on Instagram.
Civic Tavern | Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m.
To perform, message @crosswalk.comedy on Instagram.
The Laugh Shop | Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m.
To perform, sign up on laughshopcalgary.com/amateur-night.
Vern’s | Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m.
To perform, message @ratboycomedy on Instagram.
The Dirty Duck Pub in Inglewood | Thursdays at 8:00 p.m.
To perform, message @reckless_comedy_yyc
