Comedy club etiquette from the audience's side: two people seen from behind, silhouetted against warm stage light
Club etiquette · the good-night guide

Comedy club etiquette: how to be the table the room loves.

Comedy clubs are not complicated. You paid to hear the people onstage. The rest of the room did too. Have a drink. Eat something. Laugh too loud. Have a great time. Just don't decide halfway through the show that everybody came to hear you.

The basic rule: don't become part of the show unless the comic makes you part of the show.

This is supposed to be fun.

Nobody needs a 40-page rulebook before seeing stand-up. Most people are perfectly capable of going into a room, sitting down and enjoying themselves. This page is for the handful of things that can wreck a show for the comic, the staff and 200 people who had nothing to do with your third tequila.

The house rule wins.

Rooms differ. Age limits, recording rules, seating, minimums, late entry and re-entry can vary — check the club's own rules before you go. D.O.C. can help you know what kind of show you're walking into (Plan a Night and the Club Directory link each room's own site); the venue decides what happens inside its room.

Comedy club etiquette comes down to one voice

A comedy room is built for one voice at a time: the one holding the microphone. The lights are low, the tables sit close together and the front row is a few feet from the stage. In a room like that, a whisper carries and a phone screen glows. Comedy club etiquette is simply letting that one voice carry, and the reward is a better show for your whole table.

The house rules are the other half of comedy club etiquette, and each club writes its own. Comedy Works in Denver, for one, sets out its age rule, its two-item minimum and its phone-free showroom on its own FAQ page. A room's card in the Club Directory gives the club's own word on tickets, age, minimums, phones and parking, where the club publishes them.

Before you even sit down

A little homework saves a surprising amount of stupid later.

01Doors are not show timeIf the ticket says doors at 6:30 and show at 7:30, those are two different things. Give yourself time to park, get seated, order and use the bathroom before somebody is onstage trying to work.
02Read the ticketAge restriction? Two-item minimum? Assigned seats? General admission? No re-entry? Don't discover the club's policies while arguing with the person at the door.
03Your phone has a dimmerA glowing phone in a dark comedy room might as well be a lighthouse. Silence it. Put it away. And unless the club and the comic allow recording, don't record the set. Some rooms lock phones in a pouch at the door — Comedy Works in Denver does — so check the ticket.
04The opener is part of the showThe show did not begin when the famous person walked out. Don't spend the opener yelling across the table, catching up with friends and ordering like you're at brunch.
05Servers are working during the showThey already know how to take an order quietly. Help them out. You do not need a committee meeting over nachos while a punchline is happening six feet away.
06Use the bathroom beforehandYes, you can get up. Life happens. But if you're sitting twelve inches from the stage and climb over four people during the set, understand that you may become material for the next 45 seconds.
Use SUCDb before the show

Know what you're buying tickets for

You don't have to walk into a comedy club blind. Look the comic up on SUCDb first: who they are, what kind of comedy they do and the ground they usually cover. Maybe they're exactly your kind of funny. Maybe they're not. That's useful to know before you spend the money.

It matters even more when you're the one bringing everybody else. A date, your parents, coworkers, your church friends, your 22-year-old nephew and your 78-year-old mother are not automatically the same audience. If you're inviting people, give them some idea what they're walking into.

Look up the comicTheir SUCDb record: who they are, how they got here, their style — and their specials, if you'd rather watch one before you buy.
Check the ground they coverLanguage, relationships, politics, sex, religion, family, dark material, clean material — a record's Comedy DNA gives the general territory.
Don't surprise your groupIf you're buying the tickets for everybody, at least tell everybody what kind of show you picked.

Don't buy tickets to somebody's show, refuse to learn anything about their act, then act shocked when they do their act.

The one everybody gets wrong

Crowd work is not permission to heckle

You watched a bunch of crowd-work clips online. Good. What those clips do not mean is that the audience is supposed to yell things whenever it feels like it.

If the comic asks you a question, answer it. If they keep talking to you, keep answering. If they move on, you move on too. You are not now the co-headliner.

The comic talking to the crowd ≠ the crowd talking whenever it wants.

Once the show starts

This is where adults occasionally forget things they learned in elementary school.

07Talking is still talkingWhispering through an entire set is not somehow silent because you leaned closer to the other person. If you can hear each other, so can somebody else.
08Don't shout the punchlineMaybe you've heard the joke. Congratulations. The person beside you hasn't. Let the comic tell it.
09Don't explain the jokeYour friend either gets it, doesn't get it, or will get it three seconds from now. None of these require an audio commentary track from you.
10You don't have to laughNot every joke is going to hit you. That's normal. Sit there. Drink your drink. Nobody is checking your laugh percentage at the door.
11You can be offendedYou can hate a joke. You can hate the whole set. You can leave. Turning your table into a live debate with the comic generally does not improve the evening for anybody.
12Do not touch the comicDo not walk onstage. Do not grab the performer. Do not touch the mic, stool, notes or props. This should not need its own box. It gets its own box anyway.
13Drunk is not a special talentHave drinks. Have fun. But if the entire room now knows exactly how many drinks you've had, the night may be moving in the wrong direction.
14Don't try to beat the comicThat funny thought you just had? Keep it. If it's still funny tomorrow, write it down and try an open mic. Tonight you bought a ticket.
15Let the room workStand-up has rhythm. Setup. Pause. Punchline. Callback. Silence can even be part of it. Filling every quiet second with your own voice doesn't help.
16The check is part of the showIf the bill comes while someone is on stage, pay it without a conversation, and tip on the whole bill — the minimum included. Your server worked the same show you watched.

Staying in the room

Most clubs would rather keep a paying customer than throw one out. If you're being removed, there is a fair chance you worked pretty hard to get there.

First comedy show?

You really only need this much.

Quick test: is this heckling?

The comic looks directly at you and asks, “What do you do for a living?” What should you do?

The whole page in three lines

Laugh when you want. Don't laugh when you don't.
If the comic talks to you, talk back.
Just don't make 200 people listen to you instead of the person they paid to see.

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