Half Of These Comedians Are Doing Karaoke | Nef Johnson
Nef Johnson didn't sign up for his first open mic. A friend signed him up behind his back, a comic onstage started roasting him, and he went up with exactly one joke to defend himself.
That was 2019, at a comedy tent near Cloud City. Then COVID hit, then his daughter died, and stand-up stopped being a hobby. "I'm a comedian out of trauma," he tells Ira Cross. "My life only exists on stage."
Six years later Nef runs shows at The Attic Comedy Club and has the least sentimental read on the Columbus comedy scene you'll hear all year — that half the comics in town are "doing karaoke," chasing applause breaks and flyer credits instead of the work. He breaks down the "antenna" every comic needs (learning to tell a house laugh from a pity laugh from a support laugh), why you haven't really started until year four or five, how he invokes hecklers on purpose instead of fearing them, and what Damon Wayans meant when he told Mark Gregory to "go deeper."
If you're wondering what to expect at your first open mic, or how long it actually takes to get good at stand-up comedy, this one answers it honestly: you won't know what you're doing for four or five years, and the only thing worth chasing in the meantime is greatness.
Recorded at Rehab Tavern in Columbus, Ohio.
Comics — what's the laugh you thought counted, that didn't? Tell us below.
🎙️ Follow Nef Johnson:
Instagram: @neffrizzle
Facebook: Nef Johnson
Watch his series Not Even Funny — link on his Instagram
🔗 First Mic is one of the shows under the Indie Comedy Collective banner:
YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective
Instagram: @indiecomedycollective
#FirstMic #standupcomedy #columbusohio
17 Sept 2026
Bombed After Robin Williams and Never Quit | Mike Larsen
Robin Williams did 40 minutes right before him, and Dana Carvey warned the room it was about to get brutal.
That's not an exaggeration. In the early '80s, San Francisco was a comedy mecca, and the Thursday night mic at Cobb's Pub was hosted by a local guy named Dana Carvey. Mike signed up, got the last slot, and then the biggest star in the world walked in and did forty minutes past closing. The bar was closed. People were standing up to leave. Mike went up anyway, and he bombed — while his buddy Bob held hands with the woman Mike had brought along to watch.
Forty years later he's an Emmy- and Writers Guild-nominated TV writer with credits on Real Time with Bill Maher, The Drew Carey Show, Ellen and Grace Under Fire, and he's still doing mics in Columbus.
So what should you expect at your first open mic? Mike's answer is blunt, and better than the encouragement you usually get: you are going to suck, and that's fine, because walking on stage is the whole achievement. He also breaks down how to get into a TV writers room without an Ivy League degree, why he only goes on stage with a plan, why there's no Juilliard for comedy, and what Columbus comedy is still missing.
Ira Cross hosts. Recorded at Rehab Tavern in Columbus, Ohio.
What's the worst spot you've ever been given on a lineup? Tell us in the comments.
🎙️ Follow Mike Larsen: Instagram: @writemikelarsen Website: writemikelarsen.com
🔗 First Mic is one of the shows under the Indie Comedy Collective banner: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective
#FirstMic #standupcomedy #columbusohio
10 Sept 2026
Two Improv Theaters in One Town Will Always Fight | Tara DeFransisco
Tara DeFrancisco doesn't have a bombing-at-an-open-mic story. A director told her she'd never be the lead - that's where the comedian starts.
She's the first improviser to sit down with Ira Cross on First Mic. Her path runs through an Ohio University professor who taught a stand-up class and told her to go to Chicago; through iO, Second City, and ComedySportz, where she was among the roughly one percent of the city's 10,000 improvisers who ever got paid to do it; and back home to Columbus, where she and Rance Rizzutto built The Nest Theatre, the only dedicated improv theater in a city of two million.
If you're wondering how to get started in improv comedy, she answers it plainly: find a training center, take the class, and understand that it's a team sport before it's a solo act. She settles the wardrobe question too - dress like you're going on a really good first date, where you want to impress each other and you're still yourself.
Plus: why two improv theaters in one town always fight and what a third one fixes, what 400 people in Riga, Latvia taught her about live comedy, and why Columbus being good at everything might be the thing holding its identity back.
Recorded at Rehab Tavern in Columbus, Ohio.
💬 Improvisers and stand-ups — which one is harder to start? Settle it in the comments.
🎙️ Follow Tara DeFrancisco:
Instagram: @taradefrancisco
Web: taradefrancisco.com
The Nest Theatre: nesttheatre.com
🔗 First Mic is part of the Indie Comedy Collective:
YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective
Instagram: @indiecomedycollective
#FirstMic #improvcomedy #columbusohio
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