First Mic

Evergreen query targeted: "what to expect at your first open mic" — answered directly in paragraph two. Nickey Winkelman has done stand-up for 20 years and never left Columbus, Ohio — on purpose. Her first open mic? Eight minutes at a UCSB variety show at 19. That's over the line at most mics. At her first Columbus mic — the 2006 Funny Bone contest where Kenny Mock also did his first Columbus set...

Murph Henderson flew to New York to do his first stand-up set — and to see a girl. She said no, he never got on stage, and Columbus comedy won. Back home, his actual first open mic happened at Shrunken Head, right before the legendary Columbus venue closed for good. The first laugh hit like a drug he didn't know he needed — and the self-described nervous guy who takes his shoes off to feel grounde...

Henry Allen brought his mom to his first open mic — because at 17, he wasn't old enough to get into the club. It did not go smoothly. Sixteen years later, Henry sits down with Ira Cross at Rehab Tavern to tell the whole story: the Bo Burnham special that convinced him to start at 17, the bottle of Smartwater that turned his mom into a tornado at the host stand, and the legendary opening line he co...

Barak Lesner moved to Columbus with three outfits in a garbage bag. Today he co-runs The Attic Comedy Club, has five kids and a mortgage, and a blunt message for anyone starting out: you suck — and that's exactly the point. In this episode of First Mic, Barak takes Ira back to his real first set in 2013 — a two-minute open mic in Gainesville, Florida, on his 25th birthday, the same night Ray Allen...

Caitlin Menosky's first Columbus open mic went about as badly as it can go — only woman on the lineup, put up last, and heckled through her whole set by a room full of comedians she'd never met. One comic's apology afterward is the reason she didn't quit. Now she's headlining 45 minutes and building toward an hour.   Caitlin sits down with Ira Cross at Rehab Tavern to talk about memorizing Jim Gaf...

Dan Sebree has been obsessed with stand-up since he was five years old — but it took watching the finals of a Dayton comedy contest, thinking "I could do this," to actually get on stage. On this episode of First Mic, Dan tells Ira about his very first open mic on January 19, 2014: a full shift at Family Video, a nervous sweat-through-the-shirt entrance at 330 pounds, and the 25 friends and family...

Jessi Sisson didn't plan to do comedy. She signed up for a speed dating event in Columbus, never saw the email saying it was canceled, and walked in to find an open mic instead. Five years of jokes had been sitting in her phone since one improv class back in Philly — so she went up last, read them off the screen, then ran straight to her car. That was the fall of 2022.   Since then she's bought an...

Josh Stovall is a preacher, a comedian, and the kind of guest who'll sip Zinfandel like it's communion and then tell you about the last time he made his mom laugh before she passed six years ago this March. He spent two and a half years writing jokes in his phone before he ever set foot on a stage — and when he finally did, at an open mic at Fours on High in Columbus, the host was so drunk he butc...

Janaris Cain (@PrincessNaris) thought she was going to dance for Missy Elliott. Instead, the wig got snatched off her head on a Wild 'N Out tour stop, her friends told her she had to do comedy, and she said "f it" and walked into Shrunken Head for her first open mic. She bombed. Then a stranger in the crowd yelled "your booty though," and Janaris took it as the green light to get back into her jok...

Happy Mother's Day. For this special episode, Ira sits down with the woman everyone in his life has called hilarious for as long as he can remember — his mom, Sheila Taylor. She's the first non-comic guest on First Mic, the first mom, and (sorry Murf) the first one to take her shoes off on camera.   They get into her first live comedy show at Powers Auditorium in Youngstown back in the late '80s,...

Tanya Vora doesn't wing anything. Before her first open mic in July 2023, she recorded herself practicing in her closet, showed up at The Attic early to visualize the stage, and went ninth on the lineup so she wouldn't have to go first. She also Googled what a "tight five" was the week before — because she thought it meant five jokes. She was wrong. She was also great. The comic who followed her,...

LeRon Crowder is the reason First Mic exists. Before this podcast was a podcast, he and Ira Cross sat in a Columbus library sketching the idea out on dry erase boards like a couple of professors. This is his first mic story — and it starts with Tony Rock at a Cheesecake Factory telling him, "You need to get on stage." After two years of driving up to open mics, looking at comedians like "dorks and...

Def Goldblum is a Columbus-based music comedian, open mic host, and show producer who brings guitar, keyboard, and an absurd love of Facebook Marketplace to every stage he touches. On this episode of First Mic, he sits down with Ira Cross to talk about growing up on Redd Foxx records and George Carlin albums, stepping on stage for the first time at Scully's Music Diner right after COVID, and build...

Jules Wagner didn't plan on being a comic — her therapist basically prescribed it. After a cancer diagnosis, chemo, and a brutal first attempt at stand-up in Virginia Beach surrounded by frat bros, Jules walked away from comedy entirely. Then she moved to Columbus, gave it one more shot at Crescent Lounge on February 29th, 2023 — and three mics in, Johnny Collins gave her a piece of advice that re...

He got in trouble at 10 years old for saying something he definitely shouldn't have to his mom — and the punishment changed everything. Locked out of TV, Jarrel Beaman found an old iPod and fell into a rabbit hole of Richard Pryor albums, Def Jam, Comedy Central Presents, and even Bob Hope. By the time he was 16, he'd been secretly battle-testing material in lunchrooms and on the back of the bus —...

Alex Maluchnik's first joke ever was so bad he quit comedy for 10 years. Now he's opened for his childhood hero. In this episode of First Mic, Alex tells the story of the worst possible first open mic — following a woman's heartbreaking poem about trauma and addiction with "Hey, we told you we're sorry about all that." The room booed. He didn't touch a stage again for a decade. Then, on a bad Tind...

A dishwasher on a smoke break delivered Sam Fisher's first heckle. His advice for new comics? Stop grading yourself mid-set. Sam Fisher thought he had a killer five-minute set ready for his first open mic at Da Vinci's Pizza in Midtown Atlanta. He starved himself all day, planning to reward himself with a slice after crushing it. Two hours later, he was bombing so hard a dishwasher yelled at him f...

Alex Harshaw told a room full of elite NPR interns he was a standup comedian. He had never done standup in his life. In this episode of First Mic, Alex shares how a panic move at an internship icebreaker in Washington DC forced him into his first open mic — with 14 coworkers watching him bomb. From growing up on Comedy Central Presents to having Chappelle specials on his iPod Classic, Alex breaks...

Allison McBane walked out of a 13-year marriage, read some books, and realized she'd been abused without knowing it. Her first instinct? Make jokes about it. In this episode of First Mic, Allison shares how growing up obsessed with Robin Williams — singing the Aladdin opening with full accent and a bowl cut — led to a comedy career she didn't start until after her divorce. She brought SEVEN friend...

Tony Cruz was so high at his first open mic he forgot every joke he wrote. What happened next almost made him quit comedy forever. Tony Cruz walked into his first open mic at the Shrunken Head in 2018 after getting high on free weed in the back patio. When the lights hit his face, he forgot every single joke he'd written. Seven years later, he's one of Columbus's most consistent comics. In this ep...

Drunk strangers kept asking Audrey Soper "Do you do comedy?" while she hosted trivia. She didn't. But maybe there was something there. In this episode of First Mic, Audrey shares her unconventional path from trivia host to standup comedian — including skipping ALL her classes on the first day of spring semester at OSU to do her first open mic in a dank, moldy basement. Her first joke? Walking up i...

legally blind comedian reveals how losing his sight pushed him onto the stage—and why he crushed his very first open mic. When Larry Danflows started losing his vision, he found an unexpected lifeline: comedy. In this episode of First Mic, Larry shares his journey from improv classes during COVID to killing his first standup showcase—all while navigating progressive vision loss. About Larry: Larry...

Freddie Simone always had a "back end fantasy" of doing comedy. But she thought: "No little black fat girl from Columbus." Then she saw Whoopi Goldberg. In this episode of First Mic, Freddie shares how free headshots from a photographer friend led to a comedy workshop, which led to her first open mic, which led to a Funny Bone graduation show where the ENTIRE room screamed her name. "It felt natur...

Xavier G. Dunson went from being the unfunny kid who got roasted by his siblings to running comedy workshops and killing on Columbus stages. In this episode of First Mic, Xavier breaks down his unconventional path into standup — from stealing Chris Rock jokes as a kid (badly), to surviving middle school roast sessions, to finding his voice through Ohio State's 4Floor Improv. He shares the mindset...

She lost her cousin who always pushed her to try comedy. What happened at that first open mic changed everything. 🎤 Sista Lu opens up about the moment that finally pushed her onto a comedy stage, what it's really like running a weekly show in Columbus, and the unwritten rules that can make or break your comedy career. About Sista Lu: Sista Lu (Live Unapologetic) runs a weekly comedy show at The A...