A press kit contains your pictures, a brief history of your life or who you are, work experience, future events and most important your contact information.

Even stand-up comedians need to prepare a press kit. When you are first starting out comedians can’t afford to hire a publicist to create your press kit. You still will need to get your information out there so you can get your kit to the right hands.

Here is information and materials you will need.

Start with some headshots of yourself. Work with a good photographer to get the best pictures. Remember that the pictures you include in your kit may end up being published in magazines and newspapers, so choose wisely. Invest in a good photographer since these pictures may even come back to haunt you.

Even if you’re a comedian, you want to look presentable. Label the pictures with your name and contact info.

Include a brief history of your life. Put accurate information, you don’t need to make it too detailed. Write a little bit about what inspired you to enter the business. You can also include where you get your source material.

Keep it upbeat. As a stand up comic, you have the leeway to narrate your life story in a humorous light. Leave out tragic details of your life and your hard early life experiences. As a stand up, you should have some writing skills so there shouldn’t be a need to get a professional copywriter to do your blurbs.

Write in some of your past work and other places you have performed. Include any TV appearances and other cameos. If you are new to the business and have no credentials whatsoever, you can just write about your previous employment history.

List shows and performances, the cities you work as well as past venues. This lets the booker know where you will travel to, who has had you on their stage.

A good idea is to list your topic categories; some promoters may have a theme show and may be looking to book a comedian who tells joke about a particular subject matter.

Include your contact information. In case an agent/promoter or even reporter wants to get in touch with you, give either your number or your agent’s contact information.

Make sure the information in your press kit is updated regularly. Put a link to the Press Kit on your card and Website.

Sign Up for a free Press Kit

This site is for:
Comedians: to post their information like an electronic press kit.

Promoters: to post their Bios and Shows, even post a show for the comedians to sign up for …you choose who is accepted.

Service Provider: Comedy Coaches, Writers, and Photographers, anyone looking to help comedians with getting discovered.

Its free, witch makes sense cause comedians are broke. And we want to help fix that. I am not just some geek who made a website, but I am also a comedian and want to help my fellow comedians.

The event will be held at Voyeur Nightclub - 1221 St. James Street, Philadelphia. Doors will open at 8:00 p.m. with the show beginning at 9:00 p.m. Tickets will go on sale on August 1, 2010.

Interested parties can inquire about competing by emailing Nightlifegay.com at byelk@nightlifegay.com.

Have Judy Carter or other professional Hollywood comedy writers help you realize your career goals. Whether you are just starting out, or TV is eating up your "A-List" material, Judy has a coaching plan that can help you.

Work with Judy in three one-on-one consultations and two email exchanges to write material.

Judy Carter and My “One on One”.  I have had 2 different meetings with Comedy Coaches. All of them had their own approach, but I have to say because Judy Carter is published and has The DVD, I had a good idea of what to expect. My material that I came up with from using her “Formula” for lack of better words was already a lot leaner and meaner than my previous bits. But with her input will turn out to be a lot stronger and helpful in attaining a better idea of who my persona is.

We discussed my life experience, what would be good for material and how to present it. I was happy with the suggestions and the fixes. I have a lot of work to do to convert the first meeting into bits that will be performed. But I am thrilled and stoked to move forward in this direction. But one common bit of advice I heard from all of the comedy coaches is to have the show in the show…Translation, build your act like it was a sitcom and really develop the characters and paint a picture for the audience to see where you are coming from.

I left the first meeting with a hours worth of Digital recording to refer to, notes and motivation.  Have to say I am bit of a geeky fan of hers.

This is one of the many workshops that The Laughing Buddha Comedy School offers.

It was a great pleasure to see Steve Shaffer as the speaker for this The Laughing Buddha Comedy School workshop, its small enough to were you can really connect.

I first looked up more information on Steve Shaffer to first see if his style was in the same area as my own. I make a habit of this if I am paying to get their advice!

There were some great videos showing his work. Steve Shaffer has a great career, the type most comedians would be envies of.  Steve Shaffer as well as Jeff Lawrence made sure the space was comfortable enough to relax, but structured to make sure everyone got their time to get personalized feedback from both Steve Shaffer and Jeff Lawrence.

Because this is a writing workshop it was limited to 10 students. We each performed and then Steve Shaffer (with the help of my fellow class mates) put the bits under the comedic microscope to help find act outs, mixes, strengthen the idea and generally help make the bits cleaner and stronger.

Because this was a Laughing Buddha Comedy School workshop (any Workshop) I tend to know to bring my current act and a recording device, pen and paper.

I did make the mistake of bringing very new material, literally Virgin, just written bits. I did not yet perform these live at an open mike. This was both good and bad for me.

When it was time to present the 5 min act: It was far from polished and I had to rely on my notes. The act outs were not there and because I am still new, it’s still awkward to perform stand up with out an audience to respond to. But not only did I receive feedback and specific advice about where I can get more laughs, and even a call back. It was nice. I am still working on the bits but have a stronger set already. Worth the price!

I was more than pleased with these DVD’s. It’s like having a class for inspiration and a reminder on what not to do, I think I learned enough information to cut 3 years of learning curve. I am amazed how much more creative I can be about finding material. It has opened the world to me as a bounty of options for new material.  I think it was worth every penny. I go to a lot of workshops and classes and this felt very comfortable and easy to understand your concepts.  You can jump write into you comedy DVDs at any time to refresh good habits. The work sheets are now built into my writing kit as well as learning how important a comedy buddy is. Great DVD for anyone starting off in this crazy Stand up Comedy world.

More info here

The author of  The Comedy Bible: From Stand-up to Sitcom--The Comedy Writer's Ultimate "How To" Guide puts her acclaimed Los Angeles standup workshop on DVD. The package includes three interactive DVDs - six hours of step-by-step comedy instruction by Judy - and industry trade secrets from 18 of Hollywood's top managers, agents, casting directors, bookers and producers.

Judy Carter's definitive interactive guide for comics, writers, speakers, actors and anyone who wants to make money from being funny.

Comedy Career in a Box will help you to:

• Move past writer's block
• Exit the "hack" zone
• Score college gigs
• Break into the corporate comedy market
• Find representation
• Present yourself as a professional
• Create material that will rock a room
• Instantly make money writing for radio

And so, so much more..

Order now  Through The Stand up Showcase and receive
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The Definitive Guide for Your Comedy Career. On DVD.

Last summer was my deepest delve into the comedy community, I was hitting opens mikes any where I could get on stage, and the concept of stage fright was always there, but did not hinder my act. I realize I did have times I strayed or forget my lines but I moved on and had gotten some good reaction from my work. This was satisfying and in a way it spoiled me.  I never got heckled always had a good time, just wrote and performed as much as I possibly could.

It then all ended for me and I need to have a healthy dose of reality. I got HECKELED bad enough to really shake me up. It was one of the most dreams like moment… typical nightmare actually.

Your on stage, you just started your set and there is a guy in the audience literally doing a chant …”Noooo Hooo Mooo”. Over and over:
I am thrown off I start looking around the audience and they are just staring at me, I have nothing to say to the guy, as well as I start forgetting my set.

I make it through some of my older stuff that I have in memory, but with out and true emotion so I did not get much response. I was angry enough to want to take the guy outside a beat the shit out of him…But did not. Even worse the Heckler was a friend of one of the comedian’s performing that night. No excuse, the comedian offers his apologies saying I triggered one of their inside Jokes.

This does not help. I am now shaken from my already thin Vail of stage confidence.  I tried to do 2 open mikes after and they were disasters. I went out to The Cabaret in North East Philadelphia. The room is known to be nothing more than a room to tell Dick Jokes, But I needed the stage time to get back on the horse again. I ended up literally being the second to last person to perform , I was book ended with a Guy doing bird calls …no jokes , Just bird calls and a woman who was not quite mental together being made funny of by the guys who run the room. Not a good room, the other comedians do not stick around to hear others they hit and run. Its not work hitting the stage if there is no audience…Or so I think at this time, It may be just my ignorance at this point.

So I told everyone I was going to start writing for some time and haven been doing the open Mike Circuit I use to be so into. I then bought the Judy Carter CD and have been doing the lessons and working with The Laughing Buddha Comedy School  workshops in NY…still not back to getting stage time yet…

But: Then I went to a workshop in NY , The Laughing Buddha Comedy School "The Art and Craft of Crowd Work"
w/ Special Guest Instructor Jeffrey Johns

I learned about having the skills to deal with the audience and it was a great workshop. I actually had a stage time situations to deal with and I was critiqued and then given advice on what to do. I feel a lot better. I stuck around for the Open mike that night and was happy I got my stage time. I need to just own the stage and be prepared. Being prepared will give you confidence in all situations.

I now there are 3 shows coming up that I said yes to.

A police benefit

A Benefit for a Clinic

The Philly Phoniest Contest

I want to do well in all of them and officially get my act together in 12 days for the first benefit. I need to get back to owning the stage.

So I have to get back to the open mikes and now I am looking at them as a Job not a social night, Rule one.

It is a job well isn’t it? So treat it with respect:

No drinking.

Own the Stage.

Record your sets.

Practice the bits during the day

Listen to them at the gym and on walks

Commit to a set and stick with if for the first show.

I have my game plan, lets go out there and play the game. Keep the confidence I regained from the Laughing Buddha Comedy School "The Art and Craft of Crowd Work" and put it into motion. I am getting back on stage and back on track.

The Laughing Buddha Comedy School "The Art and Craft of Crowd Work"



w/ Special Guest Instructor Jeffrey Johns and Jeff Lawrence

Jeffrey Johns (opening act for Lisa Lampanelli) is a master at opening shows and warming up the crowd!

Go deeper into one of the mopst necessary and neglected craft in stand up....crowd work! You will learn hands on and be able to ...add a very powerful tool to your comic arsenal!

* Develop your persona through crowd work
* How to prepare as a host
* What producers expect
* How to handle hecklers
* When to work in material
* How to get work as an emcee and much much more!

*Students taking this course will have the opportunity to co host a show at NY Comedy Club in the coming weeks.

This class is limited to 8 Students!

Go to http://www.lbcomedyschool

The Class Info:

Instructor: Brad Trackman

Location: Helium Comedy Club
2031 Sansom St,
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-496-9922

Classes will focus on:

• How to break into NYC and LA clubs and become a weekend regular.
• Getting a tv agent and manager.
• Microphone technique and improving stage mechanics.
• The difference between being a city comic and a road comic. The pros and cons of both and finding the perfect medium.
• Developing an original persona and learning how to write for it.
• How to develop comedy ideas into a real stand up act.
• Different styles of writing stand up.
• How to go about actually making a living as a comedian.
• Make a dvd of your performance by a videographer from comcast.