We caught up with the brilliant and insightful James Mac a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi James, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I learned how to be a comedian by talking with the comedians who were ahead of me on the ladder instead of taking a class. I was lucky to have supportive comedians in the scenes that I grew up in who would help new comics for free. I am very appreciative of the mentors I had coming up. They helped keep me grounded. I see too many new comics who want to run past putting the time into hosting, opening, and featuring to be Headliners or Closers one-to-two years in. You have to develop your skillset working those different spots on a diverse set of shows and developing your material before you put your name at the top of the marquee. By diverse shows, I mean performing in rooms that aren’t made up of your friends and family or people who think the same way you do.
The most critical skills in comedy are networking, professionalism, social media management, and an open mind. Other comics are the gateway to your most significant shows and most of my opportunities. The comedians you are sitting at the open mics with are the comics who will become headliners, bookers, and producers or refer you to those people. So, please don’t burn those bridges with your peers.
Clubs want to know how you get along with other people, and your reputation will be a significant factor in the club or festival booker’s decision to put you on stage. Just like sports teams do not want a player in the locker room who no one likes or causes drama, the clubs and producers do not want a comedian who starts drama and arguments with other comedians or is hard to work with. That leads me to professionalism. Once you get your foot in the greenroom door, you need to act like an adult. This means being on time for your sets, being ready to perform, and knowing how much stage time you can honestly do. Please don’t lie to a producer about how much time you’ll be able to do. It will eventually catch up to you, and depending on the booker or producer, it can cost you a lot more than that set was worth. A hidden aspect of professionalism involves what you do when you are in a club or at a show, but you are not booked on that show. I tell new comics that if they are at a show, that is their place of work, and they need to be ready to work even if they are not booked on that show. I have seen many comics offered stage time, but they were too drunk or high to perform. Bookers talk about that and remember that. My most significant break came because I was at a show at a brewery supporting a friend, and another comic didn’t show up. I was asked to step in, and there was a manager in the crowd. They liked my set and helped me get my album on SiriusXM.
The most considerable obstacles you will run into in comedy are the other comedians, especially when you are in the NYC or LA scenes. Many comics want to be big stars, and the competitive atmosphere is prevalent. When a comic sees you on a show, they can see that as a spot you took from them, and that can sometimes have that comedian dislike you out of jealousy or a false sense that you got that opportunity for reasons outside of your skillset. Let us not forget that most of us comedians, me included, bring a life entire of possibly emotional and/or physical trauma to the microphones. You may not be fully aware of what another comic has gone through or is currently going through.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into comedy as a dare from a friend of mine. I saw him have a bad set on a show, and I told him that comedy looked easy. He dared me to do a three-minute set at an open mic and gave me two weeks to write original jokes. Two weeks later, I did an open mic, and my jokes landed. I did theater in high school, so I was good in front of a crowd. I remember feeling a rush after my set and thought I crushed my first set (LOL, I most certainly did not). After that moment, I knew I wanted to do comedy.
My comedy style is just like me; it doesn’t fit into a pretty box. I have done roasts, storytelling, riffing (telling jokes off the top of my head), one-liners, and long-form jokes. My jokes are primarily about my life. I got tired of writing jokes about current events or general ideas and hearing something similar from another comic. Occasionally, I will add in an unusual thought that took over my concentration but I haven’t heard anyone else address. One thing no other comic has is my life, so I use that as my source. I have an unusual life. I grew up as a cowboy, joined the Army, and deployed all over the world. I grew up in the South and now live in New Jersey. I have traveled to 32 different countries, and I have had three different careers.

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I first came to NYC, I was a roast and dark comedy comedian. After approaching clubs, I discovered that dark comics do not usually do well in mainstream comedy. Some dark comedians have excelled, such as Anthony Jeselnick, but they are few and far between. I was lucky to have a booker pull me aside and advise me to start writing about myself and not be just dark or mean. I took their advice, rewrote my act, and now I have a more expansive well to draw inspiration from. I still love to do dark comedy, but I have learned the time and place for that type of comedy.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As most comedians eventually learn, the business of comedy is not about just being funny. To quote a booker from a significant NYC club, “There are 10,000 funny comedians. Can you sell tickets and get people to pay to see you perform? That is what matters.” That is the hardest lesson for performers to learn. I thought once I could make crowds laugh, I was on the fast track to being a headliner. The business of comedy is not a meritocracy. Making people laugh is the first step on the ladder.
Clubs, theaters, the backrooms of bars, and VFWs expect the comics to help fill seats with the comic’s fans. You have to learn that once you start doing shows, and you want to move up from just doing comedy as a hobby or at open mics, paid comedy is a business, and people do this to make money. Venues need to pay bills. Wait staff need to make tips. Most important, you can’t ask for more money to perform your art if you aren’t bringing some of that money in. The more money you bring to a venue, the more money you can get them to pay you, and the more power you have over your art and the business.
There are times when I still get irritated because the hottest Social Media influencer with one million followers is headlining a club where I want to perform. I have to remind myself that a meritocracy in the performing arts doesn’t pay the rent. That is why Social media marketing is essential.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesmaccomedy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jamesmaccomedy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/jamesmaccomedy