u/No-Winter192

I’ve been doing comedy for 6 months now. I just signed up for a comedy contest through Helium, and I instantly felt regret.

I have jokes, but 6 months in I, of course am not stellar, and I’m still working on my tight five. I can fill 5 minutes but not with jokes that have been tested more than a handful of times.

I have one month or about 30 open mics until the contest. However I can easily make up an excuse and bow out of the contest this week if I feel it is a mistake.

I wanted to ask seasoned comics, is 6 months irresponsibly early to enter a contest? Should I bow out and wait until I have a tight 5?

Or should I treat it like a scary thing that you just got to bite, be kind, try to be funny, probably bomb in front of 100 people and deal with it after.

FYI, my new stuff is 90% clean so I’m not worried about shock humor or being too dark.

I'm a newer comic, on my 5th month in. I'm in a city with a great scene, and I've been doing open mics pretty much 4-6 times a week.

However I work two jobs so my weekends and weekdays are packed. I only seem to find time to write jokes at work sometimes and then go test them.

My main question is, for newer comics, would skipping a mic to dedicate some hours to writing new material be more worthwhile than the mic itself, or this early on should I just keep my current flow?

Or if the reality is I need to cut some time out of the second job to free up weekend hours to write that could be an option as well. Open to opinions and how more seasoned comics do it. I also understand networking and being present is a factor.