Tag: emcee

MC Tip…

Last week while performing at the Moisture Festival, I hosted one show. One of your jobs as MC is to read their announcements, which is a pretty long list that has to happen up front before you introduce the first act. The announcements are things like fire exit instructions.

During my MC spot, I took those on right away and did those the first thing out. It really fell flat, and I had to dig out of a hole.

After the show Jamy Ian Swiss pulled me aside and reminded me of something I already knew, but didn’t do. He said, “Never start the show with announcements“. He’s right, and I’m glad he mentioned it to me. It’s something I know, put didn’t put into practice. I’m 1000% glad he mentioned that to me, otherwise this could have been the beginning of starting a bad habit while MCing.

-Louie

Proper Introductions…

One thing I hate when performing is forgetting or mispronouncing an act’s name if I have to introduce them. Recently a show I was performing on had an performer whose stage name wasn’t the name I knew them by, and the stage name was unusual.

To make it easy, I put a cheat sheet on my table:

You’ll notice the name is spelled out phonetically. That helps me read it at a glance. It really makes a difference, rather than seeing how they spell it and trying to figure it out.

Emceeing a show

This weekend at the sideshow festival, they have a pre-show and then the show.  The people from the preshow stay for the main show. The MC did the same two bits for the two shows.  I was kinda anoyed at that. To me that’s a lack of respect for your audience. Bring enough material to … Continue reading “Emceeing a show”

This weekend at the sideshow festival, they have a pre-show and then the show.  The people from the preshow stay for the main show. The MC did the same two bits for the two shows.  I was kinda anoyed at that. To me that’s a lack of respect for your audience. Bring enough material to fill the time.


Being the MC on a show is hard to do, especially a variety show.  You’ve got to keep it moving and you’ve got to fill time. A good MC will talk to acts before the show to get an idea of their set up and take down.  Based on that you’ll know what bits fill what spaces best.

An good MC is one of those things that you aren’t aware of, but when you see a bad one it’s obvious.  The key to MCing is talking to the acts, and watching them. That way if anything happens, you can reference it in between…or are prepared for a mess, props moving behind you and with time to fill.