At my first open mics, I'd be extremely nervous. Nowadays, I'll usually get very, very nervous. I still clock my heart rate at about 120 when I know that I'm going to be up next. Once I start, I'll be less nervous, but only slightly. That's progress, I'd say. I'm sure that some excitement never truly goes away, nor would I want it to. If it ever got to that point, it's probably because I'm not enjoying myself, defeating at least part of the purpose of doing this in the first place. For me, the current level of anxiousness that I have is not a good thing. It prevents me from truly enjoying myself, and I'd like to have it ease up.
What's weird to me is that it's not always like this. There have been times where I'm perfectly fine. Some excitement, yes, but nothing that I'd view in a negative way, as opposed to being "too" nervous. I've found that the biggest determining factor is my perception of the stakes.
There are times when the room is especially crowded or every other comic is doing especially well. Both of those scenarios bring on the nerves. Also, there are comedians that I respect, and many times I'll be in the same room with them. If I think that they're funny, then it's important to me that they think I'm funny too. The tiny ego of a comic (or maybe it's just me, but I doubt it) thinks “I've definitely said some funny things, but that doesn't mean that I'M funny”, if that makes sense. Bottom line, the notion of needing approval is some sort of trigger of nerves for me.
Not surprisingly, the opposite scenario turns out to be the cure. If I'm in a quiet/dead room, or everyone's bombing that night, or I'm in a room with people I'm not familiar with, then I generally don't really get nervous at all. Also not surprising, those tend to be the times I do best. I'll usually be more ok if I'm doing stuff that I've done before and had done well in the past. The problem with this is that I tend to not like repeating a joke in the same venue. Don't know why this is, it's not a self imposed “rule”. I think it's a subconscious thing where I feel the room will be bored hearing the same joke twice. This doesn't make any sense, because often the same people will be in different rooms, so the physical location is moot. People are weird, huh?
So the answer is obvious yet difficult for me. I just have to not care what anyone thinks of me when I get up there, yet care enough to put effort into trying to get a specific response (laughter) out of these same people. It seems like a paradox to me, but I'm sure that once I get some more comedy water under my bridge (?) that it'll make more sense.
