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Dom King Comedy presents

You've heard "you should do stand-up" a hundred times.

This is the book that makes you actually do it. Stage One: The No-BS Guide to Your First Open Mic (Expanded Edition) takes you from "people say I'm funny" to standing under the lights with a real set.

Get the book, $9.99

Next 25 buyers: $6.99 with code LAUNCH
52-page PDF + printable worksheet pack · instant download

Cover of Stage One: The No-BS Guide to Your First Open Mic, Expanded Edition 52 pages · zero fluff
Real club · six shows a week National touring headliners Books the comics · reads the emails Watches the tape · performs

From the back of the room

Hundreds of first mics. One pattern.

I manage a comedy club in the Midwest. Not a bar that does comedy on Tuesdays, an actual club, six shows a week, national touring headliners. I book the comics, I read the emails, I watch the tape. I also perform.

I've watched hundreds of people do their first open mic from the back of my own room. I know exactly who crushes, who bombs, who comes back the next week, and who vanishes forever.

Stage One is that pattern, turned into a system. Not comedy theory, a blueprint. And it shows you the parts every other beginner guide hides.

Inside the Expanded Edition

Tonight's setlist

Set list: Stage OneNo droppin' the mic

  1. The Dom King Framework

    The repeatable joke-writing system: topic → tension → take → punchline → tags. One setup, maximum payoffs.

  2. The Take Test

    The 3-question filter that tells you whether you have a joke or just a subject. This is where most beginners die.

  3. Watch Me Build One

    A full chapter writing a joke from scratch in front of you, including the two bad versions that got thrown away, and why they died. No other comedy book shows you the ugly middle.

  4. The Joke That Took Five Versions

    The real revision history of a closer that now kills every night, from silent rant to two-sentence kill shot.

  5. Bombing as Diagnostics

    The four reasons a joke dies and how to read the silence like game film. Silence is diagnostic. Laughter is vague.

  6. Ten Mistakes That Kill First Sets

    The same ten errors beginners make every single week, and the fix for each one.

  7. What the Booker SeesHeadliner

    The chapter no other beginner guide can write, because the people writing them have never booked a show. What hosts actually report back, the thirty-second rule used on every submission clip, and how comics really get booked. Hint: it's not by being the funniest.

Plus the complete first-mic playbook: how open mics actually work, the week before, the day of, what to do when a joke dies mid-set, and the day-after review that makes your second set better than your first.

Expanded edition extras

The printable worksheet pack

Framework cheat sheet

The whole system, sized for your pocket.

Five-Joke Builder

Walks you through writing your first set on paper.

Setlist card

What goes in your hand when you go up.

Day-of checklist

So mic night runs on rails, not nerves.

Game film review sheet

The day-after review, structured.

30 days of prompts

So you never have an excuse not to write.

Check the list

Is your name on it?

This is for you

  • You're funny at work, at the cookout, in the group chat
  • You've never once put your name on an open mic list
  • You want a plan, not permission

This is not for you

  • Working comics
  • People looking for "the philosophy of humor"
  • Anyone who wants permission instead of a plan
Stage One book thumbnail

The guy behind the book

Being funny is not a personality trait. It is a system. And systems can be learned. Find a mic. Put your name on the list. I'll see you under the lights.

Dom King · Comedy club manager · Working comic · Zero patience for fluff

Admit one

Put your name on the list.

Stage OneAdmit OneRow A

Stage One: The No-BS Guide to Your First Open Mic (Expanded Edition)

52-page PDF + printable worksheet pack · instant download

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