First things first, I can only talk with confidence about the U.K. stand up scene. I am though, happy to talk with no confidence whatsoever about stand-up virtually anywhere in the world.

In the UK, two of the major factors are whether you can drive and whether you live in London. There are plenty of average stand-ups making a decent living simply because they’re geographically flexible and can give rides to other acts.

The best place to start is to buy London’s Time Out Magazine, look under comedy listings for any club where more than five acts are performing on one night. Odds are this means they have lots of ‘open spots’ or try-outs. Give them a ring, you’ll probably get on in a month or so depending on how regular the night is. Go along and size up the quality, you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised to find