Producing Comedy Open Mics: Author Tina Cruz Shares Secrets to Building a Successful Comedy Show

On this episode of the Standup Comedy 'Your Host & MC', host R. Scott Edwards interviews author and comedy producer Tina Cruz about her new book focused on producing comedy open mics and live comedy showcases. Tina shares practical advice for comedians, club owners, event organizers, and anyone interested in launching or growing a comedy show. From finding venues and attracting audiences to working with comics and avoiding common mistakes, this insightful conversation offers valuable tips from someone who has successfully built comedy events from the ground up. Whether you're an aspiring comic, a comedy fan, or considering producing your own open mic night, this episode delivers real-world guidance and inspiration from an experienced comedy insider.

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Welcome And Meet Tina Cruz

0:29

This is another episode of Stand Up Comedy, your host and MC, celebrating 40 plus years on the fringe of show business. Stories, interviews, and comedy sets from the famous and not so famous. Here's your host and MC, Scott Edwards. Hi, and welcome back to the podcast. Man, we have something exciting for you this week. There's a young lady who has been in the comedy business as a comic and as a producer, and she wrote a book. I know who thought in this day and age somebody would write a book about something so exciting as stand-up comedy. I'm excited because I've been in the business a hundred years, but this young lady wrote a book called How to Host a Comedy Show. That's right, how to host a comedy show. And her name's Tina Cruz. She's here with us today to talk about it. Ladies and gentlemen, comic producer, entrepreneur, extraordinaire, and now an author, Tina Cruz. Thank you so much for having me. Tina, nice to have you on the podcast. Congratulations on putting this book together. Well, thank you for having me and also uh for taking the time. I'm really excited to be here. Well, we both are of a kindred spirit. I'm probably three

Tina’s Path Into Stand Up

1:50

times your age, but we both have been in the comedy business a while. Now you've uh let's give everybody a foundation. Now you've done stand-up comedy yourself. How long have you uh done comedy? I've been doing stand-up comedy for the last three years almost, but I've been a performer uh and a musician for the last 20. Yeah, and that does give you a basics for comedy. I mean, if you're a musician and you've done some other acting or performing, at least you're comfortable in front of an audience, which is one of the main walls that people hit that want to get into stand-up comedy. But when did you so it've been only three years as a comic? What and when did you start producing shows? Well, I started producing shows uh in November 2024, uh, which meant uh yeah, so not not very long into it. And it got to the point actually when I started my show that I wanted a space uh for me and my friends to be able to do comedy together and to put on shows. You know, it's kind of like you know, when you were a kid, you you kind of had like your backyard show, right? Like you kind of entertained the the kids in the back and it kind of reminded me of that, except like an adult version of that essentially. Right. And I think what's really fascinating is for somebody as me that's been in the industry more than uh 50 years, that and I've produced literally thousands of shows, that one of the things I've run across year after year is that there's not enough quality run open mics. And the ones that seem to do well are started by somebody like you that has a little bit of entrepreneurial spirit and takes the responsibility of production because the production of the show is so important for the comfort of the audience, for the success of the comics, it really can make a huge difference. Now, I go back to the days where in San Francisco guys would actually get up on a soapbox in a laundromat and start practicing their comedy. But for you, being able to take a restaurant banquet room or the corner of a bar and turn it into an intermittent comedy show where people can kind of lay down some open mic

Building Weekly Shows In Montreal

4:12

lines and and see if they they catch that comic itch. The shows you produced, where and when have you been doing them? So we have our shows on Tuesdays at Enser Mackay, 1244 Rue Mackay in Montreal. Uh so we have two shows, one at 8 p.m., uh, which is typically our English stand-up pro am show. And then we also have a theme show at 10 p.m. So it could be uh usually I like to be more experimental with this one where we do like a secret show, but we've also done a headliner series. Uh, for example, this coming week, uh we actually have Serge Nikuzi uh from Ottawa who's gonna be uh dropping by. Uh and uh we also do things like uh flight club, right? So uh next month we're having a different theme. So yeah, so typically we have it uh once a week. We also are working on building our our brand and our show. So we also have a pizza show uh at Pizza Logis every other Saturday of the month. So yeah, I mean it's it's uh it's really great. We've we're we're very blessed and very uh fortunate to be able to have a space to do comedy. Yeah, it is difficult to find a quality space. Um I got my start uh back in 1980 in a banquet room of a fine dining restaurant, and they were using the banquet room during the day, and I converted it into a comedy club at night, but I did it six nights a week and literally opened a full-time club. Now you're up in Montreal, Canada. It sounds like uh you're getting some open micers out, but what is exciting about setting up a room like this is every now and then a professional will drop by, as you mentioned, and that is not only great for the audience, but for the amateurs, the open micers to see a professional work, I think is so important. Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, uh just to clarify, the 8 p.m. show and the 10 p.m. show is uh it's not an open mic. Uh, we do have uh professionals, uh semi-pros, and we we also like to book like newer comedians also on the show. Uh we do have like a separate sister mic uh

Hosting With Trust And Control

6:30

that's on Fridays, uh, that I usually have it as a multidisciplinary mic. So when I'm training uh new hosts uh to be able to do the the Tuesday show, essentially I I usually have that as a low-stakes environment for them because uh a lot of time, actually, I talk about this in the book, a lot of time about hosting a room can be very difficult because it's not only just uh being able to bring up the act, but it's also being able to uh navigate the energy in the room, right? So, like being able to read people very quickly, you know, being able to be very quick on your feet, you know, being very how can you be funny but not be aggressive, right? So essentially one of the things that I focused on, especially with uh writing this book, is the idea of being able to be engaging without being mean, because I've been to a lot of shows where uh sometimes the host would get very aggressive and I would see uh, you know, sometimes audience members be like, yeah, never going to another show like that again, which makes it so that it's not sustainable for the industry, uh, which I I know you've you've been in the industry for such a long time. Uh, but also too for our audience, because uh I feel like sometimes the hard part uh as an audience member is that we feel like we're, you know, just watching people just, you know, try to do jokes without really understanding,

Formatting Lineups And Reading The Room

7:57

you know, how the energy of the room is facilitated, you know? Well, I think it's so important that you stated everything you just shared, Tina, because uh as I mentioned, the production or the producing of a show is so much more than people think. You're not just grabbing comics and throwing them up. If you're doing it correctly, you're formatting the comics. You know, if you have a dirty guy, put him at the end. You don't want some guy that's dirty and then follow him up with a clean comic. And then as you said, read the room. If you've got a bunch of uh 22-year-olds, it's different than if you have a bunch of 40-year-olds. And you want to, as the host, and I think this is what you explain in your book, is that you want to set the tone for the evening. So uh the host should be clean, interactive with the audience in a nice way, and as you mentioned, reading the room and finding, you know, getting the audience engaged in the proper way, not only does that benefit the audience, but it benefits the comics if they go into a situation where the people are prepared and set up properly. Now, in your book, you mentioned creating trust with an audience, regulating the energy, protecting the audience experience, and keep the show moving, which is all really important. But the one that really struck me was protecting the audience experience, and you just referred to that. So many open micers and so many people that try to throw up uh a comedy club or a comedy night don't seem to understand that there's an audience, whether they're paid or not, that needs to be entertained. Entertaining the audience is the key goal of any comic and producer, right, Tina? Yes. Um, and you know, when it comes to the idea of, you know, putting up people, I mean, there's always like, I mean, we've talked about already so many different types of mics, right? So for an open mic, for example, like a sign-up go-up, right? Like, usually, I mean, people are like pretty much on board. Like, it's it's like, okay, we're gonna have a poet, we're gonna have a writer, we're gonna have a comedy, we're gonna have a musician, right? So it's kind of like a hodgepodge of everything. So like that the idea of that, you know, uh diversity of acts uh is that is already interesting for a lot of audience members that go in. But then when you look at something that's like a curated show, you know, you could, you know, a lot of times people say, well, you know, you should put killer after killer and killer. I'm like, yeah, but the thing is, like, sometimes the best comedy or you know, is from someone who's just new, who's just started. I mean, I've I I've been very fortunate to see uh such a variety of different acts that have been uh coming by at Comedy of Mackay, uh, that we we book, right? You know, we give them five minutes at the the pro and show. So they're they're performing with professionals. And then like you sometimes see the rawest comedy, right? Like it's not something that's like completely polished, but something that is still really funny. And the thing is, like, I usually have those people vetted for, right? So I I do have a person who assists me with booking in that sense. Uh, we also try to aim for variety. So I know uh a lot of people have a lot of opinions about, oh yeah, diversity, oh, you know, what another lineup with bros, right? Uh, you know, for us, for me at least, uh as a as a comedy lover who loves even going to shows outside of producing my own, uh, is the fact that I, you know, like different perspectives, right? Like if someone has like a different perspective and like something that makes it so that I can see things in a different way and laugh about it, or like even just educating, right? Like, even, you know, sometimes one of the things that I find very funny about stand-up is that like, you know, to educate, right? And and being able to combine all of those aspects uh to curating a very interesting lineup, but there's not a lot of people who do that because sometimes the the problem that we do as producers, and this is something I really catch myself on, is booking all of our buddies, right? Like you book the same like 12 people on rotation, rinse and repeat, and it gets very boring very quick, or you're trying to please the entire com comedy community, which which is fine. I mean, like I I want to like give people opportunities, but like sometimes people feel like if I don't book them, like that I think that they're turbo, whereas in actuality I'm just wanting to create curate a variety for my show. Well, that's where you have to have the backbone. A producer is the boss, and uh that means that you're gonna piss off some people, and that's just tough shit. You know, you just have to. It's what's best for the show, it's what's best for the audience, is what happens. And you mentioned a couple things I wanted to touch on. One is that uh yeah, people want to see uh the season pro after pro after pro, but that is not the best format for a show. Uh just to give you a little background, Tina, uh before I got into comedy, I was a music DJ at a nightclub. You never you can't just play fast music over and over and over and over. The audience won't stay up dancing, they get tired. So you have to do a plan where you start off with soft music, slow music, and maybe medium music, and build up to a crescendo of music and speed and and dancing, and then go back down to slow stuff and give them a break. Well, comedy is very similar that way. You want the easier stuff up front and build and build, and then you have your A headliner is the crescendo of the show and get the biggest Gaffas. If the guy that goes up first gets the biggest guffaws, nobody's gonna be able to follow him. You're making it an impossible situation. You also mentioned that you don't do just comedy. You're um doing some of your um open mics include poetry and music and different things, and I think that's a whole different ball of wax. And to be honest, Tina, I've never dipped my toe into that. I love all the variety art, but I always stuck to uh, you know, had to be comic jugglers, comic ventriloquists, magicians, prop comics, and stand-up comics, uh, but it was always comedy-based. And you were very brave to mix all the others because uh I have found that audiences are not that eclectic. And you know, you must they you know you'll have some people coming in for poetry and some people coming in for music and some people coming in for comedy, and uh it's that rare audience that will sit through all of them. Now, are your rooms generally

Tickets Open Mics And Community Nights

14:44

free to the public, paid? Do you are you having a cover charge? Yeah, so so basically uh for our Tuesday show, uh we we have a ticket, uh, so it's $15 a day of. So we usually do like student deals. So like half off, um, you know, with if you have your student ID. So we we generally like like to create specials for for our patrons. So for the open mic that we have for the multidisciplinary one, that one's free to the public. Um, we also do host a like a monthly open mic, right? So it's the last Tuesday of every month we have an open mic. So we we do that for the community because we we do believe that you know having an open mic, especially at one of our best venues uh that we hold our shows, uh kind of creates this type of special experience for comedians. It it makes it a lot more special and they, you know, they were like, oh, uh they're anticipating the open mic, right? And we we used to have that mic weekly, but then um we wanted to uh you know also take some time to experiment with different concepts and things like that. So yeah, I mean, uh yeah, I am kinda I am brave, I guess. I don't know. I'm just like I I I just think, you know, sometimes the hard part about uh being an artist or being a comedian, I mean, uh is the fact of being able to find the space to create or to try new things and to to be not afraid, right? Uh because a lot of time, uh at least before I started stand-up comedy, I used to really care a lot about what people thought of me, right? Um, you know, being able to be uh put in a box, right? Saying, okay, this is, you know, this is Tina. She she does X, Y, Z, you know, and one of the things that was really liberating, at least for me within my stand-up journey, is that now I could just really not care. Like if you don't like me, that's okay. Like, I'm not I'm not gonna be for everyone. Uh, but the people that I do care about are the ones that I focus my attention on. So I I don't know if it's because of stand-up or it's because I'm almost 40. But it could be a combination of both, right? Exactly. And and you're making a good point, is that people get into comedy because they have, you know, we all have that psychological uh issue where we want to be loved and we want to be liked and we're looking for the attention and the approval of the audience. Every comic, it doesn't matter who, how successful or how new they are, is looking for gratification and and that vibe from the audience, that wave of basically love from the audience. That yeah, we appreciate what you're doing and how you're entertaining us. And so

Entertainer Versus Producer Mindset

17:31

that is always the kind of the background in in stand-up comedy. But when you're a producer, and this is why a lot of comics don't become producers, no offense, Tina, because it is two different beasts. You're obviously a very creative person, and that is the comedy side, the entertainment side, the musician in you. Uh producer is a hardcore business person. So yeah, I can go up on stage, I've seen some of the biggest shows and concerts, uh, my own TV series, and so you I do have a sense of humor, I can relate to the audience, I can be funny, but that is not my goal. My goal is as a producer to run the business aspect of it, make sure the audience is entertained, I have the right lineup, the the price for the ticket equals the value they're gonna get in the show. It's a real business arrangement,

Why Comedy Shows Fail

18:28

and mixing those two can be challenging. It sounds like you've been pretty successful. Now, the reason we have you on the podcast, Tina, is you've got this new book coming out, How to Host a Comedy Show. And then it's subtitled Why Comedy Shows Fail and How to Run a Room. Now, Tina, why don't you share with the audience what you think are some of the key components in your new book? So, yeah, no, of course. Uh, you know, I know we talked about it a little bit in the beginning about like this idea of trust, energy, and flow, you know, especially when facilitating a show, right? But um being able to point out like different types of examples, right? So a lot of time uh I feel like I felt, right, that hosting was always overlooked as this like uh oh yeah, it's part of the comedian's job that they should know how to host, right? Uh it's like all you have to do is say hi, what your name is, uh, you know, the rules of the room, and then uh whatever, and then you you say, Okay, well, here's your next act. It's it's a little more complicated than that. So I think it's great that you put it on paper. Yeah, and you know, and it's so crazy because like as I I mean it was definitely a process, like, you know, with with writing this book, because I also do French comedy, right? So I do comedy in French here because Quebec is bilingual. And so a lot of the time of me watching those shows, it's like, you know, seeing how you know successful certain rooms are, even if they have three people in there. So one of the things that I I mention is I I talk about uh the background of comedy on Mackay, right? So I talk about how, you know, when you start a room, you know, it's like we talk about being an entrepreneur, right, Scott? So the whole idea of having to create our own luck, right? Um, being able to create our own opportunities, um, being able to, you know, create things uh that would be beneficial for the community. Uh and so one of the things that I mentioned is one of our most successful shows, which was the anniversary show when we turned one year old, and being able to talk through that, right? You know, the idea of how do you engage with a group of strangers that you've never met, which is really weird, right? Like the whole idea is being engaging with a group of people that you've never met, right? And it's better if you don't know them because then you you can uh inspire some sort of like joke, like you know, uh, you know, some sort of like, you know, laughter from people that you you've never met in your whole life. And yeah, it's a true real reaction. Yeah, it's a it's a very authentic because like one of the things that I mentioned is like you know, the goodwill, right? Like if you have your friends go to your show, right? And they're like, oh yeah, we've been buddies for like 20 years, right? Uh, you already have the goodwill. You don't have to break through the fourth wall, right? So the thing is they they they know you as like you, right? Or they know me as me. But when you're when you're having to break through the fourth wall, it's something that's like it's I I love it. This is like I I think I do stand-up comedy before the adrenaline of breaking through the fourth wall, right? Of being able to get the the biggest pop, you know, in the introduction, and then being able to have that good pop be the goodwill for like the first act, right? So, you know, the idea of being able to have enough self-awareness to know when you shouldn't do time. Because a lot of the mistakes that hosts do is that they do time after someone who completely annihilated and crushed and like left you in stitches. And they're like adding like two or three minutes after uh that is, you know, that kills that energy. Whereas like in actuality, you want to ride that wave, right? And say, All right, I'm gonna give you you guys are like crazy, we're gonna bring up our next guest, you know, Bob Dylan. I don't know, like You know Bob Dylan.

Keeping Momentum Without Extra Host Time

22:27

Well, there's I don't know. That was the first name. No, but you're saying something so important, Tina. You want to keep the energy, keep the flow, and the host of the show is just the conduit to keep it all going. If you have a bad act, then the conduit or the host needs to go up and refocus the audience, capture them, and maybe do a couple minutes. But if you got a show rocking, you just want to move act to act to act with the minimal interruption, correct? Exactly. And that's and that's one of the things I talk about because like they don't teach you that like in stand-up class, like a hundred percent, right? So it and one of the things that I found actually when I because I I used I the idea of hosting a show was terrible. Like I hated it, but I was like, okay, we have zero budget. Like this is, you know, this is very much do it yourself, right? Because we we build our stage, we change the curtains, like we put up the light um with our logo, uh, we put up the stool, uh, we create, we, we create a mini theater, you know, and it goes back to that analogy that I mentioned earlier. It's like, you know, kind of like that backyard show that you put on for your friends in the neighborhoods, right? And that's exactly what we we aim for, is that that idea that neighborhood feeling, like the idea that you you feel like you belong there and it's and it's and that it's something really special, you know. Yeah, and I think what you're trying to achieve

Stage Setup Lighting Sound And Mics

23:58

is uh so important, but I I wanted to get back to the book. I want to make sure that in the book you're mentioning the production side that is so important that so many new people don't understand, and you just mentioned it, so I'm so proud of you, Tina. But it is you have to have proper lighting, you have to have proper sound. You should have a little riser, the background, you know, uh brick or a black curtain or something that uh doesn't throw the vision of the audience off. Uh and then you even mentioned the traditional stool. I mean, it's so funny you said that. I I produce shows for 100 years and then I still do fundraisers. I still have the original stool and I take it to every show. And whether people use it or not, it's there because it needs to be there. It's all part of this setup. So uh lighting, sound, all that, is that also in the book, Tina? Yes, I also mentioned I mentioned with aspects because you know, when you're putting on a show, a lot of a lot of the mistake that I see a lot of people do is that like comedians aren't well lit. And when people aren't well lit or, you know, minimum, like the elevation is so important. Um, I don't know if you're familiar with Judy Carter's book, but Judy, Judy actually does an excellent job of like explaining this in her her comedy Bible book. But like even just being elevated, like just a couple of inches, makes such a big difference. And having good a good microphone, like so, for example, commie Makai, we use shore microphones. Oh, wow, those are good. Uh yeah, we we don't we have two of them just because you know we we always want to. You always have to have a backup. And do you use a wired mic or wireless? Uh we use we use a wired mic. That's the way to go. Yeah. Oh, hold on, hold on, let's hear it. So many people want to go wireless because it's the new technology, but a producer knows that a wired mic never goes out on you. The battery never dies, and you have consistent quality sound. So sure, mics with a wired connection. Yay for you, Tina. That's exactly what people should be doing. Well, and and on top of that, for our our pro am show, we also are aware of levels. Well, because I'm also a musician. Um, and you know, the space that we're in is not acoustically perfect. Like it's not like we're at like the Yeah, they never are. Yeah. Yeah. So because it it's it is still a bar, right? And we we have like we even bought soundproof curtains to separate us, separate the back room from the bar, right? Um, but there's there's a limitation to that, right? So one of the things that I had really mentioned was like, you know, sometimes there are people who naturally have very soft voices that make it very difficult to hear. So the thing is, I have a sound tech uh person who actually um is able to adjust levels as needed, right? Just to make sure that each of the acts is able to be heard. Yeah, you got a soundboard, right? Yeah. And and essentially, like uh like those aspects, like even though people like say, well, if you just have a microphone in uh like a you know, in a in a box, like you should be okay. Uh yeah, I mean if for example, if you're outside, right? If you're doing an outside show, uh I don't it's the worst, right? Like you're you're you're outside in like a hundred degree weather, like with a microphone, trying not to have the sweat go into your eyes and look like you're crying and you're telling jokes to like you know, like a handful of people who are willing to listen, who are, you know, and so and so the thing is like what I talk about is being able to create the conditions, um, or at least the best conditions that you have within

Booking Order Timing And Guest Spots

27:49

the things that are available to you to put on a successful show. And I also do talk about the failures, you know, and it I mentioned it earlier is that people sometimes don't understand that when when I write a lineup or if someone writes a curated lineup, right? So when I book, I but when I I get one person, I book around that show. I but I book the featured acts according to the first person who would be able to open a strong anchor in the middle, and then like a person that I know could bring it home at the end, right? And then like I I I sprinkle the guest spots, right? Which are like the equivalent of drop-in spots according to that energy, right? And so sometimes people say, Oh, I'm gonna, you know, I I need to go first. And I'm like, you can't go first if you go first if you're you're the you're the boss. They don't get to request what they get, they're lucky if they get frickin' stage time, and uh it's up to the producer to tell them when and where. And you also have to control how long they're on stage. You can't let one of those people go up that's supposed to do three minutes and ends up going 10. It throws off the whole show. You have to be strict, that's why they're so strict on television. You have to have a timeline that not only you as the producer can control the flow and the energy of the entertainment to the audience, but also to teach that maintenance

Saying No And Kicking Bad Behavior

29:17

of the show the res the respect of the stage. Oh, hands down. And you know, I and it I'm not shy to like I think, you know, a couple of weeks ago we had a very problematic comedian uh who decided it would be a great idea to do part of his Edgelord set, like at a woman-owned and managed bar. And it got to the point where like I made the call. I said, This person has to get off the stage because it is it is a it is a privilege to be like in this room. It is a privilege to be doing comedy. This person is not entitled to everything. And I I I also talk about that in the book, you know. You know, some aspects of like when we have to say no or how do you say no? And some some parts I you know, like I I make a little script, uh like, you know, sometimes people like you know, they need that, they need something in words. So one of the things I say is that, you know, I put like I think I one or two prompts saying, This is how you can say no in a professional way if something is not, you know, going uh your way, or if you know, you have to say no. You you as a producer, we shouldn't always be entitled to say yes. Like people think, oh yeah, they'll say yes because they're my friend. And I'm like, if I like you enough, I will make it work for you, right? But the thing is, like, you know, people don't sometimes don't realize that you know, it's like creating authentic relationships is a two-way street. Well meeting kind can go a really long way. Yeah, yeah. So you mentioned so many things of importance there. It's so important to read the room, know where you're performing, respecting the stage, you know, use a carrot and a stick. Hey, I'm gonna let you on my stage. And if you abuse it, you're never gonna get on that stage again. So if I had that guy do that, I would have never I said, Look, next time you want to come back, I'll see you in three months because you're not getting on stage before then. It's so funny, Tina. Back in the day in my clubs, I actually had a hook and I could reach from behind and hook people off the stage, and the audience always loved it. But of course, that was more of a joke. When I had somebody abusing my stage, I literally would just walk out and say, Hey, ladies and gentlemen, he's done. Let's hear it for him. And just and they look at me in this shock and horror, and I go, Hey, if you're not doing what I tell you to do, the way I tell you to do it, and how I tell you to do it, you're not gonna be on my stage. And I know that makes me an asshole, but that's what makes my shows work. And my clubs, 47 years later, are still operating. And it's because Well, congratulations. That's a real right. Yeah, no, it's it's well, that's me. But we're here to talk about you. So, Tina, we we want to tell people where and when they can get this book because it sounds like it's full of great information, not only for comics that should understand the responsibility of uh show production and how to do their own open mic, but for all the wannabe producers or people that think that, you know, hey, we need an opportunity to showcase

Where To Buy The Book

32:26

the community talent, the local talent, so we need to create a room. Tina Cruz's book, How to Host a Comedy Show, is the way to go. So, Tina, tell them uh where they can get the book. Uh, you'll be able to get the book uh on my website at TinaTells Jokes.com, and you'll be able to get it on Amazon. But if you're uh if you're listening in Canada, you could get it for a discounted price. That's it, screw the Americans. No, no, no, no, no. It's just because like mail is difficult. It's actually I always direct people to Amazon because like I'm just teasing Tina. It's okay. Amazon is yeah, I've written uh three books and two of them on comedy, and they're on Amazon and they do quite well. Uh so but ladies and gentlemen, it's called How to Host a Comedy Show. Write this down. How to host a comedy show, subtitled Why Comedy Shows Fail and How to Run a Room. You can get it on Amazon or go direct to Tina Cruz's website at www.tina tells jokes.com. That's TinaTellsjokes.com. Tina, I could tell it's full of valuable information. It's going to be an asset to anybody interested in stand-up comedy or even entertainment as a whole. Like you said, it could be music, it could be poetry. But uh it's so great that you took the time to take what you've learned in your short comedy life and share it with others. Thank you so much, Tina. Thank you for having me. Oh no, it's it's great information. As a lifelong producer, I love as you probably picked up on, I love talking about this stuff. But it's so important to remember people that there's a difference between entertaining and producing. Tina's wearing both hats, which is challenging. But if you want to be an entertainer, you should understand the responsibility of the producer. And the producer needs to understand what it takes to get up on an open mic in front of a bunch of strangers and be funny or try to be funny. So it is a copacetic situation. You need to work together, and as I've said a couple times, uh respect the stage, respect the audience. And Tina, it sounds like your book hits all the right marks. Ladies and gentlemen, Tina Cruz. Tina, thanks so much for sharing about your book. Ladies and gentlemen, go to TinaTellsJokes.com. Any last words for our audience? Yeah, it's you know, it's all about creating your own look. Oh, that's so well put. Yeah, you gotta especially if you want to produce your own show, it's cre you know, create your own success. Yeah, that's great. Thank you. Oh, look at that. Ladies and gentlemen, you get all this information and a lifelong quote to take with you right there. Ladies and gentlemen, it's been Tina Cruz on uh the Stand Up Comedy, your host and MC Podcast. Thank you, Tina, for joining us from uh Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It's been a pleasure having you on the show. Thank you for having me. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for listening. Be sure to tell your family and friends. We'll be back next week with another great show. Thanks for listening. Bye. Say bye, Tina. Bye. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Stand Up Comedy, your host and MC. For information on the show, merchandise, and our sponsors, or to send comments to Scott, visit our website at www.standupyourhost and mc.com. Look for more episodes soon and enjoy the world of stand up comedy. Visit a comedy showroom near you.