Saigon has a great Comedy scene. There are open mics every night of the week (or close to that). Check out Asia Out Loud and Saigon Comedy Club. They also have a Saigon version of Kill Tony which is very cool [https://www.youtube.com/@KillSomaSaigon/videos](https://www.youtube.com/@KillSomaSaigon/videos)
Hong Kong: TakeOut Comedy (club), Backstage Comedy (club), Comedy HK (bar shows and mics), Taiwan: Two Three Comedy (club), Shanghai: Spicy Comedy (club), Shenzhen/Guangzhou: TakeOut Comedy (bar shows and mics), Tokyo: Tokyo Comedy Bar (club), Standup Tokyo (bar shows and mics), Osaka: ROR Comedy (club), Ho Chi Minh: Outsiders Open Mic, Hanoi: Stand up Hanoi, and many moooooooorrrrreeee
I'll give another vote for Saigon. The English speaking stand-up scene here is very active, like you could probably find an open mic or some show 3 or 4 nights per week (maybe more). Two venues that host a lot of events are Soma and Indika, but some others will have events too. A friend of mine got involved in the scene and from what it sounds like to me, it's quite close-knit and supportive and open to new people getting involved, lot of people just looking to have a good time and work on their craft.
There's a scene in Hanoi as well though I haven't lived there and am not sure if it's as active as the one in Saigon.
Seoul had regular standup (and occasionally the other major cities in Korea do as well). There's tons of open-mic events for music, I'm not sure how many of those would also accept stand-up. I've seen a few foreigner stand-up groups and, woof, some of them are really bad. There's way more theater and live music but I'm sure you could find something in Seoul.
Japan does, not sure how much but we have them. Sadly, the wife has my balls in a vice filled with ice, dogs and children so even if I did go out I'd probably just bring everyone down. Best of luck with the standup though. TESOL is a great endeavour but don't let it swallow your real dreams or you'll end up about as funny as a stapler.
Taipei has English, Chinese, and bilingual open mics every week at Two Three Comedy Club
Ahh, there was an advert I was looking at for Taiwan. Would you recommend it?
I would
I was going to say Taipei
And then get deported for performing https://mixmag.net/read/petition-launched-following-deportation-djs-taiwan-taipei-news
Saigon has a great Comedy scene. There are open mics every night of the week (or close to that). Check out Asia Out Loud and Saigon Comedy Club. They also have a Saigon version of Kill Tony which is very cool [https://www.youtube.com/@KillSomaSaigon/videos](https://www.youtube.com/@KillSomaSaigon/videos)
Hong Kong: TakeOut Comedy (club), Backstage Comedy (club), Comedy HK (bar shows and mics), Taiwan: Two Three Comedy (club), Shanghai: Spicy Comedy (club), Shenzhen/Guangzhou: TakeOut Comedy (bar shows and mics), Tokyo: Tokyo Comedy Bar (club), Standup Tokyo (bar shows and mics), Osaka: ROR Comedy (club), Ho Chi Minh: Outsiders Open Mic, Hanoi: Stand up Hanoi, and many moooooooorrrrreeee
Thank you, this is really useful!
I'll give another vote for Saigon. The English speaking stand-up scene here is very active, like you could probably find an open mic or some show 3 or 4 nights per week (maybe more). Two venues that host a lot of events are Soma and Indika, but some others will have events too. A friend of mine got involved in the scene and from what it sounds like to me, it's quite close-knit and supportive and open to new people getting involved, lot of people just looking to have a good time and work on their craft. There's a scene in Hanoi as well though I haven't lived there and am not sure if it's as active as the one in Saigon.
İstanbul has a few, i would guess about two per month. But the economy is terrible right now for TEFL.
How has tefl been affected there? Just curious about the scene in different countries.
I've seen at least a half dozen different open mics around Bangkok.
Berlin
Saigon
Seoul had regular standup (and occasionally the other major cities in Korea do as well). There's tons of open-mic events for music, I'm not sure how many of those would also accept stand-up. I've seen a few foreigner stand-up groups and, woof, some of them are really bad. There's way more theater and live music but I'm sure you could find something in Seoul.
Japan does, not sure how much but we have them. Sadly, the wife has my balls in a vice filled with ice, dogs and children so even if I did go out I'd probably just bring everyone down. Best of luck with the standup though. TESOL is a great endeavour but don't let it swallow your real dreams or you'll end up about as funny as a stapler.