New booths let would-be comics broadcast to the world

Practising stand-up routines in front of the bedroom mirror has gone high-tech, with a series of recording booths across America targeting would-be comics wanting to show off their talents.

For $20, aspiring comedians can record up to five minutes of their gags in the MyStudio cubicles, without the need to face an audience.

Now the company behind the booths has launched a competition to encourage more comedy hopefuls to make recordings – with the winner landing a trip to London to perform at the Crack Comedy Club.

Crack’s owner Erich McElroy said: ‘We all know that the web is the new way to find tomorrow's comedy talent. MyStudio allows booking agents and club owners an efficient means of cutting through the glut of other web portals and identify talent we never would have known about otherwise.’

The booths, which are located in malls in Hollywood, Miami, Dallas and Phoenix, use green-screen filming to place a virtual background behind the would-be comedians. And within minutes of recording, videos are automatically uploaded to the MyStudio website.

The competition closes on November 30.

Published: 26 Sep 2010