From the vault: my seventh Instagram post ever. February 17, 2017. Caption: "New place is feeling like an open mic, just the way I like it!"
February 2017, new place, and the first thing I photographed was not the kitchen, not the view, not me holding a key like a normal person who just moved. It was this wall.
Look at it. The whole thing is covered in posters, edge to edge, top to bottom. Comedy shows, a film festival, a stand up showcase called Fresh Grass, the 2nd Annual 50 First Jokes, Three Way Comedy on a Tuesday for free, the Bordello Writing Room comedy show at Westfax Brewery. There is a Bonnaroo 2014 poster in the middle and a Jay and Silent Bob poster next to it, because of course there is. Down at the bottom, sitting in front of all of it like a guard, is a green whale.
If you zoom in, my name is hiding on a few of these. Nic Dean on the Pints and Punchlines poster up top, Nic Dean on the big black and red poster on the right, Nic Dean down on the X LRG Iced Comedy poster. I was not headlining arenas. I was collecting little printed proof that somebody, somewhere, had let me do five minutes.
That is why the caption makes sense, and why I tagged Georgia in it. A new apartment is just four blank walls and rent. An open mic is a room that already smells like other comics tried something there. Cover one wall in show posters and suddenly the place feels lived in, like jokes have already happened there and a few of them even worked.
Same guy now, on the roster at Comedy Works, won their 2026 New Faces Contest, out on the road hosting THE DOSE. The posters are bigger now and my name is easier to find. The decorating taste has not improved at all.
Nic
Original post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BQnrLrjhGxe/,see the current tour dates at nicdean.net