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Poet performs at the Little Grill open mic in Harrisonburg, Virginia June 12, 2008

An open mike or open mic is a live show where audience members may perform at the microphone. Usually, the performers sign up in advance for a time slot with the host or master of ceremonies. These events can be focused on poetry and the spoken word, music, comedy, and the open format of open stage nights. Notable examples of open mics are at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in the lower east side of Manhattan, and the Open Mic UK contest in the United Kingdom.

Poetry/spoken word[link]

Poetry/spoken word open mikes feature a host, who is normally a poet or spoken word artist, poets and spoken word artists, and audience members. Shows are generally one and a half to two hours in length.^{[citation needed]} A sign-up is done before the show begins, so that the host has a list of names to call from. Poetry/spoken word open mikes are laid back, serene, and contain lively conversation in between readers and/or performers. They are usually held in libraries, coffee houses, cafes, and book stores or bars. Each poet or spoken word artist is often asked to keep their performances to a minimum/specified time slot, giving each performer enough time to share some of their work. The longest running US open mike is still going on at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in the lower east side of Manhattan.^{[citation needed]}

Comedy[link]

Comedy open mike nights can be held at established comedy clubs, but are more commonly held at other venues with or without a stage, often the upstairs or back room of a pub or bar. Such nights give newer acts an opportunity to practice and improve, with a view to getting paid work. More experienced acts get an opportunity to work out newer material where the audience is not paying in anticipation of seeing their normal act. In a typical open mike night, newer acts will get five or maybe ten minutes of stage time, but more experienced acts may get ten or more minutes.^{[citation needed]}

Open mic comedy nights are most widespread in larger English-speaking cities with a well-established stand-up comedy scene, especially London and New York. In these cities, with a plethora of aspiring comedians, the greatest challenge may be in attracting a worthwhile audience.^{[citation needed]}

Music[link]

Musician performs Open Mic at No Name Bar in Sausalito, CA
July 2, 2008.

These shows provide an opportunity for musicians to gain experience performing to a live audience without having to go through the process of getting normal music gigs, which is very difficult to do without experience of live performance.^{[citation needed]}

Open mikes have been gaining in popularity in recent times, providing a much-needed outlet for singer-songwriters. Prior to their popularity, the only outlet generally were folk clubs, which were not always friendly towards creators of new music, preferring traditional music. They also suggested that music performed by acoustic musicians or solo artists in this manner would necessarily be folk music, a misconception that still commonly exists today. Some organizers have chosen the title "acoustic night" or "acoustic club" in an attempt to indicate an event run broadly on the lines of a folk club, but with a much wider range of musical styles.^{[citation needed]}

In the United Kingdom, the largest ongoing Open Mic-styled music contest is Open Mic UK, which regularly attracts 10,000 participants of all genres. The grand prize for the contest is an investment up to £30,000. The size of the event has necessitated that all participants sign up for performance slots beforehand, instead of simply walking onstage.^[1][2]

New York City has a plethora of open mics, too, most notably at Gavin DeGraw's The National Underground. It takes place every Monday from 7-10 PM and it's free.

See also[link]

• Open stage night

References[link]

External links[link]

• Aldredge, Marcus. "Negotiating and Practicing Performance: An Ethnographic Study of a Musical Open Mic in Brooklyn, New York."

Look up open, opened, or overt in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Open may refer to:

Philosophy[link]

• Openness, term being used to define the basis of how various groups and organizations operate

Mathematics[link]

• Open problem, a well-defined problem with no known solution in science and mathematics
• Open set, set in topology and related fields of mathematics
• Opening (morphology), an operator in mathematical morphology
• Open map, a function that is open

Music and media[link]

• Open (Shaznay Lewis album), 2004 album by Shaznay Lewis
• Open (Blues Image album), Blues Image's second album
• Open (Cowboy Junkies album), an album by the Canadian band Cowboy Junkies, released in 2001
• Open (Gotthard album), the fourth studio album by the hard rock band Gotthard
• Open (YFriday album), the second studio album from the Christian band YFriday, released in 2001
• Open, 1967 album by Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger and the Trinity
• Open (band), Australian pop/rock band
• "Open", a song by The Cure on their album Wish
• Open Season (film), a 2006 movie made in Sony Animation
• Open...., the original interactive television service on BSkyBs Sky Digital platform
• Open (Jon Anderson album), a 2011 album released through Digital Download

Language and literature[link]

• Open vowel, vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages
• Open (magazine), a lifestyle Mexican publication
• OPEN (Indian magazine), an Indian weekly English language magazine featuring current affairs
• Open: An Autobiography, by Andre Agassi (2010)

Electronics and computer science[link]

• open (process), Nextstep & Mac OS X command line application that opens its argument(s) in the GUI as if the user had double clicked
• Open-circuit voltage, in electronics, the absence of a load through which electric current would flow
• Open-source software, computer software modifiable by all, where users are treated as co-developers
• Open system (computing), computer systems that provide interoperability
• Open (system call), standardized system call for opening files

Other fields[link]

• Open (sport), type of competition in tennis, golf and other sports where entry is open to all qualifiers regardless of age or ability
• Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs of North America, inclusive, not-for-profit organization
• Open surgery as opposed to minimally invasive surgery
• Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act, or OPEN Act, a bill in the United States Congress to prohibit internet censorship.

See also[link]

• Open-ended (disambiguation)
• Open mind (disambiguation)
• Open system (disambiguation)
• Open education
• Opening (disambiguation)
• Close (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Mike may refer to:

People[link]

Given name[link]

• Mike Barnard, English cricketer
• Mike Brown (ice hockey b. June 1985), American ice hockey player (Toronto Maple Leafs)
• Mike Brown (ice hockey b. March 1985), Ice hockey player goaltender
• Mike Bryan, American professional tennis player
• Mike Cameron, American baseball player
• Mike Dierickx, aka M.I.K.E., Belgian progressive trance DJ/Producer
• Mike Epstein, American major league baseball first baseman
• Mike Franks (tennis), American tennis player
• Mike George, British radio presenter
• Mike Hartman, American NHL ice hockey player
• Mike Lieberthal, American major league baseball All Star catcher
• Mike Pegg, British author
• Mike Rosenthal, American football player
• Mike Rossman (Michael Albert DiPiano; "The Jewish Bomber"), American world champion light heavyweight boxer
• Mike Rutherford, British progressive rock guitarist
• Mike Seidman (American football), American football player (Indianapolis Colts)
• Mike Shonrock, American university administrator
• Mike Tyson, American world champion heavyweight boxer
• Mike Veisor, Canadian NHL ice hockey player
• Mike Wallace (journalist), American journalist, game show host, and media personality
• Mike Shinoda, the vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the band Linkin Park.
• Mike Kennerty, A Guitarist of the band The All-American Rejects.
• Mike, a character from TV Series Total Drama.

Surname[link]

• Takashi Miike, Japanese filmmaker

Other[link]

• Mike (cat), guardian of the British Museum
• Mike (cellular network), a Canadian cellular network
• Mike (film), a 1926 American film
• Mike (novel), a 1909 novel by P. G. Wodehouse
• Mike the Headless Chicken
• MIKE, a character from Twin Peaks
• Ivy Mike, first nuclear test of a fusion device
• abbreviation of microphone, often spelled as "mic"
• abbreviation of micrometre
• abbreviation of Michael
• abbreviation of Michaela
• the middle linebacker in American football
• the letter "M" in the ICAO spelling alphabet

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (July 2010)

Doug Hawkins (born 5 May 1960) is a former Australian rules footballer in the VFL/AFL who made a name for himself in the media in his post-football career.

Early career[link]

Hawkins hailed from the industrialised, working class western suburbs of Melbourne, and although he was a North Melbourne supporter in his youth, competition zoning rules in effect prior to the adoption of a national draft, dictated that Hawkins' rights were 'zoned' to Footscray, given his suburb of residence was nearby Braybrook. He got his wish, making his VFL debut for Footscray in 1978 as a teenager.

Football career[link]

Footscray[link]

Hawkins made a name for himself over the ensuing years as one of the finest wingers the game has ever seen, so much so that at the team's home ground, the Western Oval, one of the wings of the ground was named the "Doug Hawkins Wing". Much has also been made about his rocky relationship with coach Mick Malthouse during the 1980s, but during Hawkins' Australian Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2004, Hawkins played this down. In 1994, Hawkins broke Ted Whitten's long-standing club record of 321 games for Footscray, and Whitten was on-hand to congratulate him.

Fitzroy[link]

However, after playing 329 games and kicking 216 goals for the Bulldogs, Hawkins' contract was not renewed, and so he moved to the financially strapped Fitzroy Football Club for one last fine season in 1995, one year before the team folded. He played 21 games and kicked 11 goals for the club, before announcing his retirement.

Career highlights[link]

Playing career:

• 1978–1995 (Games: 350, Goals: 227)
• Footscray 1978–1994 (Games: 329, Goals: 216)
• Fitzroy 1995 (Games: 21, Goals: 11)

Player honors:

• Foots/WB Team of the Century

Media career[link]

Off the field, Hawkins was known as an old-fashioned Aussie larrikin, someone who himself acknowledged he was not one of the smartest people going around, but was always up for a laugh. As a panel member of the Nine Network's The Footy Show during the mid-1990s, he was bagged mercilessly by Sam Newman and Jason Dunstall. In 1998, Hawkins moved to the Seven Network and appeared on a Wednesday night rival to The Footy Show, Live and Kicking.

Personal life[link]

Hawkins is married to Raelene, who appeared on Fox Footy's Living with Footballers before it was axed at the end of 2004. They have three children – a son and two daughters. Doug currently resides in Darley which is a town in Bacchus Marsh, he also supports local football side Darley. He coaches the Bacchus Marsh Cobra's Under 16.5 side which his son Ricky plays for. The team won the 2011 Under 16.5 Seniors Ballarat Football League premiership

References[link]

• Full Points Footy Bio
• AFL: Hall of Fame