So, How Do You Make It? (corrected version)
To get booked, you'll probably need a 30-minute tape. But, if you're not booked, where can you get a 30 minute tape? Again, this is where MC experience comes in; most comics, myself included, did their first feature gig at their home club. Oftentimes, a feature or a headliner calls in sick, or his or her car breaks down, and the club reaches for its best emcee to fill the middle spot (and, if you aren't the best emcee, you need to put off those feature aspirations for a while and write some jokes.)
Featuring at your home club, however, will be a rare occurrence; first, most clubs have a "six-month" rule, meaning you cannot feature more than twice a year. Secondly, many clubs are not too keen on pushing their MCs up to feature, since it means they add a feature to an already full roster while losing a solid MC, which is usually much harder to replace.
So, how do you get booked? Recommendations are usually the way that MCs make the first jump. Oftentimes a headliner will work with an MC and offer to bring him or her on the road with him for a week or more later that year -- this is, in fact, the way that my first "road gig" was booked. (This is why developing personal relationships with the comics ahead of you is so important.) But without a body of feature work and an impressive resume, recommendations from key comics are the most important asset a newbie comic can have.
Moving to Full-Time
In my mind, the most difficult step in the process from first-time open-miker to headliner is the hump between part-time feature and full-time feature. As mentioned before, you need to have either a very sound financial base or a generous friend or family member who can take care of you as you climb the ladder. In order to work 50 weeks a year, you're going to have to work 30 weeks; in order to work 30 weeks, you'll likely have to work 10. It can easily take two years or longer to get from part-time to full-time feature, no matter your talent level; it simply takes time to network, have tapes seen, get references, and even to get booked. For example, I worked a gig in Florida in May, and was recommended by their owner to a chain in the Midwest. My work in
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