Back to the Feature Comedy Open Mic
Hosted by Jeremy Crawford
Boomerang Comedy Theater
Baton Rouge
Feb. 15, 2026
Every Sunday, Boomerang Comedy Theater hosts an open mic. Sign-ups at 4:30, starts at 5, goes till 6:30. They’ve got a system down: The judges pick the top three comedians. The audience picks a winner. That winner features in the next open mic and has a slot in the monthly all-star showcase.
Boomerang is still working on getting their liquor license, and according to a sign on the door, no outside drinks are allowed on the premises until then. So these people are doing it for the love of the game. When you get up to do a bit, you have to be brave enough to do it without liquid courage. When you’re listening to a joke, it’s not funny because you’ve had four drinks and everything looks kind of hilarious. It’s either funny or it’s not. If you bomb, you bomb sober enough to feel the awkward silence of the punchline that didn’t land, and then you have to endure the host ribbing you for it. This is not an open mic for the fainthearted.
Hayden West, the youngest comedian to take the stage on Sunday, told a joke about the four horsemen of drug usage.
“What did you say about horsemen?” a lady in the front said, confrontationally. “I’m a horseman. My daddy taught me.”
West awkwardly explained the joke, it’s like … the horsemen from the end times … but like for drugs? This is not actually about horses.
To his credit, he recovered.
“What if the itty bitty titty committee was a hate group?” he asked the audience. “What if they were just burning plastic surgery clinics?”
“What if they were attacking women with big boobs?” an audience member asked.
“Oh, my mom would be DEAD!” he said.
This set earned him a slot in the final three, where he was beaten out by Wayne Ransom.
It felt like Sunday's comedians were old regulars. The host, Jeremy Crawford, introduced many as friends. Crawford himself is an open mic/comedy regular at other venues, and he was on his game last night with banter and self-deprecating jokes.
“Turns out Latina and Black women don’t like it when you look like an off-duty ICE agent,” he said when someone pointed out that he had a tendency to date outside his race.
Boomerang’s open mic is for people who can take a joke as well as make one. The crowd was not predominately male, but the comedians were. I wish we’d seen more women/gender non-conforming comedians take the stage, but hey, there’s always next Sunday.
