About FireMics
FireMics is a comprehensive global open mic directory designed to simplify how performers find stage time and how hosts manage their events.
Why FireMics was built
The performing arts community has long relied on fragmented social media groups and static directories that quickly become outdated. Traditional open mic websites often act as "set-and-forget" lists, where information remains unchanged for years because hosts have no direct way to manage their own data.
FireMics was created to solve these two core issues: fragmentation and stale data.
What makes us different
- Host Control: Unlike other platforms, FireMics allows hosts to claim their listings. Hosts can edit times, locations, and signup rules in real time.
- Universal Access: We provide a centralized, searchable map and list of open mics for any location on Earth, moving beyond the need for disorganized threads and local spreadsheets.
- Accuracy-First: By giving hosts the tools to update their own events, we ensure performers show up to active mics rather than "ghost" events that ended months ago.
The Founder
I'm Matt Lipari, a full-time comedian, content creator, and software engineer based in New York City.
I started doing stand-up in 2017 while studying computer science in college. A few years later I started posting comedy online and built up a following of hundreds of thousands, which pushed me to take stand-up more seriously and really commit to the craft. I'm now a working headliner based out of New York City.
I built FireMics out of a frustration every comedian knows. Every open mic list was outdated. There were 50 different places to look, Facebook groups, spreadsheets, websites nobody had touched in years, and you always had to cross-reference everything just to find out if a mic was still running. I wanted one place where performers could go and actually trust what they were seeing.
So I built it for myself first. The original version was a personal tool to log performances, track sets, and keep jokes organized. Eventually it became clear that the whole community needed the same thing. I genuinely enjoy software engineering, and working on FireMics keeps that side of my brain sharp alongside the comedy.
The open mic scene is one of the most genuinely supportive communities I've been part of. Everyone wants everyone else to get better. FireMics is something I built because I needed it, and it turns out a lot of other people did too.