Crafting the Perfect Set: How to Use the Set Builder
A joke library is only useful if you can turn it into a show. Having fifty bits saved means nothing if you show up to a mic and spend ten minutes scrolling through your phone deciding what to do. The Set Builder lets you pull from your library, arrange your bits in order, and walk in with a plan.
Pulling jokes from your library
Go to the Sets page and create a new set. From there you can browse your entire joke library and add bits directly to the set. You can search by name to find a specific joke quickly without scrolling through everything you've written.
One useful feature is version selection. If you have a tight 90-second version of a bit for a 5-minute mic and a longer version you use when you have more time, you can choose which one goes into a specific set. That way the same joke can live in multiple sets at different lengths.
Ordering for flow
Once your jokes are in the set, use the up and down buttons to arrange them until the order feels right. A good set has shape. Your opener should be quick and accessible, something that gets the room comfortable with you fast. Your closer should be a solid joke you trust, but don't feel like you have to save your best material for last. If a great bit works better in the middle, put it there.
Try building the same set in two or three different orders and compare them. The difference a single swap makes is sometimes surprising.
Using set notes
The Notes field on the set edit page is a free-form space to write anything relevant to the set as a whole. Use it to remind yourself of context around the set, what room it was written for, what you were trying to work on, or which jokes still need more time on stage. It lives at the bottom of the edit page so it's better suited for overall set-level notes than for in-between-joke transitions.
Total runtime estimation
FireMics calculates your estimated total runtime as you build the set. This matters more than people expect. Going over time at an open mic is a fast way to annoy the host and the comics waiting after you. Going significantly under means you might be burning a spot without making good use of it. Knowing your runtime before you walk in gives you the chance to adjust.
Pro tip: Log your performances
After you perform a set, log it as a Set Performance. You can record which venue you performed it at and how the set went. Over time this builds a history of where each set has been done, which helps you avoid repeating the same material at the same rooms too often.