Free talent thrives in Santa Cruz, or at least free entertainment. At open mics throughout the county, Santa Cruzans are out on stage, performing for their friends and neighbors.
Some open mics focus on comedy, such as stand-up comedy night on Sundays at 7pm in the Shanty Shack, located in Santa Cruz’s Harvey West neighborhood. Seating is outside, with a few picnic tables and various stools and chairs. Peach and apple trees grow beside the stage, which is a wooden deck that juts from a white metal structure that resembles a storage container.
Nicole Lopez is hosting the event tonight. She started her comedy career at Shanty Shack a few years ago and now leads it whenever Caroline Hawkins, the founder of the open mic, can’t make it. Lopez explains the importance of Shanty Shack’s open mic: “It’s a place for comics to work on new material,” without pressure and in a community that is welcoming.
Tonight 14 performers get up to the mic, which is pretty standard, according to Lopez. A majority are middle-aged men who make jokes about sex and politics. Among some of the lines: “Does anyone else have a leaky butthole?” one man asks. Another man speaks about creating a support group for other men with bent penises. A young woman makes her stand-up comedy debut, joking about creepy men on the dating scene while gesturing to men in the crowd.
MeloMelo Kava Bar offers an open mic on Monday nights from 8pm to midnight. The downtown Santa Cruz establishment is dimly lit with pink and purple lights; the stage is surrounded by bar stools, sofas and soft colorful chairs. Acts get about 10 minutes to perform, offering poetry or techno beat sets or live music. A man named Lotti performs here every time he is in Santa Cruz. He is alone on stage with a guitar and he layers melodies with a pedal looper. Jonah, another young man with floppy hair, mixes beats with the intention of inducing “hypnosis and trance.” A young woman with two braids and a keyboard sings originals. The audience is respectful and quiet.
Wednesdays at 7pm, 11th Hour Coffee hosts an open mic in the outside seating area of its Westside location. Hardwood booths, tables and heat lamps are strewn about, along with green vines that crawl up the walls that enclose the space. Performers are mostly young and either sing or read poetry. Host Bryan Callahan closes out the night with a reading of his own poem. He explains that Wednesday nights are popular with UCSC students. 11th Hour does not allow stand-up comedy as they have had problems with offensive performances in the past. Callahan explains that they try to “offer a stage to small local acts.”
Accompanied by a backdrop of conversation and buzzers alerting customers that their food is ready, a young woman sings original songs and strums a guitar, a middle-aged man raps, and several men read poetry. A woman who had not planned to sing but was encouraged by her friends performs a Dust Bowl Revival song a cappella.
The Ugly Mug offers an open mic for all acts on Monday evenings from 5 to 8pm. Staff move tables aside to make room for rows of chairs; A stage with a microphone and speakers faces the crowd at the Soquel coffeehouse. On this night, more than 20 acts perform, many of them older white men who sing while playing a guitar. A young girl sings Noah Kahan; a man with three different bird-themed hats teaches the crowd about bird mating patterns.
Ian Walton, a Scotland native who moved to Santa Cruz for grad school and never left, sings “obscure depressing Celtic ballads.” Walton has been playing at The Ugly Mug nearly every Monday since 2011.
This is not an uncommon phenomenon. According to owner Steve Volk, nearly every act is a returner, with each week producing about three newcomers. It is an equalizing space, Volk says, because every performer feels the same fear and excitement of being on stage. Volk encouraged an employee to start the open mic in 2000, and it has been thriving ever since: “Almost weekly something is so moving and it just blesses everyone.”
A moving moment comes when Manny gets up to the stage late in the show, as performers with guitars draped across them chat and sip last-call tea and hard seltzer. Manny brings out three flutes and begins to play. The coffee shop silences and every head turns to the stage as he played three short songs. Then an eruption of applause filled the room.
Open mics can be found in other parts of the county as well. Down in the Pajaro Valley, there is an open mic at the Corralitos Cultural Center on Friday nights. Up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, at Ben Lomond’s Henflings Tavern, every Monday at 7pm brings a parade of performers offering everything from guitar riffs to comedy to poetry. And in midtown Santa Cruz, the Crepe Place opens up a mic for wannabe rock stars every other Monday.
This article was published in the 2025 Student Guide, an insert in the Sept. 24 issue of Good Times. Click here to see the entire guide.
