A fight broke out at Zach Harley's first open mic — and the bartender brought out a wooden bat. The Columbus comic tells the whole story on First Mic.

Zach spent over a decade behind microphones before he ever tried a joke on stage: high school play-by-play in Parma, country radio in Akron, then producing morning news in Columbus — including associate-producing his college's Boston Marathon coverage on the day of the bombing, as a freshman. When they offered him the biggest paycheck he'd ever seen to run a whole station, he said no. He'd rather tell jokes about his lazy eye to 10 people. His words.

Instead: a couple years as a teacher's aide (until a joke got him fired), then a first open mic at the Shrunken Head that ended with bartender Trish pulling a wooden bat on a heckler while Ty Moore muscled the guy out the door. Almost five years later, Zach manages Hashtag Comedy Club's free Friday open mic in the Short North (10:45 PM) and burns brand-new material every week at Ty's Café Bourbon Street mic.

Wondering what to expect at your first open mic? This episode is the honest version: Columbus mics are free (New York often isn't), you'll feel great on stage and cringe about it five years later — and Zach's advice for new comics is simple: pick who you want to listen to, and don't listen to anybody else.

What happened at YOUR first open mic — or the wildest one you've ever watched? Tell us in the comments.

🎙️ Follow Zach Harley: Instagram: @zachharley

🔗 First Mic is part of the Indie Comedy Collective: YouTube: youtube.com/@IndieComedyCollective Instagram: @indiecomedycollective