i have played in pubilc a total of 4 times that I recall. I guess one was an open mic technically, but more of an open jam sesh. all four times i just kinda "jammed," did not play any real songs and had zero preparation. all of the 4 settings were a little different, and I was surpirsed at each of them to either attract a small crowd/peoples attention, not scare away the pre-existing crowd, hear people actually clap, and in one instance a friend and I were actually given a cash tip!! the first time was the open jam, was the scariest. a bunch of people were in this bar in brooklyn and long story very short, some other guy showed up and played his originals, and my friend forced me to play along and take some solos (what??)- we were the only 2 of about 50 people that actually brought instruments (and my friend had told me "just bring your guitar it will get us free drinks- you dont have to actually play" famous last words!!) this was 15+ years ago, I had my only guitar at the time (Ibanez acoustic with awful strings that I fought like Mike Tyson), I was no where near as good as I am now and knew nothing about guitars and very little about playing one. i couldnt believe I pulled this jam sesh off and actually there was a third instrument in the room- someone bought a banjo like the day before and had no idea how to play it, they had it with them and after the sesh begged me and/or the other guy for a quick lesson (at this point I was sure this was all a dream), so for 10 seconds i took his banjo and told him the one thing i learned about 5 string banjo vs. 4 string banjo, that I learned from a hockey camp counselor back in the 1980s, and had never thought of for a moment until this encounter...anyway i showed him the one thing i knew and this guy just thought I was litterally Jimmy Page or something. he was like, bowing down to me haa (seriously). my friend who is a professional musician was like "see man u were great" I was like dude, thats not what u were saying yesterday!
I will never forget the one moment we were playing the guy's song, I was just kinda playing along his verse chords, he was singing (quite emphatically), and the verse ends, he turns around and looks at me from about 20 feet away, with the entire audience beteeen us, and shouts "E!". and in the mili-second moment I had to process this, the first thought that popped into my mind was "how does he know my name (Eric)?" then just, just, just in time- a mili-second later, it occurs to me, he does not know my name actually (nor care of such details), he is simply telling me to rip a solo in the key of E...so I rolled thru the major E scale (or close to it) good enough to get some claps...i just couldnt believe I pulled it off. this was nothing I was going to win a grammy for, but I had zero experience, zero preparation, and zero intention to perform, and it was a success. definitely a game changer for me at the time. around this time I was getting setious about guitar and used to get together with friends to play and all...life happens though, for all of us.
the other times were all in parks in New York City. once solo, once duo, and once with a group. all improv, all the time. for the most part. these days i have time to play guitar, but not so much time to rehearse a full set. open mic is pretty serious around these parts, i got lucky that one time but mostly it's for major leaguers. some people definitely get in over their heads and show up unprepared.