While open-mic nights at Portage's Blue Room Café provide aspiring area musicians and songwriters the opportunity to showcase their talents, they can prove taxing on café co-owner John Vezmar.

"It's pretty absurd," he said. "I'd open up one of the cafes at 7 in the morning and end my day with the open mic at 11 o'clock at night.

"It can be pretty wild."

One of a hearty handful of regional venues to give time and space to songsmiths and wordsmiths, the Blue Room has been a popular open-mic spot since Vezmar and brother Paul Vezmar first opened Blue Room's doors in Highland more than three and a half years ago and continued when they branched out to Hammond more than two and a half years ago.

The Vezmars moved their open-mic night to their Portage shop earlier this year. Held at 8 p.m. every Thursday with a local musician serving as the night's emcee who also performs, performers either register online or sign up in the shop on open-mic day for the opportunity to perform a 15-minute set.

Vezmar said he took his lead for his open-mic nights from the Uncommon Ground, a popular café, restaurant and live-music enterprise with venues in Chicago's Wrigleyville and Edgewater neighborhoods.

"Their system is the performer gets up and does their thing and the host would have three performers who they think did the best," Vezmar said. "After we say (the performer's) name, the audience would applause and whoever got the most applause would win (the monies collected) in a hat passed around (during the course of the evening)."

On average, approximately a dozen performers grace Portage's Blue Room Café stage for its Thursday open mics. The café's weekly showcases also provide a venue for area poets and spoken-word artists to test their original works on audiences.

"The appeal (to include poetry and spoken word) is to welcome all forms of art to our place," Vezmar said. "It creates a really cool vibe. I think poetry is as important as music."

Hobart's Harold Tully is a poet who has performed at Blue Room's open-mic night since the venue opened in February. He uses the open-mic stage to both fine tune previously written prose and test new material.

Tully also gauges his audience for material he may write in the future as well as works he will pull out as his set progresses.

"(The open-mic night) gives me feedback," he said. "If they want something funny or if they want something a little more serious, or if they want something political or if they want satire, it'll influence me to write that way."

Valparaiso-area musicians and aficionados who want to stay closer to home on Thursday nights need look no further than Front Porch Music, where open-mic nights have been a staple since the early '90s at the music-instruction venue, which also sells and repairs instruments.

Front Porch Music owner Chad Clifford, who began working at the venue in 1996, has enjoyed watching many an audience member take the leap from seat to the stage.

"One of the great things is that we'd get people that would come out and just listen for years, then one night they would get the courage to get up there and they would just blow people away with how good they are," he said. "They were just waiting to feel comfortable."

Prospective performers at Front Porch's open-mic nights sign up when the doors open for the night's entertainment at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, a half hour before stage time. The night's featured artist and emcee for the evening performs a half-hour set before the acts perform their two- to three-song sets and, according to Clifford, the evening's entertainment can run as late as 11 p.m.

While the open-mic nights are geared toward musicians of any expertise, Clifford encourages his students to take to the stage alongside the more seasoned musicians.

"(Open-mic nights at Front Porch) bridge the gap between the professional musician and the guy who's just learning," he said. "You'll have everything from amazing finger-style guitar players to kids that are learning their first chords."

But unlike Blue Room, there's no lucky recipient at proceeds from a passed around hat at Front Porch on Thursday nights.

"It's very nonjudgmental," Clifford said. "It's not a competition, and no one gets booed. They all get treated with respect."

WHAT: Blue Room Café's open mic night 8 p.m. Thursday

WHERE: Blue Room Café, 6652 U.S. Hwy 6, Portage

COST: free

FYI: (219)762-6500, THEBRCAFE.COM

WHAT: Front Porch Music's open stage night 7:30 p.m. Thursday

WHERE: Front Porch Music, 505 E. Lincolnway, Valparaiso

COST: $2.50 performers, $3.50 musicians

FYI: (219) 464-4700, FRONTPORCHMUSIC.COM

Chance in the spotlight

Here is a list of some other area venues that host open-mic or open-jam nights for aspiring tunesmiths and musicians. Call for rules, dates and times.

* Drena's Bar & Grill, 636 N. 700, Hobart. (219) 364-0890. Acoustic open mic, 8:30 p.m. Thursdays; open jam, 7 p.m. Sundays.

* Finnegan's Pub, 1074 Joliet St., Dyer. (219) 865-9896. Open jam, 10 p.m. Tuesdays.

* J.J. Kelley's, 2455 Bernice Rd., Lansing. (708) 474-9977. Acoustic open mic 10 p.m.

* LaRosa Pizzeria, 6817 Indianapolis Blvd, Hammond. (219) 844-1000. Open jam, 9 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays

* Leroy's Hot Stuff, 333 W. US Hwy 20, Porter. (219) 926-6211. Jam night, 8 p.m. Sundays