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So you think you’re funny? Funny enough to take your act to the stage and on the road?

Too many aspiring comedians assume that, just because they can keep their buddies in stitches every time they open their mouths, getting up on stage and sending a poker-faced audience into fits of laughter would be a piece of cake. Regrettably, the ability to make your friends and family laugh does not necessarily translate to a hilarious stand-up act.

There is a world of difference between telling jokes to your buddies over beer at a downtown joint and delivering punch lines on stage to a roomful of strangers. With the former, all you need is a couple of jokes and an ounce of bluster. With stand-up comedy, you need plenty of good material, excellent showmanship, impeccable comic timing, nerves of steel, quick wit, and a healthy dose of ego. You also need to realize that it might take years of bad gigs, unappreciative audiences, and flat jokes before you could earn a guest spot on the David Letterman show or have your own sitcom. Clearly, the life of a stand-up comic is not for the faint of heart.

Still think you’ve got what it takes to be the next Jerry Seinfeld or Ellen DeGeneres? If the rigors of being a stand-up comedian do not dampen your desire to be one, you may already have the heart for it.

A burning passion to follow your heart and instincts is essential towards achieving success as a stand-up comedian. Once you start to believe that making people laugh is your true calling, it becomes difficult to resist the pull of the stage. But how do you go about turning your stand-up dreams into reality? You can start by studying as much as you can about the craft, from different styles of stand-up comedy to microphone techniques. There are comedy schools and coaches that can teach you the ropes of stand-up comedy, as well as ebooks that provides straightforward information and no-nonsense advice on making it as a stand-up comedian.

Before you can learn to do something, you must see first how it’s done by an expert or professional. Watching stand-up comedians perform their routines will give you an overview of all the elements involved in an act. There are several ways by which you can study stand-up comedians at work. You could catch live performances at comedy clubs or watch recordings of live stand-up performances on DVD. You could also listen to sound recordings of live stand-up acts. Late-night talk show hosts open their shows by reciting comedy monologues that play out like mini stand-up routines. Many talk show hosts used to be professional stand-up comedians, so tuning in to various late-night programs every night would be like being treated to a stand-up comedy sampler in your living room.

What do you hope to accomplish by watching the pros do their schtick? For one thing, it’s a good way to learn about how to work the stage. You could pick up a few pointers on effective joke delivery, comic timing, and microphone techniques. Also, you might be able to see how the pros deal with bombing (that’s when the jokes are getting few or no laughs) and hecklers in the audience. In addition, studying the pros will introduce you to different styles of stand-up comedy. Acquainting yourself with different comedic styles could help you identify which style best suits your brand of comedy.

Covering topics ranging from writing your own material to finding coveted gigs, an amazing ebook will explain in detail what you should do and what to expect while seeking your rightful place in this tough business. Just go to www.TheInfoSource.com for details.

Have you ever noticed that certain people are always being asked to “M.C.” the company staff party or their friend’s wedding? They have funny comments to make about various topics during a conversation. They make you see things in ways that you never imagined; ways that make you see the funny side of life. They’re usually the life of the party. They make you laugh, or at least chuckle inside.

Being a humorous person allows you establish some relationships better and faster than other people. You will become more outgoing in a crowd and may be able to set people at ease in various situations.

If you aspire to be this type of person, then you most likely have a mad streak in your personality that is making you stoop low enough to actually learn how to be funny. You’re the perfect candidate for the task.

While humor is an art form that seems to develop from within, it’s definitely something that can also be learned. However, it takes a lot of demented practice sessions and some real-life trial and error to master it. At first, you may see a lot of blank faces but keep persisting. The more you practice this art, the more natural you will be. Funny gestures, facial expressions, and comments will become second nature.

Being funny though is not the enough. Knowing when to be funny is paramount, and this comes only with experience – and maybe from a few weird looks from others. Obviously there are times that are appropriate and times that are not.

Humor takes on different faces in different settings and groups. There is a style of humor for wedding receptions, for large and small groups, for staff rooms, parties, friends, church, individuals, committee meetings, and even seemingly “staunch” boardroom meetings.

While the actual “learning the art” of humor is too big to fit this small article, here are ten keys to great humor:

1) Be bold. There’s nothing that kills humor more than being shy. If you are using discretion, there’s room for humor almost anywhere, including your Bible study group or corporate boardroom.

2) Humor is, in part, about telling people what they want hear but would never actually say. For example, very few people would talk about light-hearted public bathroom embarrassments. It is amazing how far you can go, even at a church function, and remain “Family Rated”.

3) Learn from others. Know someone who’s really funny? Watch them carefully. Also, check out the sitcoms on TV. There, you will find both well scripted and improvised humor, including exaggerated facial expressions and body movements that reinforce the words or theme being used.

Sitcoms are great at turning life into something surreal and funny. They take minute details of life and blow them up until you can see how funny they are. Ever watched Mr. Bean?

4) Use a mirror. If you’re going to “M.C.” an event, or do anything in public, don’t be afraid to use a mirror to practice with. Many humorous movie stars use this technique. Even if you’re a school bus driver just making faces for the little kids in the bus parked in front of you, you’ll be amazed at how a mirror at home can help you get some laughs and some big cheesy grins from the kids.

5) Use discretion. Use appropriate humor for the appropriate crowd. Although you can stretch the border at a church function, like talking about boys turning their underwear inside out at camp to get another couples of days use out of them, you can’t use off-color language etc.

6) Take a fresh look at life situations. For example, what would a man do if his pants got wet in a “bad” spot after leaning on a sink counter in a public washroom? How would he get over the embarrassment? Hmm… How about using the hot air dryer meant for drying your hands? What would he do if someone walked in while he was drying them?

7) Stare at an object for ten minutes and see how many things you can use it for, or what misfit situations you can get into with it. What can you do with a pair of rubber gloves other than keep your hands dry while you wash dishes etc. with them? Or how about the retractable cup holder that you that you tried to use on your computer? You know, the one that you press the button and it comes out. It’s marked “CD” for “Cup Dispenser”.

8) Things that don’t fit together. A male pastor was asked to say grace at an all-women’s award banquet. After being introduced to say grace, he got up to the microphone and said, “I am totally honored to be here and to accept this award.” The ladies burst into laughter. He continued, “When I got the call yesterday, I thought it was just to say grace or something.” During the laughter, he pretended to listen to someone in his ear piece tell him that he was just called to say grace. Relaying this conversation out loud to the audience he became an instant “hit” in a very short period of time.

That is an example of something that doesn’t fit. A male would never receive an award at a woman’s award banquet, and yes he was just called to say grace and the audience obviously knew that.

9) Learn to imitate other personalities and language accents. Learn how to act like a nerd or speak like an East Indian or Scottish person. Even using an accent for a one-sentence answer to someone’s question can get a laugh.

10) Place yourself in situations that make you come out of your shell. Take chances and experiment.

It takes fewer muscles to smile than it does to frown and if you deliver honest and sincere humor to people, you’ll be placing smiles not only on faces but also in hearts.

You can be funny.

In almost every writer’s fora that there is, the deplorable perennial problem of writer’s block has always been brought up by both professional and amateur creative writers. Some discussions have even gone as deep as defining the nature of writer’s block in the hopes of acquiring counter-active measures should writer’s block, a.k.a. “fear-of-the-blank-page” come up in the middle of a deadline.

What is a writer’s block? On the surface, it is simply a period of non-activity for the writer. A writer or a poet may attempt to write something based on the need to write something, and come up with absolutely nothing creative, if anything at all. What causes a writer’s block and what can be done about it? Here are some thoughts and suggestions:

1. The fear of coming up short from their last project - Collectively speaking, most artists and writers have an obsessive compulsion to concretize and materialize, through their works, abstracted thoughts and ideas. Once they attempt at some work, there is always that fear of producing something despairingly short of what they have intended to create from its original idea, thus, disappointing themselves more than disappointing others. If artistic or writer’s block does not happen prior tot he start of the project, it may also very well occur while the work is in process. This explains why several writers may work on different projects at the same time, jumping from one unfinished work to another, others even abandoning previous works altogether for a new one and ultimately not accomplishing anything in the end.

2. A comeback after a long time off - Vacations and some time off taking care of familial/domestic or personal matters can only have two extreme results: either it rejuvenates, recharges and inspires the writer for the next project, or it completely diminishes or finishes off whatever is left of a prolific and fecund mind! Let’s face it, even professional writers are, first and foremost, human beings before they are writers. And, as humans, brilliant and loving their professions as they may be, writers too are bound to lose footing once they have taken some time off from writing, if not inspired and recharged, as mentioned.

3. Insecurities - Lack of formal training…Being a newbie…The writing style…a friend who’s a better writer…etc., etc., etc., these can all spell one thing: insecurities. Our insecurities can really work nasty for writers and we know there is no other way out other than a paradigm shift or a change in perspective for the writer. We know that there will always be other people more educated, more renowned in the creative writing field, writers who are relatively better than us, other trends and styles in writing which the writer can become unfamiliar and intimidated with, but the bottomline is that it is just a matter of gritting your teeth with some decision-making: to write or not to write? In the first place, if a writer is already too busy being concerned with being a writer rather than actually writing, if a writer writes for some reason other than writing for its own sake, then he/she has no business being a writer at all.

4. Bills to pay, daily tasks, and other small details - Where to get the money for the bills, who brings and fetches the children to and from school, and for writers with actual day jobs, how many deadlines to meet — who can still think of writing? These concerns, to mention only a few, hampers the writer’s writer’s sensitive thoughts. These are practical things that need to be done on the daily basis. On the surface, these concerns may seem harmless to an aspiring writer, but eventually, it dries up the creative writer’s reservoir that needs constant nurturing. This is not to say, however, that children, career and domestic chores and other concerns should no longer be tended to in order to write. Being a great writer does not necessarily entail shunning away from daily practical concerns, in the same manner that a duty-free person does not give you a prolific writer. Difficult for the right-brained writer as it may be, time must be managed, schedules and systems must be established in order to attain the perfect juxtaposition and equilibrium of work (chores and responsibilities) and play (writing).