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Of course, know your limits in language, sex and humor about specific school staff members. If you go on to a professional career, especially if you perform live in clubs, there are practically no limits as to language and subject matter.

If your routine is scheduled for ten minutes, sit down at your computer and write at least 20 minutes worth of material. Consult friends, family members and, if OK, faculty advisers with that raw script. Then, by yourself or with help, hone the material down to the ten-minute limit. Keep working on it by eliminating unfunny material, improving grammar, shortening sentences and making the jokes and punch lines as sharp as you can.

Then, get together with the comedian who'll do the ten minutes and practice until you both believe it is perfect. If you are the one who will do the stand-up yourself, before you go on to perform live, gather an audience of critical friends and practice the routine in front of them.

If you're a college student or an adult with comedy writing ambitions, the same process should be followed. If, after some real life experience, you really believe you are doing quality work, your next step is to put together a portfolio of comedy routine writings, and a CD or DVD of live performances. Then go looking for talent agency representation. You can find them all listed on the internet, along with instructions on how to make contact. Most are in New York and Los Angeles, so if you live near some agencies, make telephone inquiries, with the intent to ask for appointments for interviews.

The lowest rung on the comedy club ladder is open mike night, but it is also where most of the top comedians and comedy writers get started. The pay is usually zilch, and open mike is when the club allows volunteer comedians to line up, and one by one, appear on stage to give a short, usually five-minute routine.

At the risk of being plastered with tomatoes or heckled by plastered patrons, open mike night it is the battlefield where wanna-be writers and comedians find out very quickly whether they have the skills and guts to go on to a meaningful career. Even if you have talent, your chances of making it big time on stage and TV, as former stand up comedian-writers Ray Romano, Joan Rivers, Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno and others have done, range from zero to about a half of one percent.

However, if you have that fire in your belly, and you know it isn't just heartburn, go for it!

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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