The president does something outrageous. As soon as you hear about it, you crank up your comedy gears, produce a great joke, and type it into Twitter. But before you hit the “tweet” button, you see someone else just made pretty much the same joke. You didn’t think of it first, and your joke, if you decided to post it at all, is not going viral.

It felt like getting hit by a truck. My fear of going on stage was visceral. The thought of it made my palms sweat. I had zero stand-up experience. Every time I had to chance to try it, I ducked it.

I’ve been writing all my life, I’ve written several books that have ended up on the New York Times bestseller list, and I’ve been writing at least 3-4 books a year lately. So, what’s my writing process?

Conventional wisdom tells us the comedy business is for outgoing people, people who like to laugh and be around others who laugh, people who are the life of the party. But what if you recoil at the idea?

If you really want to get motivated, it’s a good thing you’re reading this. You’ll get all the motivation you can handle in this little article. Are you ready for it? Think you can handle it? Okay…

There’s conventional wisdom brewing on the Internet in recent weeks that Facebook is killing comedy, that their new algorithms are making it difficult if not impossible…….