I have just finished taking the Standup comedy course at Humber College. What a lot of fun and definitely out of my comfort zone. The final outcome is a very nervous me (think Beaker from Sesame Street) at an open mic night at Yuk Yuk's.

What do you learn?

Larry Horowitz is the teacher and he brings some 35 years of experience to the classroom. He talks about different genres of humour, laugh points (rather than punchlines), and how to deal with hecklers. Most of the effort was done within student teams and it was amazing to see how 24 perfect strangers could come up with some truly funny stuff. One of my fellow students did this bit about how he his daughter only looks like a 9 year old girl but is really a demon in disguise.

The big thing was to move out of my comfort zone. There I was nervous as hell and standing in front of a friendly audience - I was ready to shake out a new limb!

Am I any funnier?

Well - maybe. I seem to find the humour in more things these days. People laugh more when I come in the room. I liked my bit (a take off on a famous cartoon called Phineas Fart) and my fellow students laughed when I wanted them to.

You can read more about the course on the Humber College Web site.