As the Emerson College Comedy Showcase hits the Comedy Studio in Cambridge Dec. 7, Emerson alums Denis Leary and Jay Leno shared their secrets to performing comedy with the Boston Herald.

DENIS LEARY

What is it like to perform stand-up?

Stand-up comedy is like boxing. Instead of fighting one person you’re fighting a whole room full of people, the energy is the same in that you’re on your own and you’re full of fear because when you’re about to step up there you’re scared out of your wits. But the best thing that can happen to you is to get a punch in to feel that adrenaline.

When you get the first laugh, I don’t care if it’s in the first or second round, then you’ll walk away having that first hit. It’s like crack. It will hit you in the stomach and stay with you. Even if the rest of your material bombs, after that first laugh you’ll figure out whether or not you have the addiction. If you do have it, you’ll want to go back and get it again. A true comedian who has the hunger and desire and need will get back up there. At some point you’re going to bomb, but it’s true that that is the best thing for you. I know it’s a cliche, but in stand-up you have to bomb so you can figure out how not to bomb.

What advice do you have for up-and-coming comedians?

The best thing I could say to them is, pray that you don’t make it for a while, the longer you do it the better you get and the more distinct your voice will become. Eventually you’re going to have to go to New York or L.A. for any type of show business, but you want to make sure you have a solid act and solid point of voice so that when you get up on stage that night and some agent or studio head or manager asks about you, you have lots of material.

We would go out every night, we would perform for free just to get the stage time. I was a struggling actor and when there was no stage time, stand-up was my savior because I knew I could get onstage at the Comedy Connection at least twice a week and get some experience. You have to get up onstage every night no matter how late it is. I wouldn’t get onstage until 1 in the morning, but I didn’t care, I just wanted to try my ideas out.

JAY LENO

What advice do you have for up-and-coming comedians?

Try to get up anywhere you can. I took a number of courses in speech that had an oral exam at the end of the year, and I would put together a comedy routine. That was really helpful for me. The stage is not a normal place. The trick is to make it normal, you need to get onstage as often as you can. You need to get to the point where getting onstage and being offstage is the same thing.

I perform a couple days a week and I like to perform because it’s normal to be onstage. I always meet guys who want to be comedians and I ask them, ‘How often do you work?’ They say ‘once or twice a month.’ I say, ‘It’s not going to happen, you need to write every day and perform.’

When I was at Emerson I used to drive every night to New York City. I would leave at six or seven and get there at midnight, just to perform for 15 minutes. Then I’d drive back to make class the next morning.

If you really want to be a performer, don’t get a real job. When I was in Boston I was working clubs, and so were a bunch of friends of mine. And they might have wanted a nicer apartment, so they would take a job as a waiter. And then there would be an audition and they’d say ‘I can’t go. I have to work.’ The first 15 years of my life I lived out of a suitcase and I never cared what the money was.

I would perform at the Beachcomber in Revere and they would flick cigarettes at me and light my jacket on fire. It was awful at the time, but it was a great experience. I learned how to be onstage while a guy was breaking bottles in the corner, and that’s the real trick, you need to work under the worst possible circumstances.

By Joshua Walovitch

Re-posted from BostonHerald.com