*ILP+Intro*

__Introduction__ I've always loved comedy, especially stand-up. As a child, I admired how famous stand-up comedians like George Carlin and Jim Carrey were able to easily make up hilarious material and immediately get their audiences laughing. I love {d} the ridiculous way they flail their arms, their uncanny impersonations, and the fact that these people are brave enough to go on stage and perform. I also admire how, no matter what weird or absurd thing comedians do, they never become embarrassed; they're able to laugh at themselves as well as laugh at other things. This whole paragraph should be in past tense because your talking about how you felt as a child or you can say as a child i felt this way. . . Then next sentence now as an eight grader i still love the ridiulous way. . .  I consider myself “funny,” based on the way I make people laugh; it just comes naturally. However, when I think about writing or performing material, I come up blank. It's hard to actually sit down and force yourself to be funny. After thinking, few questions arose in my mind: How did comedians convince their audiences? Where do they come up with their material? What makes stand-up comedy different from other closely related genres of comedy like prop comedy? A few too many question marks in one parapgraph in my opinion try combining some I know that stand-up comedy is usually a single person standing in front of an audience, large or small, and attempting to make them laugh. It takes a brave (and talented) person to do it; a stand-up comedian usually relies on their own talent, unlike some comedians who have a comedic writer to write their acts for them. Comedians' routines can involve short, funny anecdotes from their lives, impersonations, improv, or it can be just string after string of one-liners and jokes. It can be performed anywhere, as long as there's an audience to watch. To me, performing stand-up sounds easy enough; I make people laugh everyday. When I heard that stand-up comedy could be difficult, harsh, and lonely, I was shocked. How could making a crowd of making a crowd of people laugh be harsh or lonely? Were there other aspects to comedy that a lot of people don't know about? Switch this paragraph and the one above it because it will flow a lot better :D This is what I hope to discover as I learn more about my topic; I want to see all of the sides to comedy, good and bad, and see what it is really like for those who perform it.

As always, this is open to any criticism.