Originality is never embraced as quickly as the commonplace.

Evaluate every performance on: stage presence, concentration, delivery, material and lessons learned.

When you take a pause before delivering your punch line, you will be using silence as a creative entity in itself.

Ideally, you want to be in a fifty-fifty power-sharing arrangement with the audience - both of you are there for a mutually enjoyable experience.

It's better to play to the host as though in a real conversation and let the audience listen in- which they are.

Taping yourself and making yourself listen to the tape of each performance no matter how bad is really important. There's always a nugget line or a direction pointed out to you in even the worst show.

Being black and speaking properly are not mutually exclusive. My father was an African, and he spoke beautifully at home. Nelson Mandela speaks beautifully. Should Mandela put his hat on backwards and say, 'Yo, homey, this is Nelson. Yo, Winnie, yo, this is def'?