OK, I got one for you. Ready? What do you get when you cross a comedian with a track shoe?"

(A cricket begins to chirp. Dead silence follows and lingers in the air like must from an attic.)

"A running joke. Get it? Running joke!"

(A finger taps the head of the microphone.)

"Um ? hello? Can you hear me out there? Is this thing on?"

Looking out into the crowd from center stage, through the smoky air and blindingly bright stage lights, are a dozen strange eyes and blank faces that meet the punch line. Thoughts of a lacking crowd response lead to sweaty hands and a racing mind.

Everyone is waiting for an excuse to laugh.

It's just another stage time no comedian wants to recall, but all have experienced. It's the horror of "bombing" - just one more odd against a comedian who's trying to perfect his or her craft.

"If you don't know what you're doing, it'll kill you," comedian Al Katz said with a chuckle.

Whether performing just for the fun of performing or for a career choice, bombing, bad timing, awkward audience moments and even drunken hecklers are all important landmarks on the path a comic must take.

Marc Ratner, an MSU graduate, began working at Connxtions Comedy Club, 2900 N. East St. in Lansing, while attending MSU.

From that point, he was drawn to the stage, eventually participating in open-mic nights, getting stage time as an emcee and traveling to other comedy clubs.

"I love being on stage, telling jokes and messing with the audience," he said. "You're basically being paid to be a smartass.

"What better job is there?"

Ratner said being a comedian is all about perseverance.

"The ratio of people who are amateurs starting out that make it on TV is comparable to the number of high school and college athletes that make it to the pros," he said.

While many local comedians consider their time on stage to be a release of the week's stress or just another unique hobby, some take it as a serious career pursuit.

"It's such an unusual occupation, based on someone else's sense of humor," local comic Dan Carmichael said.

"The worst thing is that what you think will get a big laugh doesn't always," Carmichael said. "And the jokes you love don't always get the best response- it's kinda confusing."

Carmichael looks back on the first time he took the stage for both confidence and motivation.

"The first time I did this, I got up on stage for a talent show. It went really well," he said. "I was shaking the whole day.

"I just wanted to have the same experience again."

Carmichael left Tri-State University in Indiana to pursue a career as a comedian. He began work at Connxtions last fall and performs at the club's weekly open-mic nights.

"I tried college, and it wasn't for me," he said. "This is my path."

Open mic: Standing in the spotlight

The basis of almost every comedian's career can be traced back to his or her first five minutes of fame, coupled with fear, on stage at an open-mic night. From that point on, success sparks spending even more time in the spotlight.

"Every comedian that I know started out doing an open-mic night somewhere," said Frank Stevens, owner of Connxtions Comedy Club.

Two local comedy venues, Connxtions and The Comedy Zone at Trippers in the Frandor Shopping Center, offer open-mic nights in the area as an opportunity for amateurs to experience the stage and for others to master their material.

Stevens and Carmichael co-organized the "Be the Emcee" 10-week comedy competition at the venue, which will offer a week's worth of stage time to a winning comedian.

"I like to keep my fingers on the new talent out there," Stevens said.

Joe Johnson, a 2000 University of Michigan graduate, has performed at open-mic nights across the state and is working to establish the same exposure and entertainment opportunity for students at a venue close to campus.

"I'd do (comedy) for free," he said. "I've got a pretty good job, but it's like office space, you know. You've got to go out and do something that makes you excited about living."

Trippers opened The Comedy Zone adjacent to the sports bar in late October and Johnson came to the owner with a plan of action for another local open-mic night this spring.

Lizz Riley, another statewide performer, held her own stage time at The Comedy Zone during the first open mic night on Feb. 18.

Riley began her career as a comic last April when she and 10 other people from her MSU Evening College comedy class performed on stage at Connxtions.

"It scared the crap out of me - but I liked it." she said. "I got people laughing and kept doing it."

Improv: Think fast

To keep from chaos on stage, improvisational comedy structures performances into games with specific restrictions on talking, actions and time.

Economics masters student Max Brown has been interested in comedy since his childhood, when he used to watch a British version of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?," an improvisational comedy show.

"We try to make it look like there's nothing to what we do up there," Brown said. "But that's not the case."

The Sketchy People, a local improv group, practices two hours weekly, rehearsing the structure of the games and developing better interaction with each other and the audience.

"We give each other off-the-wall suggestions and try to stump each other," said Adam Sanborn, a first-year member and computer engineering sophomore.

Brown now has been involved in improv comedy for about seven years and has been a member of The Sketchy People for more than three years.

"It's more exciting than stand-up, because each show is completely different," he said. "It's more challenging and well-structured for sophisticated involvement."

Brown said many people don't understand the nature of improv style.

"You need to have a very wide repertoire at your hands rather than jokes about guys and girls and how they don't get along," he said about the reactive nature of improv. "The rest of comedy is very narrow."

Movin' on up: Making it happen

Variance in style and determination to analyze the science of comedy is what has kept many local comedians involved and working their hardest to make it big.

Jody Serafin, 25, began doing improvisational theater and took classes at The Second City in Detroit. He does regular shows at Connxtions Comedy Club in Toledo, Ohio, the Lansing club's counterpart, and at Chaplin's Comedy Club in Roseville.

Serafin took a class that focused on stand-up comedy, and graduated the system.

"You can teach someone the formula, but you can't teach them how to be funny," he said. "That comes from the heart."

Serafin said that his "bits" mostly are based on personal experiences. He works toward creating new material every day.

Stand-up comedy is a steppingstone toward his career in television, he said.

"Stand-up is not a good living, but it could be if you're successful," Serafin said. "It's a cutthroat business, and it shouldn't be, but there's a lot of politics involved in it."

Serafin said he aspires to be a cleaner comedian like Bill Cosby, and add even more creativity and sound effects to his material.

"I will be successful at this," he said. "I know I have enough originality."