Growing up Marc Juretus was always cracking jokes and making his friends laugh. He toyed with the idea of doing professional stand-up comedy, but never had the time to pursue it. Then he met an entertainer named "Raymond the Amish Comic" at the fitness center where they both worket out. Raymond liked Juretus' sense of humor and asked him to put together an opening act for his show. That was his break into the comedy scene and his shortcut around all the "Open-Mike" nights that most new standup comics have to endure.

By the third or fourth time Juretus worked with Raymond he was performing in front of a crowd of 700. The he got an agent. Steve Bix, owner of the Whitehall-based business Comedy Blast Inc. took Juretus under his wing and has been helping him polish his act.

"After only 50 times on stage, he has the poise and the funny of somebody doing comedy about three or four years," Bix said. In addition to putting on oa regualr schedule of stand-up comedy nights at the Ramada Inn, Comedy Blast also has traveling acts that can be used as fund-raisers for nonprofit organizations. Juretus has gained stage experience by performing at fire halls and similar venues on Friday and Saturday nights. The job takes him all over Pennsylvania and New Jersey. "It's a lot of fun, and its keeps me out of trouble," he said.

He started out doing five minute spots and is now an emcee for the shows. That means he does a 15-minute warm-up act, along with bits between the other performers' acts.

Juretus grew up in Allentown and now lives in Hokendaugua. "There's a lot more that goes into being a comedian than meets the eye," he said. He draws on his own experiences in coming up with jokes, e-mailing himself ideas as he thinks of them.

An admirer of professional comedian Dave Chapelle, Juretus is a high energy who uses obscenities a little too frequent for his mother's taste. Because of that, she stays home from most of her son's shows, but loves to give him ideas for jokes.

Juretus has the same basic act for each performance, but he adds in a few new bits each time to see if they work. In this way, his act is constantly being refined to make it funnier. His goal is to come up with two new bits a week and try them out on the weekend.

"It's not as easy as people expect," he said. Prepared material is only part of a good performance. He augments it with improvised crowd work - mocking something about the appearance or behavior of people in the audience. Some nights the audience responds better to that kind of humor, so he plays it up for them. Other nights, they just wanna hear an act.

Since he has been performing, Juretus has picked up tips from other Comedians. For example, he has learned how to effectively use body language and delivery to pack the most punch into a joke. "The shorter the bit, the better it works," he said, pointing out that people are going to be disappointed by a joke with a weak punch line after a long setup, but it's easier to recover from a short joke that bombs because the audience hasn't invested a lot of attention in it. He likes that, through comedy , he can have a positive impact on strangers. "When you have a good set you made someone's day," he said. To book Juretus or other comedians for a fund-raiser, contact Steve Bix at the Comedy Blast Inc. 1-800-865-2844.