She spent time focusing on how she could conquer fears like swimming with sharks, surviving stand up comedy, and reflecting on her relationship with her boyfriend.

FORBES: What If You Had a Year to Face Your Fears?

He spent the next couple of months going to live comedy gigs and studying comedians like Bill Hicks on YouTube before signing up to do a live stand-up performance himself at a local comedy club.

FORBES: Leadership

Just the other day I watched comedian Patrice O'Neal's stand-up act late one night on Comedy Central.

CNN: Tracy Morgan and the limits of comedy

She took the stage at San Francisco's Purple Onion Club on March 7, 1955, for her first stand-up comedy performance.

CNN: Comedian Phyllis Diller dies 'with a smile on her face'

Listed on the New York stock exchange since 2006, its founder Michael Yu (also known as Yu Minhong), became a multi-millionaire on the back of his blend of rote learning exercises, stand-up comedy and motivational speeches.

BBC: Meet the 'tutor kings and queens'

At first the oddly delightful sensibility of "The Hammer" seems to derive from stand-up comedy -- lots of free-form riffs on topics ranging from toggle bolts to the La Brea tar pits.

WSJ: Performance Lifts 'Same Moon'