This weekend, HBO showed the special, "Talking Funny," featuring Ricky Gervais, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, and Louis C.K., given the title, talking funny.  With that all-star line-up of comedians, you know it was going to be hilarious...and it was.   But, even more so, it was also about work...the work of comedy and being a comedian.  Topics included:

*What is funny?
*Are there lines that shouldn't be crossed?
*Is profanity necessary (Seinfeld, for example, rarely curses on stage)?
*Is it easy to go on stage and make people laugh?
*Do audiences matter?

Toward the end, they get into a discussion of could the average person do what they do?  It leads into a discussion of professionalism.   As they joked, people play touch football in the backyard, but it doesn't cause us to stop watching professional football.  They further joked that people could likely learn perform surgery at home, but it is simply easier to pay someone with a little more expertise.

Definitely worth checking out if you are a fan of comedy, butto gain insight on another profession and how they work.