A.

The secret I had to keep

B.

Learning through observation

C.

How I suddenly became a star performer

D.

A painful but important lesson

E.

Then it happened again

F.

The most important skill of all

G.

How I first realized I could be a comedian

H.

Losing my first job

1.  .

I left school when I was seventeen. Even though I didn't have the right qualifications, I managed to find a job as a secretary in a private bus company. Then the company was taken over by a bigger company that cut back on running costs and laid thirty people off, including me.

1. _____

My older sister was sharing a small flat with two other girls in London. She agreed to put me up until I found a job and a place of my own there. At first, things didn't seem too bad. I soon got a part-time job in a video shop, but I didn't get on with my boss. After I'd been there for a week, we had a terrible row and I walked out.

1. _____

I didn't say a word about this to my sister. I pretended to go to work every day. I got up every morning, just as usual, and then walked the streets. I even stopped people and asked them for money. I wasn't too proud to do that, even though I was too proud to tell my sister what had really happened. I knew that if I told her, she'd tell my parents back home and they'd insist that I come back to live with them. I just couldn't let them know.

1. _____

Then I found another part-time job selling drinks at the bar of a comedy club in South London. One evening, one of the acts was a man imitating famous people. The manager of the club happened to be standing next to me and asked me what I thought of the act. I said 'It's terrible. I could do better myself!' I meant it, too. I'd always been good at doing things like that and making people laugh at school, but it had never occurred to me until then that perhaps I could actually make a living that way.

1. _____

I wish I could say that all my troubles ended there, and that the manager immediately gave me a chance and I was huge success. What really happened was that I spent a year working every evening at the bar. I learned as much as I could by watching the performers.

1. _____

Then I got a chance to do my own act at another club in Brighton. To be honest, at first I was awful. I quickly learned it isn't enough to imitate famous people. You have to make the audience laugh at the same time and that's a thousand times more difficult.

1. _____

Since then, I've learned a lot about the art of timing. You have to get your timing as sharp as a razor. Just before the 'punch line' - the words the audience is supposed to laugh at - a good comedian slows down just a little, and pauses so slightly that you're hardly aware of it. You don't notice it at all if a performer is really good. Comedy is sometimes very hard work, I can tell you!