Scared is normal. So is the heckler.
Stage fright, the hour before, being in the room you actually have, the table that won't stop talking, and the night it stops being funny. What the book says, what the comics did about it, and what the studies found. The book's rule for all of it: “Under stress, you fall toward your most practiced version.”
It happens to the good ones
The shaking, the stomach, the blank before the first line — working comics have all of it, some for years. It is not a sign you are in the wrong job. The book: “Write, perform, record, review, and rewrite enough that nerves stop consuming every set.”
The comics who had it from their own interviews on WTF
What do you do when you bomb? their worst night, told on The Tonight Show
What the studies found read on the studies' own pages
A routine you can repeat
“The solution is not pretending you are relaxed; it is reducing decisions.” Five checks you do the same way in every room — your five is below — so there is nothing left to decide when the host says your name.
How close are you to the stage? pick the one you're in
Every room, the same way
“Write a five-item pre-show routine” — the book's own exercise
It stays in this browser, nowhere else.
Cyclic sighing
The room you actually have
“Reading the room means noticing what is actually happening instead of performing the audience you hoped would be there.” Nerves pull you into your head; the room is out there.
Mid-set, and the words are gone you need the next usable line, not a perfect recovery
After the set notes, not a trial
The comics on being there from their own interviews on WTF
Protect the show, not your ego
“A heckler is an interruption problem first and a comedy opportunity second.” Most of the time one short line and straight back to the bit is the whole job — and the room has staff for the rest.
The ladder one rung at a time, and stop at the first one that works
The drunk room
“Write three short boundary lines that fit your voice”
Short, in your own voice, and a way back to the bit. They stay in this browser.
Before the show, once — then remember it
The comics and their hecklers from their own interviews on WTF
When it stops being funny
“Safety outranks the bit.” Threats, a customer coming toward the stage, a fight at a table: “A performer does not need to personally manage a dangerous customer.” For the walk to the car afterwards, see On the Road → Alone out there.