They’re pretty easy to spot. As soon as they enter a room, others watch with anticipation, anxiously awaiting their first words.

Always turning heads and capturing ears, they are envied by their peers for their ability to transform random situations into immediate hilarity.

And yes, most comedians naturally love the attention.

Contrary to most speculations, comedic talent isn’t necessarily a personality type. It’s often a learned skill, but not the kind that can be learned from books.

There are, however, certain guidelines and techniques that can be followed to create the perfect joke.

“Grandma Mojo’s Moonshine Revival” cast member Ben Godar said the process begins with learning how to look at normal things from a kooky perspective.

“In general, I notice something around me that sort of strikes me as funny, such as a person or character,” Gobar said. “It’s the littlest things that you notice that hardly anyone else notices.”

And most comedians aren’t too picky when it comes to choosing their subject matter. Roll-on-the-floor hilarity can be built around the most ordinary of situations, such as walking to class with an overloaded backpack, drinking from a water fountain that hardly spits out any water or trying to study when the guy next door is banging on his drums.

After the subject of the joke has been established, the comedian’s next task is to find a way to elaborate the subject matter.

“We see something unusual, then we heighten it,” Josh Bryner, co-founder of “Grandma Mojo’s Moonshine Revival” said. “Hopefully comedy will ensue.”

“Heightening” something often results in a joke that can be excessively unpredictable and possibly illusory.

A scenario that includes a Department of Public Safety officer giving innocent students parking tickets may not seem very funny. But when the plot is heightened, the scenario might include an intoxicated DPS guy riding a moped across town in his pajamas, smoking a french cigar and giving people parking tickets out of sheer enjoyment.

As a subject matter is heightened, and more details are added, the joke suddenly becomes a complicated endeavor and the likelihood that the comedian will forget some of the details becomes greater.

Although many jokes are established before they are told, the possibility always exists that the comedian’s mind will draw a blank at the most inopportune time. Due to this possibility, there exists the phenomenon of improvisation.

“Improvisation is usually just something that comes in your head and just pops out of your mouth,” Bryner said.

In the world of improvisation, nothing is too preposterous, silly or bizarre. The last line of a disastrous punch line can be transformed into the first line of a Broadway hit, or the characters in an exhausting joke can instantly take on native accents from a hidden island in the Caribbean. Because of its sporadic nature, improvisation has the potential to make or break a joke.

Jason Taylor, member of “Grandma Mojo’s” said improvisation is more likely to improve a dwindling situation than make it worse.

“A lot of the funniest things that happen are when people don’t know their lines,” Taylor mused.

Comedy is often produced as a result of improvisation, though there is never a guarantee that the comedian’s sense of humor will be identical to the sense of humor of those he is trying to entertain. There always has been the issue of conflicting sense of humors — an issue dreaded by everyone in the business of making people laugh.

When a joke doesn’t have a prayer for success, Bryner said the best way to preserve one’s reputation as a comedian is to revert to the oldest trick in the book.

“You have to get louder and more obscene,” Bryner said. “That’s what you revert to when things aren’t going well.” But even though obscenity may be an easy way to pull a joke out of a hole, Godar said it isn’t always the most respectable route to take. Cleverness takes thought and skill, while obscenities can be thrown around by anyone.

“There’s a time and a place for those things,” Godar said, adding that in desperate times, “you can kind of shock the audience into laughing with profanity.”

Yes, even comedians sometimes have to take the easy way out to successfully get the job done. But it’s difficult to get mad at someone who’s ultimate goal is to put a smile on the face of another person.

“I think it’s a shame that more people don’t think of themselves as funny, cause everybody is funny,” Godar said. “I think it’s a shame that people who are loud and outgoing are the only ones people think are the funny people.”