Forget walking the walk, can you even talk the talk? Do you know what a 'clam' is? How about 'a barrel' or the dreaded 'nakamura'?

These are terms compiled from the writers rooms of Family Guy, The Simpsons, SNL, 30 Rock, Will & Grace and other top TV shows. They're also really useful concepts and principles you can apply to your writing - whether it's a spec or original TV script, screenplay, personal essay, blog or comedy writing in any format.

Click here to get the free Glossary of Writers Terms.

This clip is really fun, but it's also really instructive about stand-up and comedy writing in general. Patton Oswalt delivers a great personally motivated comedy bit about falling in love. Then the ever-vigilant Beth Lapides prompts him to dig a little deeper and he reveals more of the real story and finds comedy gold and a new end to his bit, which will become part of the piece the next time he performs it. Check out the annotated version of "A Nerd in Love" above for specific notes and benchmarks to see how you can make comedy even when things are going well in your personal life - and how much you can do in 3 minutes.

Beth talks to him using the 'back mic', the structural innovation that she created at Un-Cabaret. We set us a second microphone so she can talk to other comedians while they're onstage, to keep them in the moment, to keep the tone conversational, and to push deeper for more comedy. She can do the same for you at the Un-Cab Lab Writing & Performance Workshop, but it's possible to do the same thing for yourself. If you're really on your toes.

Hear more Patton performances on the Un-Cabaret compilation CDs, "The Un & Only" and "the Good, the Bad and the Drugly" and on several episodes of the Un-Cabaret podcast on audible.com.