So you want to be a comedian but you don't know a knock-knock joke from improv?

Joe Flaherty, former SCTV comedian turned comedy teacher, has some advice for you: Take funny lessons.

The former star of the improvisational troupe that produced some of the best Canadian comics of the 1970s and '80s says learning comedy is like learning anything else.

"I liken it to music. You can take singing lessons or you can study music if you play the violin or something like that," Flaherty says.

To Canadians, Flaherty is perhaps best known for his role on SCTV as Guy Caballero, the Argentine owner of the fictional Channel 109. He also played Count Floyd as the unwilling host of Monster Chiller Horror Theater, the local kiddie creature feature.

When he's not working in Los Angeles, Flaherty will be teaching a new series of workshops on how to be a comedian at Toronto's Humber College.

The weekend workshop promises to educate the aspiring comic in the basics of making people laugh, including stand-up, sketch comedy, writing for television and film, acting, and improvisation.

For writers, Flaherty is also teaching a 30-week script writing course through correspondence.

But Flaherty warns potential students that while the basics of comedy can be taught, the funniest and most successful in the business will have to have a natural ability to make 'em laugh.

"You've got to innately have an ear for it. You can't teach someone to sing who is tone deaf," Flaherty says.

Flaherty made his feature-film debut in the 1976 movie Alex and the Gypsy. He has subsequently gone on to play small character roles in numerous films, including Happy Gilmore (1996) and Who's Harry Crumb? (1989).

While Flaherty may make it look easy -- he's won two Emmy Awards for writing on SCTV -- he warns that it's a tough business to succeed at.

"Comedy is very tricky," he says. "You start with some sort of a comedic take on life. And then you just apply it in whatever way you like best to do that."

Through the comedy lessons, Flaherty also teaches comedians when to spot trouble while up on stage. So what's the the telltale sign that helps you know when you're bombing? When the audience smiles but doesn't laugh.

"That's the worst, when you get a smiling crowd that enjoys the show but don't laugh," he says. "You need that automatic feedback, that laughter. And boy, I tell you that's when you start panicking, when you don't get it."

A special sneak preview of Flaherty's workshop can be seen in Toronto on Oct. 30 at Humber College. Tickets are $15 with all proceeds going to United Way.