The National Comedy Center will present comedian Paul Morrissey — performing on stage in Jamestown — as he records his new comedy album in front of a live audience.

Growing up, comedian Paul Morrissey wasn’t good at math, had weird handwriting, but said he was creative.

“I used to write all these weird plays about, you know, there would be, you know, basically like, you know, Lord of the Rings kind of stuff,” he said.

He said there was nothing complicated about the stories, but weird for a 7-year-old boy to write them. He then would have one of his teachers type what he wrote.

“Early on, I had a creative imagination,” Morrissey added.

But then his creative outlet switched to basketball because he fell in love with the sport. Morrissey noted that his 5-foot 7-inch frame invited attention, and a lot of trash talking because opponents didn’t think he had the necessary skills for basketball.

He showed them.

“I just became a really good basketball player, just because I love dribbling and shooting and all that kind of stuff,” the comedian said.

He played basketball at State University at Binghamton where he was a starting point guard. He also played at State University at Cortland, and is still the all-time leading three-point percentage shooter at SUNY Cortland, he said.

“I mean, the silly thing is, you know, I played college basketball, which, if you look at me, I’m very short. I Don’t look that athletic. So it’s usually more confusing than interesting to people when I talk about that,” he said.

Basketball helps him paint a picture of who he is.

And he doesn’t apologize for the humor that he sprinkles in telling you about his life.

While honing his basketball skills, he was observant of other comedians. His influences include George Carlin, David Letterman and Norm MacDonald, and the show “The Kids in The Hall.” To him, MacDonald and Letterman were kind of like broadcasters where they would give their bits like TV news anchormen. MacDonald did serve as a anchor on Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live while Letterman started as a TV weather personality.

Ironically, Morrissey ended up appearing on CBS’s The Late, Late Show and The Late Show with David Letterman. Even more ironic, as a high schooler, Morrissey skipped school to watch a taping of the show.

“I just remember just being there for the taping, you know, and Ed Sullivan Theater home, you’re just like, man, I just want to be a part of this somehow, even if I’m an usher or something. I just want to be like part of the show,” Morrissey recalled.

But after graduating from college, Morrissey turned down an offer to play basketball for the Washington Generals, the team that frequently loses to the Harlem Globetrotters. He ended up doing and internship, and then working in Phoenix for the Fox Network. Next, he moved to northern California where he began a stint as a weekend sports anchor.

“I loved the writing part of it,” Morrissey said.

He was tasked with covering the Oakland Raiders and The San Francisco 49ers.

“I was a New York fan, so I was showing Yankees highlights, and my news director asked ‘what are you doing man?’ I said, ‘these are the teams I like’ and he said ‘you can’t do that.'”

He said for two days a week, he was a news reporter covering a small town where virtually nothing newsworthy happened. He was asked to report on four stories each day. He was stumped on what to cover. So he thought what he was he supposed to do? “What do I do cause a car accident on purpose because there is nothing happening here,” he related.

So he started doing The Daily Show-style news stories at a real station.

“And I think I literally got promoted to sports anchor just so I wouldn’t do those stories anymore. The news director loved it, but the owner of the station did not care for me at all. But the actual anchoring was great.” Morrissey said.

While working as a sports anchor, he went into a comedy club in Sacramento, Calif., and met a future contact. She said he was funny while on the air, and encouraged him to try stand-up comedy to help his broadcasting career. He said she ended up being one of the writers on The Ellen DeGeneres show.

“It was just lucky I met this person, Karen Anderson. And we’re still friends. And you know, she’s still working in L.A. (Los Angeles), and super successful, so I was lucky I ran into her,” Morrissey said.

After about a year or two of doing stand-up while still sports anchoring, he decided to pursue comedy full-time, and he moved to New York City. Shortly after living in NYC, he relocated to Los Angeles.

He keeps his comedy TV clean. He’s not about profanity.

“You don’t need the F-word, if you’re talking about ice cream for an hour or so,” he added.

The National Comedy Center will present comedian Paul Morrissey — performing on stage in Jamestown — as he records his new comedy album in front of a live audience.

Morrissey will perform four shows at the Lucy Desi Museum’s Tropicana Room, Friday, March 24, and Saturday, March 25, at 7 and 9 p.m. Morrissey has headlined clubs and theaters across the country, opened theater tours for Jim Gaffigan and Tom Papa and performed at major comedy festivals including the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal, the Montreux Comedy Festival and the National Comedy Center’s Lucille Ball Comedy Festival. He co-hosted the “Come To Papa with Tom Papa” podcast on Bill Burr’s All Things Comedy Network, has been a writer on projects for CBS and FOX, and has appeared in Nike commercials with NBA star Chris Paul. Morrissey’s latest comedy special, “A Real Humdinger,” now has over 15 million views on YouTube and Facebook.

“I’m hoping people are excited to come out and see it (the show),” he said.

He said when writing a comedy routine or bit, he writes for the ear. “You can’t write like (William) Shakespeare. You have to write it for the ear.”

“I’m really proud of the stuff that I am doing. I really take pride in my writing.”

Morrissey admitted that he is a comedy nerd and he loves documentaries and his dry sense of humor is geared toward the middle class. His advice is simple to anyone wishing to be a comedy writer or a TV writer –get in a routine that gets you writing. “The best advice is don’t listen to too much advice because there is no one-way to get there.” He said if there is something you want to do, find a way to immerse yourself in it, and don’t be afraid to ask for help.

“Telling somebody you want to be a comedian is like telling them you want to be a wizard.”