Most of us aren’t ready to get up on stage and tell some jokes, but does that mean we aren’t funny?

Maybe you were the class clown in school, maybe you simply make yourself laugh so much that you figure everyone else is laughing along. There are few skills quite as nuanced as humor, which is far more difficult than it looks — part of the skill, in fact, lies in making it look effortless even if it’s anything but. And yet some of us have a nagging fear that our loved ones are only humoring us when they laugh at our jokes, which sometimes sound funnier in our heads than they do spoken aloud. If you really want to be sure, maybe it’s time to try an open mic night.