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Most fledgling stand-up comedians resort to a day shift at Applebee's or selling their bodies to sketchy science experiments to make ends meet. Rory Albanese's day job is a bit more creative. As writer and executive producer of The Daily Show, Albanese helps craft the material that has made the show one of the most insightful and astute programs on television.

Since 1999, the same year he started on the show, Albanese has also been honing his stand-up act, touring around the country with Lewis Black and performing both alone and with Daily Show correspondent John Oliver. 2010 should be his busiest year yet, with the comic getting his own Comedy Central special in March and working with Oliver on a recently signed film deal with Paramount. Albanese gave YRB the scoop on what he's got planned ahead of him.

YRB: As writer and executive producer of The Daily Show, do you ever stop and think that you have the job a million people want?

Rory: I actually do. I love my job and don't ever take it for granted. That was the joke of the whole [Comedy Central] special. It was cool to tape the special but it wasn't like, "Now maybe I'll get one of those cool jobs at a show that I like." I'm at the exact show I want to be at, working with the exact people I want to be working with. I started here 10 years ago as a production assistant and worked my way up. I've tasted this show at every level.

YRB: How did the two jobs come about?

Rory: It happened around the same time, around 10 years ago. I wanted to do stand-up, but it was weird to come out of four years of college and then explain to my parents that I was going to become a comedian. I felt like if I justified it with some kind of production job or comedy-based job where I actually had a salary, they'd be happy. Though a PA job at The Daily Show meant I was eating a lot of hot dogs. I had no industry connections. They were so desperate to hire a PA because someone had just quit, that by the time I got back home and hit play on my parents' answering machine, it was them. So much of it is luck. They just needed somebody, and I was normal. Then I started doing stand-up because I wanted to have a creative outlet. As my job became more creative, I had already gotten so good at stand-up that I didn't want to quit doing it.

YRB: What's the biggest difference between the two gigs?

Rory: You can write a joke on The Daily Show and you know Jon's going to deliver it perfectly or rewrite it and make it better. You can hide behind how good he is. When you do stand-up, it's between you and the audience. That's what I like about it. There's no excuses and you can't put it on anyone else. If you look at it statistically, if you bat .300, you're awesome. Which means 70 percent of the time, your jokes suck. A lot of times, I'm writing jokes at nine in the morning that I personally am cutting at four in the afternoon. I'm saying, "Man, 9 A.M. Rory isn't that funny." Or maybe 4 P.M. Rory is just a dick.

YRB: You recently taped your first Comedy Central Presents special. Was that more intimidating than a normal show, or did it feel like any other gig?

Rory: It was really intense and scary at first because I've never really done anything on TV, especially for stand-up. Stand-up's a weird thing because you never feel great even though people tell you it's good. It was less a celebration and more a relief that it was over.

YRB: Did you have the set all planned out or were you able to alter it based on the crowd?

Rory: My first impulse when I got the special was to practice my stuff so much that it became robotic. I happened to have the fortune of having access to the brains of some of the best stand-ups in the world like Jon Stewart, John Oliver and Lewis Black, and the advice they gave me was, ‘This is no different than doing any other gig, so enjoy it and have fun.’ That put me in the right mindset of, “Don't just become a robot and get through your material.” The walk to the microphone seemed ridiculously far for me. But once I settled in, I just started having fun. I knew my act and I knew what was going to get on the air and what wasn't. And I stopped worrying about edit points and just tried to have a good show. For me, it was just about killing in the room and I had a lot of friends and colleagues from work. Jon was there, so I really just wanted them to see that I could do it.

YRB: Having them there didn't make you more nervous?

Rory: It made me more nervous in one sense, but in the other sense, it made it more of an accomplishment because it felt like I killed two birds with one stone. Anyone I cared about seeing me was there. They saw me do well so however it comes out edited, I don't really care that much.

YRB: Will Jon and Lewis tell you if it's bad?

Rory: Jon and I don't cross stand-up paths very often, but I was using him as a resource and just asking his opinion on prepping for a major event. It's funny when you're talking to a guy who's hosted the Oscars and you're going, “I got this 30-minute special. I'm really nervous.” And he's like, ‘Yeah, man. I've hosted the Oscars. I know a thing or two about being nervous and people actually watching it.’ [Laughs] He's taught me so much about comedy in terms of having a point of view, knowing where to edit your jokes, etc. Lewis took me out on the road with him and gave me a lot of the lessons like, ‘I'm going to take you to this place and you're going to bomb and you're going to learn to bomb.’

YRB: You've won four Emmys for your work on The Daily Show. Tell me about the Emmy after-parties?

Rory: [Laughs] Comedy Central always throws a great party, and maybe it's because I don't do drugs, but the parties always devolve into a karaoke bar instead of an orgy. Or it's happening and people just don't want me at the orgy. It is fun walking around partying and holding this big ol’ statue and strange people are coming up to you like, ‘Oh my God, can I take a picture?’ It's never turned into what I pictured, though, which is walking down Hollywood Blvd. at 6 A.M. with my bowtie open. No one knows who we are, but you'd think an Emmy would get you into any party. It can't. If I showed up at the HBO party, they'd be like, ‘We don't care. There's a lot of Emmys in here.’

YRB: You just snagged a film deal with Daily Show correspondent John Oliver. Do you have experience dealing with the Hollywood machine?

Rory: I'm from Long Island and John's from England so neither one of us is like a L.A. type of guy. We work next to the horse stable where they keep the horses for Central Park. Our offices smell like horseshit. We'll be in a meeting in Jon Stewart's office and as we're talking to him, the horses will stick their heads out the window. We're so far removed from that world, which is great. We're not really doing it for the BMWs. I just want one of those jobs where when my alarm goes off in the morning, I'm not pissed. I also really believe that so much of this industry is based on luck, so you ride the wave when it comes and when it doesn't, I'll do some stand-up in some shitty places around the country and eat some mac and cheese again.