Back in 85 I was working for a couple of joke labourers in Kentucky - the thing was that joke labouring was getting too much for them, you'd have to go to bars, get really shit-faced and tell the same joke (with slight variations) over and over again to everyone in the bar. You'd also tell the barman a couple of times, then repeat the punchline to yourself and try and work the barman into the joke somehow. It was great work, good times. Then they brought in an entertainment tax and the job went west.
Sometimes, even now, I still meet an apprentice or two on the net.