By Thomas Dimopoulos for The Saratogian

TROY -- It was three years ago, May 30, when Aaron David Ward was seated at his desk, having just another day at the office. On May 31 he was fired from his job. The morning of June 1, Ward woke up and began making jokes. 'Making jokes,' he says, 'was much cheaper than therapy.' Three years later, the jokes have turned into a blossoming career as a stand-up comedian.

'Stand-up,' Ward says, 'is either people laughing, 'Oh God that happened to me' or thinking, 'Thank God -- that hasn't happened to me. It is a release from stress and a relief from pain,' says the Ballston Spa-based comedian.

Sunday afternoon, Ward will join more than a dozen fellow comics in Troy for the Comedy Relief for the Homeless benefit at Russell Sage College.

'The Tonight Show,' with Johnny Carson veteran Kevin Meaney, will headline the event. Meaney's first HBO special was broadcast in 1986, and he has appeared on a number of popular TV shows since. He will be joined by a variety of comedians at the show in Troy.

Popular New England funnymen Jim Lauletta and Freddie Stone are coming in from Boston. Tim Homayon -- who once performed as Anorexic Elvis in front of 20,000 baseball fans at Shea Stadium -- and Tom Padovano, who has written jokes for Joan Rivers and Rodney Dangerfield, are coming from New York City.

Schenectady-based Dee Watson and Glens Falls resident John Briggs will be sharing their routines honed on area stages, and comics Billy Bingo and Mike Goss are arriving from distant corners of New York state. The host of the event is WNYT-TV 13 anchor Jim Kambrich.

Brooklyn-born comedian Stacey Prussman returns to the region where she spent her college years studying her craft.

'I went to SUNY Albany for four years and majored in theater,' says Prussman, who has appeared on the Howard Stern show four times as well as on 'Saturday Night Live.'

'There are a lot of comic parts in the theater, and it taught me how to be more comfortable onstage. Plus, I write my own material, so it's like you're the writer and the performer and the audience is your ensemble,' she says. 'It's both unpredictable and exciting.'

For Ward, it is also a return of sorts. A self-professed 'dork,' Ward was born in Troy in 1971 and in the three years since his firing, his new career as a stand-up comic has taken him to stages at Caroline's, The Comic Strip Live in New York City, and the famous Comedy Store in Hollywood, Calif.

'This month is my third anniversary, but I still consider myself to be a developing comedian,' Ward says. 'It takes a long time to get really good at it, but I will perform at open mics three or four times a week, in addition to being booked once or twice month as a feature act.'

Ward says the key to being a successful funnyman is endlessly working on the material and honing his abilities. 'It's like intellectual bodybuilding. You have to go to the gym every day to stay sharp. Stand-up is like that and I want to be really good at stand-up.'

The craft and the art is a twofold process, centered on the material and focused on the delivery in front of a crowd, according to Ward.

'My act is based on the eternal struggle between good and evil within each one of us,' Ward says. 'And I take great pride exploring that on stage in front of people. I'm fascinated by human behavior, so for me, most of my material is observations about my own foibles or problems,' he says. 'It's certainly cathartic. Comedy is relief from pain; a relief from your own worries and self-doubts, and a release of stress from things that are part of the human experience.'

The one area of stress Ward continues to keep close is the anxiety of performing onstage.

'Nervousness is a necessity for performing,' says Ward, who admits to having obsessive-compulsive tendencies.

'The nervousness means you care. It makes you sharp going out on the stage,' he says, while pondering the unthinkable. 'If I wasn't nervous before going out onstage, I think I would just become completely obsessed about it.'

Comedy Relief for the Homeless is at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Schacht Fine Arts Center at Russell Sage College, 45 Ferry St. Reserved seats are $35 for adults and $25 for students with a valid ID. General admission is $14 to $20. The event will benefit Joseph's House & Shelter in Troy. For more information, call 272-2544, ext. 15, or visit www.josephshouseandshelter.org.