You gotta have heart!!! Nah I'm not singing I'm just saying your comedy has gotta have heart and soul so that it's driven. It's gotta ring and sing for the audience. It's gotta hit them in the funny zone bone. It's gotta have rhythm and beats to it...even while just setting up the punch lines. When you're doing stand up comedy you are a one person band and a one act play all rolled into YOU! That's why it's called YOU-r material...your stage character is the bow for your comedy punch line arrows. 

~When your jokes come from a defined stage character they have just that much more high octane when they hit. 

After all they're there to see somebody be extraordinarily human!  ;)