Alright I got some time to kill, I'll lay down what little I've learned from being on stage (I am NOT a seasoned comic, I've done it a few times to good/bad reviews). First off, where are you in NC iron? You near Winston Salem? If you are even 1-2 hours away from there, go to
this place on the last Thursday of every month. Open mic comedy night, 5 minutes per person and free to get up on stage. GREAT crowd and a lot of great comics there to welcome newcomers to the fold. If you can't get there, most major cities in NC (Raleigh, Greensboro, Durham, Charlotte) have open mic nights at comedy zones (or other comedy clubs), check into that.
Here's my biggest piece of advice, just get on stage. Nothing anyone can tell you can prepare for you to get on stage and be FUNNY for 5-10 minutes. It's HARD. I thought it would be easy to be on stage cracking jokes when I do that all the time while talking to people in social situations. This is completely different than standing on stage and trying to be funny continuously for 5-10 minutes. It's a rush from hell but it can also be brutal as shit. I loved it and love doing it, I just took a break from it to really get myself to a place where I can really hit it hard (I'd love to do it professionally).
I can't tell you how to be a good comic, except to practice, practice, practice. One comic told me that the only way to get good at this is just get up in front of a mic every chance you can and just talk. It doesn't have to be a comedy night, open mic nights are every where, as long as you don't mind being stuck in between a douchebag with a guitar and some fucking hipster reading a poem about his gf's dog.
Be prepared to bomb. Period. It will happen.
Figure out what kind of comic you are, figure out your style on stage. I'm a story-teller. I tell a longer story and make little jokes in the story to lead up to a larger punchline. You maybe be a jokeslinger (these are not industry terms, don't quote me on this) who just likes to setup jokes and hit them with punchlines like bullets from an automatic weapon. Figure out how you like to tell jokes and practice.
I have an iphone with a note in the noteapp that has little fragments of jokes I made while conversing with people day-to-day. If I say something funny or think of something funny, I jot it down and flesh it out later. It helps. Just don't let The_jazz know about your jokes, he steals them like a motherfucker. It can be an act/lifesaver having a lot of jokes/stories/whatever ready in your head if your planned act isn't going over that well.
Pratice Pratice Pratice.
If I think of anything else, I'll edit/add another post on here. Seriously, just go do it. It's like bungee jumping, it's an adrenaline rush from hell.