Jay Leno had Sean Lecomber's material on The Tonight Show, the Comedy Network gave him his own one-hour special, he has stuff on XM Satellite Radio, he's regularly heard on the panel of CBC Radio's The Debaters, he wrote for This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and now he is coming to Prince George for a set of performances this weekend at Sonar.
Lecomber has performed in Prince George in the past but it has been years and he keeps much better company these days. He remembers his mouthy tour-mate getting into a drunken post-gig fight outside a long defunct P.G. strip club, and Lecomber still wishes to apologize to the bystanders in that altercation. He swears he had nothing to do with it.
He's a little bugged that he actually has comedy stories that go back that far. It means he's no longer the new kid on anybody's block.
"There comes a point where you have to say to yourself, woah, I'm a veteran now? How did that happen?" he told The Citizen from his home in the Edmonton area. He had to stop now and then to address the needs of his kids in the background, aged seven and nine. His comedy career is aged 15. See - he's all grown up.
"It's better than driving a forklift. That's what I did before for nine years," he says, still happy to be building material and dragging it out on stage for live audiences all over Canada.
"And having that work background is important because you remember how bad working was. At least I've brightened somebody's day. Even if you're heckling me, you went home thinking you were the funniest guy in the room that night, so one way or another I've made you feel better."
Lecomber has been taking comedy strides, not just walking the treadmill in those past 15 years. He did his first gig in 2003 and by '07 he was the winner of the Just For Laughs festival's Home Grown Award given to Canada's best new comedian. He is a two-time nominee at the Canadian Comedy Awards. He has gotten into some of the big comedy festivals in the country like Halifax, CBC's Ha!, Winnipeg, and comedy clubs all over the nation.
It isn't easy when you have those two kids at home to take care of, but he's drawing on that for material.
"It's material that's not worth it," he jibed himself. "I'm pretty fortunate in that this kind of trip to Prince George isn't normal. I'm gone three days for this, and that's rare. Most of my year is made up of, like, going to Banff mid-afternoon Saturday, then back home so I'm here when the kids wake up. Touring is the young comedian's game. I can go away for two or three days, and even that's kind of pushing it."
What Lecomber does not do is push the comedy. He lets it come easily. He is gifted with versatility in his presentation, and tends to favour the story-joke not the sight-gag or the buzz-phrase, so if you're someone who doesn't like one bit in his show, just wait a little longer and he'll be on to something else.
"It's sort of a buffet - a buffet royale," he said. "Some family stuff, some social commentary stuff, some dirty stuff, some clean stuff, its a bit of everything."
Since he's a bit of everything, he had to blow the whistle on the phone call because he had to get his kids in the car and grab his skates and helmet because he's coaching his son's hockey team. Because, again, material.
He's game-on at Sonar (special guest act Joey Commisso, who has twice been featured on Standup NBC and did a Tedx Talk on the subject of mental health) for two shows tonight and another pair on Saturday.
Get tickets online at the Sonar Comedy & Nightclub website.
