It might have been his performances on TV or perhaps it was the clips on YouTube.

Whatever the reason, Sugar Sammy was suddenly a hot commodity in Greater Vancouver. The Indo-Canadian comic has performed here thrice before, but the response was never as rabid as what he experienced in early January at Lafflines Comedy Club in New Westminster, the first leg of a two-month cross-country tour to promote his new CD.

“That's when it exploded,” he said. “The show went crazy and it sold out. The people really came to see me.”

More than 80 per cent of the crowd was Indo-Canadian, a proportion he hadn't seen in Canada before. The show was so popular that Laughlines is bringing him back March 13 to 15.

He's happy to oblige, calling Vancouver his second favorite city in Canada, after his native Montreal. “It's so beautiful,” he said. “I love the weather there. There's a great atmosphere there.”

His performances are a blend of well-polished material and improvisational comedy. Anyone sitting near the stage is a potential target for his razor-sharp wit. And he's bound to flirt with a pretty woman or two, using the type of smooth lines that earned him the nickname “Sugar Sammy” when he was a frat boy in college, otherwise known as Samir Khullar.

A professional since 2004, he has performed on TV several times and is part of an exclusive club of Canadian comics who can draw throngs around the world. He has caused sides to split in Europe, Asia, Africa and, of course, North America. “The only continent I'm missing is Australia and I'm going there in April,” he said.

For a show in South Africa, he sold a staggering 10,000 tickets in just one month. His stardom there went far beyond anything he could have imagined.

Indeed, much like his childhood idol Eddie Murphy, Sammy isn't averse to using colorful language and delving into risqué topics, whether he's suggesting that an audience member is well-endowed or demonstrating how the line “Who's your daddy?” would work with a woman from rural India.

He was only eight-years-old when he got his first exposure to Murphy's raunchy act.

He had persuaded his parents to rent Delirious, one of Murphy's stand-up comedy specials.

But when they heard the language, they tried to stop him from watching it. “Just two more minutes,” he recalls saying to them. As they waited for the two minutes to be over, they started laughing at Murphy's act. Soon the whole family was watching.

“We're all watching it together and we're having such a good time,” he said. “And I was like, wow, this man, in two minutes, got my parents from hating what he was saying to totally loving it and watching his whole set. And I said, ‘I want to do this.'”

He started performing at 19-years-old, soon after high school, and continued to do so while earning a degree in cultural studies at McGill University.

He also worked as a night club promoter, organizing parties around Montreal.

When he tried to be a full-time comic, he struggled for a couple of years and remembers his mom keeping his spirits up. “My mom was like, ‘Keep going. I know it's going to hit for you soon. I know you. You're going to do really well at this.'”

His father, a retiree who once owned several convenience stores, has also been encouraging. “My dad brags about me to everyone, all the family members,” he said. “I don't have those typical Indian parents who will tell you not to do something that's a little bit unsafe or a little bit too liberal.”

It helped that they share his sense of humour, as do his younger brother and sister, who often contribute to his act. “They're funny as hell, both of them,” he said. “They're very good at shaping my material when I'm stuck on something. They've helped me with a couple of key jokes.”

In the last four years, as a professional, he has performed about 1,500 times, sometimes twice or thrice a night. “It really got me good very fast,” he said. “It's not about years, it's about stage time.”

TICKET INFORMATION

Sugar Sammy will appear March 13 to 15 at Lafflines Comedy Club, #26-4th St., New Westminister. For reservations, call 604.525.2262 or go to www.Lafflines.com.