Samir Khullar has worked most of his 36 years to become the red-hot comic known as Sugar Sammy. Born and raised in a nurturing Indian immigrant family in the multicultural Montreal cauldron of Côte des Neiges, Sammy caught the class clown bug early, and never shook it off. Funny but no fool, he backed up years of grinding it out on the stand-up comedy circuit with degrees from Marianopolis College and McGill University. But even in the hallowed halls of academe he kept his eye on the prize. A bracingly bright comedian with piercing observations about race, sex and the foibles of modern life, Sammy earned his McGill sheepskin in cultural studies. “I'll do anything to enhance my career,” he says.

His star has been in steady ascension in this new millennium, with multiple appearances at the Just for Laughs Festival, a game-changing 2006 TV special on the Comedy Central network, and world-wide tours that exercise his fluency in English, French, Punjabi and Hindi. But 2012 will be remembered as the year that broke Sugar Sammy wide open. His You're Gonna Rire show was originally conceived as a one-off night of comedy in both French and English, unique to the bilingual denizens of Montreal. “We were dreaming of maybe doing 10 dates,” he recalls now. “The first show sold out in 30 seconds. We had sold nine by the first weekend.” At last count, 45 shows have been booked and filled, meaning an astonishing 45,000 people have signed on to see Sammy and laugh. Other cities have also expressed interest in an adapted version of the show. For Sammy, the greatest thing about the unexpected turn of events is spending real time in his own town after five straight years on the road. That and getting eight solid hours of sleep a night in his own bed in his parents' Hampstead home. At last, he's had time to think about the city he loves.

“My earliest memory is being 3 years old. My dad had a dépanneur in Decarie Square with my uncle. It was a family business. I was with my cousin, who was 4, in my uncle's delivery van. He went to bring in merchandise and left us in the van. We'd seen him drive it and we thought we knew, too. I said ‘I'll steer and you hit the pedal with your foot.' It was such a clever idea, but the van started going in reverse. My uncle had to run after us. We got yelled at pretty hard and I got mad at him. For weeks I wouldn't talk to him. That's my earliest memory. I wanted to drive the truck.

“We were renting a small apartment in Côte des Neiges from a woman in her huge house on édouard Montpetit Blvd. When we moved to another bigger apartment in a real building, I remember crying because I didn't want to leave the house where I grew up. I think I was about 4.

“So my dad took me back to the old place to show me it was empty. He knew I would bother him about the move forever. I saw it, and said ‘O.K. Let's go live in the new place.' He didn't have to do that. But he was cool and a sweet guy, and he always took time to explain.

“We were three kids. I'm the eldest. I have a younger brother and a baby sister – she's nine years younger than I am and will always be a baby sister to me. We're a really tight family. I remember pre-k school and the shuttle bus. It was awesome! I went to Collège International Marie de France for two years. We weren't rich but my parents tried so hard to give us a good education. It was tough, and we couldn't afford it. So I went to Iona public school, near the Snowdon métro. It was great. I learned how to play hockey and soccer and started to absorb all these different cultures. I had a crush on my third-grade teacher. She was gorgeous. And we got free milk!”

See photos by clicking:

http://www.urbanexpressions.ca/my-montreal/story/sugar-sammy#sInstRecentMediaWid[contentgall]/5/