He may perform as Sugar Sammy but his routine hardly consists of sweet nothings. In fact, it's quite something - foul-mouthed, lots of physical humour, and with a political edge that skewers chauvinists.

Sugar Sammy, a stand-up comedy star in Canada, is quite the oddity: an Indian origin comedian, born on a leap day, doing plenty of shows in English in the Francophone Canadian province of Quebec. But for the 39-year-old Montreal-born Samir Khullar, that's routine.

“There still is a big English population here in Montreal and we have English comedy clubs here as well. I started in English because I learnt (comedy) in English. When I was watching stand-up, I would watch it in English. It was very natural for me. Then I started travelling the rest of Canada, the US, the UK, Australia, South Africa, my career took off in English,” he said, in an interview, in between a hectic schedule.

But gradually, he went bilingual: “Eventually, I tried it in French and it worked.” Actually, at times when he does shows for Indian-origin crowds, he also mixes in Punjabi, the language of his parents, and Hindi. As he said, “Punjabi is my mother tongue, that's what we speak at home. I learnt Hindi from watching the movies because my parents used to sit down and make me watch all the Amitabh Bachchan movies. It was a good way of learning.”

Today, he is a brand representative for Apple in Quebec; and, according to Billboard magazine, had the top-selling Canadian tour for a stand-up for the year ending April 2014.

Sammy, who studied at Montreal's McGill University, may speak, or joke, in tongues but he keeps his tongue-lashing for French-language chauvinists of Quebec.

The two sets of shows he has going on concurrently are the bilingual You're Gonna Rire and En Francais SVP! (In French Please!). In 2013 and 2014, he captured the Olivier award for Comedian of the Year in Quebec, unusual for a comic who works in what he describes as “Franglais”, a French-English mix much like Hinglish.

Sammy often quips about Indian stereotypes. Some are pretty personal, like when he jokes his parents think he's actually a doctor and that he's on his rounds when he's out performing. In reality, his parents are his biggest boosters. His father, originally from Hoshiarpur, and his mother, from Una in Himachal Pradesh, are now retired after years of running convenience stores. As Sammy's wont to point out, any visitor to their house, even if he's come to fix the pipes, can't leave without having watched a Sugar Sammy video. But he's cagey about revealing too much about his family or his personal life, including his parents' first names or those of his brother, who recently acquired a real estate license, or his sister, who is studying to be a pastry chef. His relationship status is totally off limits for public consumption. As he explained, “I like to keep that private just because I get enough death threats, I just want to keep them out of it. It's a part of the game. I got one serious one last year in Sherbrooke and it was pretty scary and the police handled it over there. Someone called the ticketing office, ‘tonight we're going to get the federalist clown'.” (A federalist in Quebec is a person who supports being part of the Canadian federation.) That underscores how serious the language divide is in Quebec, though Sammy makes it into a laughing matter.

Sammy has toured India twice; the last time in 2013 for Comedy Central India, and he wants to return. That may have to wait, though, since he's not only a stand up success in Quebec, but also has a hit sitcom, Ces gars-la (Those Guys) on the French V network, that has been renewed for a third season. “It's a buddy comedy between two guys who live in Montreal but come from completely different backgrounds - one comes from a small town near Victoriaville and the other one is born here, of Indian descent, multicultural background. He's bilingual whereas Simon, the other guy is Francophone, unilingual.”

Those thronging to Sammy's sold-out shows or viewing his TV turn obviously don't think of his views as an imposition. But that exaggeration is certainly something he finds he can improve upon.

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