Hailing from Glace Bay, N.S., Ron James calls himself a “Cape Bretoner by birth, and Canadian by trade,” and he proves it every time he opens his mouth—after 29 years in Toronto, he’s never lost that distinctive East Coast accent.

These days, James is one of Canada’s top comics. He sells out theatres across the country, and has written and performed a remarkable five CBC specials, which became bestselling DVDs. But it hasn’t exactly been an easy climb to the top.

In 1981 James joined Toronto’s Second City as a “mean, hungry young satirist.” After a decade of improv with that storied organization, plus commercials and other small parts, James headed to L.A. in 1990 to do a TV pilot for Ron Howard’s production company. It didn’t succeed, and he spent a tough year auditioning, but not landing much work.

He did manage to mine comedic gold from the experience, returning to Canada to write and perform an acclaimed one-man show, Up and Down in Shakeytown: One Man’s Journey Through the California Dream. It was a resounding success, and he’s never looked back.

James recently spoke to Lifestyle from Edmonton, where he just wrapped up 25 Western dates in five weeks. What did he have to say?Well, there’s no way we could improve on his own words...

Lifestyle magazine: How did you make the switch from acting and improv to comedy?

Ron James: I saw two specials when I was broke in Los Angeles. I was sitting in the living room and I laughed so hard I woke my daughter up. One of them was Dennis Miller’s first special, Black and White, and the other was a Billy Connolly show. I liked Billy’s tartan embrace of the tribe — who he is and where he’s from. And I like Dennis Miller’s caustic satire and wordplay.

I never watched a lot of comedy — I wasn’t a comedy geek playing my Monty Python and Richard Pryor albums all day. I can’t quote other comics’ material except this one joke from Dennis Miller that stayed with me. Dennis said “An ‘Earth Firster’ is the kind of person who’d step over someone sleeping in a puddle of their own piss on a New York street to throw a bucket of pig’s blood on somebody wearing a fur coat.” There’s a lot going on in that phrase, and that’s what I like—density and content.

LM: How has your performance style evolved?

RJ: Over these last couple of years I’ve matured into a sense of control about my performance, which was the greatest thing that I had to learn — how to balance an entire show. I used to come out of the starting gates like I was in a Mexican welterweight bout.

“I’ll say ‘Inukshuk’ if I want”

LM: One of your trademarks is customizing your show for regional audiences — not every comic does that.

RJ: Well it’s their loss. It’s a big country and people like to know they matter beyond the myopic media centres of Toronto or Vancouver.

As I began to tour extensively I found I had enough from the journals I keep when I’m on the road to build my first TV special, The Road Between My Ears. [It] was really sired by a tour around the tip of Lake Superior in January and February.