While many comedians on Comedy Central thrive off profanity and ridiculous theatrics, Brian Regan has succeeded in television and on the stage by being his affable self. 

His skits on childhood events, like spelling bees and snow cones, proliferate millions of views on YouTube, and his often self-deprecating stand-up routine has led to multiple Comedy Central specials, his latest being “Brian Regan: Live from Radio City Music Hall,” and appearances on famous late night television shows, including one of the last comedic spots of “The Late Show with David Letterman.”

Regan’s nationwide theater tour will bring him back to where it all began, facing college students and hoping he can get a chuckle. 

“I took a speech class in college. When I got the class laughing — including the teacher — it was just a tremendous experience,” Regan said. “When I would walk back from speech class after making everybody laugh, I remember thinking to myself, ‘I don’t feel like this when I walk back from biology class.’”

From there, Regan said he went through a period of incredulous denial, thinking there was no way he would actually become a comedian. But with comedy he experienced a passion that he had never known before from putting himself in such a vulnerable position and receiving the joyous payoff when the crowd burst into laughter. 

“I think it is important that the audience sees the real me onstage. I might show an exaggerated part of my personality, (and) I might feel dumber than I really am or feel angrier than I really am in comedic fantasies, but I always want to come back to ground zero and be a person that the audience can relate to,” Regan said. “I like to feel like I’m friends to the audience and just sharing some goofy thoughts that I have and have a good time for an hour.”

Regan said comedy has provided him with some strange encounters, including one with a bicyclist who tried to take over one of his sets and was escorted back to her bicycle by security.

Comedians exchange advice and crazy stories on the circuit. Regan’s favorite piece of advice was that he should never take sips of his water when no one is laughing. 

For Regan, the inside jokes like “earning your sips” help build bonds that only people who dare to perform for a crowd of strangers every night can understand. 

“There is a huge camaraderie among comedians,” said Regan, who recalled a moment when playing roulette with a couple comedians in Las Vegas: “We were joking about different things to bet on and somebody said, ‘Minutes in our act that we’re proud of,’ and we all piled up on the number eight.”

Most of the time spent touring keeps Regan from seeing much of the cities he visits, and he will not be able to catch much of what Lexington has to offer. Regardless, Regan said the onstage experience provides him with a more intimate psychological connection with people than he could get around the city. 

“I love the honesty of the communication — people don’t fake laugh,” Regan said. “So, when people are laughing, you can trust when you’re being accepted, and it’s very comforting to me because there are many things in this life that are hard to trust sometimes, and it’s nice to be on stage and feel like I’m trusting that this experience is true, and that we’re sharing a laugh.”