Comedians like to joke that the black community in Vancouver consists of about three people. Hyperbole, yes, but the fact remains that it’s a smaller and more spread-out population than you’ll find in Toronto, Montreal, or Halifax.

That didn’t bother standup comic and actor Kwasi Thomas, though. The 31-year-old Montreal native, a first-generation Canadian whose mother is from Trinidad, came west in 2009 but hasn’t felt removed from his people.

“It’s a small black population, but never once have I felt alone,” Thomas says over a beer at a Gastown bar. “I’m Canadian first and foremost. Sure, I have a West Indian upbringing and of course things have happened in my life because I’m black, but not too many things have affected me because of my blackness.…I am Canadian, you are Canadian. That’s where we bond. The good thing about me being black is one day we get to talk about, ‘Hey, has anything horrible ever happened to you?’ ”

All right, then, has it?

“Oh, it’s happened,” he says. “Not too negatively. Because of my upbringing, because of the strength my mom and my sisters put in me, we’re all pretty confident in ourselves and we don’t let that kind of stuff bother us.”

Thomas—along with fellow black Canadian comics Gilson Lubin, Rodney Ramsey, and Andrew Searles—plays the Rio Theatre as part of the Underground Comedy Railroad Tour in honour of Black History Month. The show takes its name from the series of secret routes and safe houses used in the 19th century by abolitionists to help African slaves in the U.S. escape to free states and Canada. Don’t expect Def Comedy Jam, though.

“You mention black comedy to most people, they’re going to think right away American black comedy,” Thomas says. “I like to say that none of us really use the black thing as a crutch. We sprinkle it on. I use my Canadianism to present the information.”

Even his comedic influences are Canadian. He cites the dry wordsmith David Pryde as one of his biggest inspirations. He was the first headlining comic Thomas saw live, and he says he sat there in “absolute awe”.

“Obviously, we have different points of view and different stories to tell, but the way the joke is worded and crafted, I took my cues from David Pryde as much as I could,” he says. “Every new joke I heard him say, the reaction was always the same: Why didn’t I think of that? The beauty is in his simplicity. There’s not much animation, but the jokes are just so strong.”

As a kid, Thomas loved English class, and to this day he appreciates wordplay.

“I’m not one for the overexcitement and the yelling,” he says. “I want to see you choose this word over that word because you felt it was funny. The misdirection and the irony—that’s what I love about joke-telling.”