No matter how big you get, it’s always wise to keep your expectations nice and low.

Brian Regan has been one of the best standup comedians working for eons, a favourite of fans and fellow professionals alike. He sells out theatres, and the occasional arena, across North America a hundred times a year. He was the third comic Jerry Seinfeld featured in the first season of his web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. He’s in Chris Rock’s latest film, Top Five. He’s done Late Show With David Letterman 27 times. Yet Regan assumes nothing.

“Nothing I’ve ever done has led to anything!” He laughs as he tells the Straight this over the phone from his Vegas home. “I do the Letterman spots, I never get a phone call the next day from NBC or CBS.”

He says he learned his lesson as a young comic at a micro level.

“I remember hearing a comedian talking about doing The Tonight Show,” he recalls. “He said the first joke is going to be a foul ball and if you expect it to be a foul ball, you’re in much better shape than if you’re expecting to get a good laugh. I’m glad I heard that years ago. So I approach every set that way. When you go out there and the first joke doesn’t get a good laugh, you go, ‘Well, this is what I was expecting all along.’ And if it does get a good laugh, well, then that’s even better.”

His role in Top Five came after Rock went to see him perform in New Jersey. He has a small part in the film as a radio engineer, but he figures prominently in the trailer. Not bad for his first effort in a movie. Suffice it to say, Regan isn’t banking on big things to come.

“I’m not expecting Steven Spielberg to see this and give me a call,” he says. “Because that kind of thing just doesn’t happen my way. If something were to happen from this, I’d be open to it, but I certainly don’t expect it.”

Widely considered to be among the best in the business, Regan has gained his following without the boost that regular TV exposure gives. (He births his Letterman spots on average every nine months.) And he’s fine with that. Word of mouth has worked for him, especially lately, when those mouths are on the faces of such respected comedy icons as Seinfeld and Rock.

“It feels like the people that have helped push me along have always been other comedians,” he says. “The entertainment media in general, I always feel they just kinda had a blind eye towards me. I always felt like nobody seems to care, you know? But when you have somebody like Seinfeld basically patting you on the back, I think that’s the kind of thing that makes people take notice. Like, ‘Well, Seinfeld likes the guy. Maybe we should give him another look.’ Same thing with the Chris Rock movie.”

So he’s enjoying the added attention—while it lasts, anyway.

“I’ve been at this for years,” he says. “I love the standup-comedy world and I’ve kind of resigned myself over the years to the fact that, for whatever reason, it’s probably not going to branch out beyond standup comedy.”

You see what I mean?

Brian Regan performs at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Friday (January 9).