{alltv} Comic Majumder finding his story

More exasperated at himself than embarrassed, Shaun Majumder recalls recently having "a Barbara Walters moment" while appearing on George Stroumboulopoulos' The Hour.

"A conversation came up about my mom passing away (in 2003) and it was like I had a breakdown on national TV," says the comedian, whose cross-Canada tour with the unwieldy title, This Tour Has 22 Cities ... The Road to Majumder Manor, hits Toronto May 6 and 7. "It's just one of those things I don't talk about too much."

But this is the occasion for Majumder to get personal. The career multi-tasker -- an alumnus of This Hour Has 22 Minutes who took a dramatic turn co-starring last season in the ABC cop show Detroit 1-8-7 -- has decided to wrap this tour around Majumder Manor. That would be his former schoolhouse in hometown Burlington, Nfld., which he bought a decade ago for $2,700, and which he's fashioning into a potential tourist attraction, a four-star eco-friendly bed and breakfast -- "a green off-the-grid house where David Suzuki might want to hang out."

The project, which has been embraced by the town of 376, is being chronicled for a future special on the W Network. The tour, meanwhile, is being filmed for a special on HBO Canada. And it has inspired Majumder to become more of a storyteller onstage.

"I'm kind of getting to there now as I get older," he says. "A lot of the great comedians talk very deeply about their personal lives. And I'm really working hard to find what the story is. When you start at Yuk Yuk's, you have your five minutes and you're, 'Bang, bang, bang,' and get off. You don't have time to tell stories. I'm talking about things like my first sexual experience -- which was only a few years ago, it's really sad," he quips.

"But it's also stuff like what it was like to grow up in Newfoundland. No money, the horrific Santa Claus costume we had. One of my old teachers, Mr. Morris, would come in the room after 12 minutes dressed as some kind of hideous creature. The school board chintzed out and went to the Shopper's Drug Mart in October and bought the Halloween version of Santa, with the plastic masks and two holes in the nose. It was f---ing scary as hell. Red ski jacket and track pants, a Glad garbage bag over his shoulders, rapist gloves on his hands."

Owing to his time on This Hour, he admits audiences expect a certain amount of topicality from his shows -- particularly from his regular character Raj Binder, the perspiration-prone Indian sports announcer. Merchandising note: Starting with the Toronto shows, Raj Binder bobbleheads will be on sale in lobbies.

The ironic counterpoint to the Majumder story is that he's lived in L.A. for the past decade (he now owns a home there).

He's expecting word soon on whether Detroit 1-8-7 will be renewed. "It's kind of on the bubble," he says, adding it's also being shopped around to A&E.

"As a backup, I worked on a pilot with Jenna Elfman called Bad Mom, that's kind of in the vein of Modern Family. I didn't have as much of a role as I had on 1-8-7, but it's a really fun little recurring role.

"I work a lot," he says. "I come up and work for three months and go back home. Then I work down there and do a pilot, and if that doesn't work out I do something else. Both sides of the border have been good to me."

Shaun Majumder tour dates:

ï»¿May 6 & 7 -- Toronto, Winter Garden

May 8&9 -- Ottawa, Centrepointe

May 15 -- Winnipeg, Burton Cummings Theatre

May 27 -- Vancouver, Centre in Vancouver

May 29 -- Calgary, EPCOR Centre

May 31 -- Edmonton, Winspear Centre