It's a little surprising to think that network executives didn't hand him a sitcom years ago, when it appeared that every comedian able to deliver a punch line had a sitcom tailored around them. This is especially hard to believe considering Regan's observational humor and animated delivery make him a natural for television.

His lack of acting credits can mainly be attributed to the fact that Regan doesn't see an acting career as the ultimate goal. For him, the only reason to consider film and television offers would be to further his stand-up comedy.

"There was a time when I wanted to get a sitcom but the only reason I wanted it was to get my visibility up to the point where I could play in theaters," he explains. "Years ago, I got lucky enough to open for Jerry Seinfeld, and he had a sitcom out and was performing in theaters. I was in comedy clubs at the time. I remember thinking, `This is what I want. I want to be able to perform these one-night venues where everybody is completely focused.' So I just assumed you had to get a sitcom to get to that point."

Regan admits that he made some attempts to break into acting but the right opportunity never came along. He continued honing his act in clubs and built a fanbase around the country through relentless touring. His popularity moved up a few notches when he released the 1997 CD "Brian Regan Live," which continues to be one of the more popular comedy albums on iTunes. Eventually, the award-winning comedian's audience grew to the point he was able to tour theaters exclusively.
Making the jump to theaters has brought with it some new experiences. One of the most noticeable is the fact that he now has the ability to come out for an encore. When he does, Regan says he's been surprised to find that audiences yell out for him to resurrect old material from his past that he's retired.

"In comedy clubs, an old bit was an old bit. I mean, the school routine and stuff like that, I hadn't -- those were gone. They were like dust bowl stuff, as far as I was concerned. Now I'm finding out that people still like to hear that stuff and I joke about it saying, `Comedy is supposed to have a surprise but y'all don't seem to care.'"

Comedy Central, who aired Regan's one-hour special in 2007 and intend to air a second special later this year, is sponsoring the current tour. Also part of the deal is the opportunity to develop a show for the cable network. As of yet, nothing has moved to the pilot stage but the comic says it's unlikely the show will be a sitcom.

"It would probably be more in the line of a sketch thing, for lack of a better word," Regan says.

If Regan's stand-up routine is any indication, the show would cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. In his live performances, the Florida-native runs through a number of topics with ease. Broken into stories, he portrays each of the characters in what he labels "little plays."

"I realized, I'm just the world's laziest playwright," he laughs. "I can't write a play that lasts longer than sixty seconds, so I string them all together and call it a comedy show."

The comedy vignettes in Regan's act are products of the way his mind thinks but he says that there's a number of agents and club owners telling comics that their act should be like a mini-sitcom. But Regan thinks this push hampers creativity and hurts the comedy world.

"Some comedians use comedy to try to showcase a character that can be in a TV sitcom or something like that. I'm not as big a fan of that as comedians who are just truly trying to be creative comedically."

While a sitcom isn't the goal for Regan, he's also not opposed to the idea. If it were to happen, he would be interested in working on the project with his brother Dennis Regan, who worked as a writer on "The King Of Queens."

The freeing factor for Regan is that he's not set on acting. His desire is to go out on a stage and perform his routine for audiences and that's been his desire since getting into the business more than 20 years ago.

"For some people, it's a stepping stone. If you're going to use stand-up to get to movies and television, that's fine. To me, I like the stepping stone. Let me rephrase that -- I like being a stand-up. This is what I've always wanted to do and this is the goal line. If I never do anything else, that's fine."