He talks about growing up in Beautifully Manic. “You got to understand, my parents moved from Lebanon and they moved to Windsor, right? I was born in Windsor, Canada, that’s where I was born. They taught me only how to speak Arabic and sent me to school. Do you know how crazy that is? That’s psychotic. I went to kindergarten, I didn’t know … my dad dropped me off and he goes ‘Okay man, have a good day.’ And drove off. That was the first time I heard English.”

Merheje discovered comedy could be social currency. “I was an ugly kid. I had buck teeth, I could feel it. I knew I wasn’t handsome. I’d make people laugh and that would allow me to do my thing. I can be funny and get in with people. I never really stopped.” After graduating high school, Merheje enrolled in a marketing program at St. Clair College. He knew he wanted to pursue comedy and his parents supported his decision. “They just said, ‘Get a diploma first. Then do what you want.’”

Thus began his apprenticeship. Merheje performed at Windsor Yuk Yuk’s and at comedy clubs in Detroit. “I felt way safer on stage than I did doing a presentation at college. I knew that this was what I was supposed to be doing.” His schedule was gruelling: college all day and comedy all night. The terrorist attacks of 9-11 made his work more difficult. “It was like night and day. We were used to driving over to Detroit to buy milk. And then it seemed like anyone who was Middle Eastern was a suspect.”

After finishing his diploma, Merheje spent a year working 12-hour shifts at a capsule-making factory in order to save enough money to move to Toronto. Once there, Merheje averaged four shows a night. He also worked nine-to-five at a Chapters-Indigo. “I never slept. I’d bring my uniform with me and, once I was done my gigs, I’d put it on and sleep a few hours on a friend’s floor.”

Merheje soon established himself as a talented set-up/punchline comedian, a traditional form of comedy in which the set-up is a premise and the punchline a surprise twist. The late American comedian Mitch Hedberg was a master of this genre. For instance: “I like rice” (set-up). “Rice is great when you're hungry and you want 2,000 of something” (punchline).

There were plenty of what he calls “hell gigs.” Merheje once performed in an Alberta bar where the stage was set up in front of a liquor store check-out. One customer began to heckle and Merheje called him out, “Who the hell do you think you are?” “I’m the mayor,” the man replied, then bought his beer and left.

As painful as the process was, it paid big dividends. Merheje crafted a signature style, one that attracted industry attention. In 2011, he won the Just For Laughs Homegrown Competition and won Now Magazine’s Best of Toronto Award for Best Male Standup. The validation helped rejuvenate his ambitions and Merheje went on to score acting work on the CBC series Mr. D. and to gain the attention of comedy bookers in the United States. He auditioned for Ramy by video while performing in China and won the role of Ahmed, a neurotic companion who doesn’t drink or smoke and worries about Ramy’s future. Merheje, who was raised Catholic, was intrigued by the challenge of playing a devout Muslim.

Merheje reviews notes before his show.

AARON MCKENZIE FRASER / THE GLOBE AND MAIL

More recently, Merheje has been developing a series with fellow comedian Ali Hassan, the host of Laugh Out Loud on CBC Radio and SiriusXM. He still likes to work his material before an audience. “I get an idea and put it onstage and do four sets a night, and I track it until I find the purest form of the material.”

He doesn’t worry where his talent will take him next. “Any time I’m looking ahead, ahead of a gig, ahead to something else or wondering if it will lead to something, it’s not fun. It’s stifling. If you live in the moment, it’s fun. The best shows I’ve ever had happened when I said to myself, ‘I’m just going to have fun.’”