Kevin Banner is the first comedian to sign to Chad Kroeger's record label

For a long time, Kevin Banner didn't think he could do comedy. 

Growing up, the Victoria, B.C. native watched the likes of George Carlin and Chris Rock on TV, thinking he'd never be able to replicate what they did. But then he saw something that changed his mind. 

"I saw this comedy tour come through Victoria and I was like, well I could do that!" Banner says, declining to name who was part of this tour.  

Six months later, he began doing comedy. He started off at music open nights — Victoria didn't have any comedy clubs then — performing between "a bunch of guys playing Sublime covers." 

Fast forward to today and Banner has become the first comic to sign to 604 Records, the label owned by Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, after someone from the label saw him open for Bill Burr. Last month, he released his debut comedy album, Dreamboat.

"I remember I sat under a plaque that said, 'Congrats Nickelback for 50 million albums sold worldwide,'" he recalls, of his meeting with the label that has put out albums by Carly Rae Jepsen and Marianas Trench. "If I could sell one tenth of that I would be over the moon." 

WEB EXTRA | Watch a promo for Kevin Banner's Dreamboat below. (Editor's note: strong language warning.)