Former policer officer turned comic to record first album

A former Timmins police officer turned comedian is set to record his first comedy album next month.

Rick Lemieux has been performing stand-up comedy on and off for the last 20 years or so.

Now, drawing from his life experiences, he said he is finally ready to record a comedy album.

Lemieux told CTV News that being a police officer made it difficult to joke about his job on stage.

Now, since moving on from the force, he said he has been practicing his routine and his jokes can get a room laughing better than ever.

“Literally, I cringe because I’m not as polished as I am now. I watch and I go, ‘Aw, I thought I was good’ … now I feel like I am,” said Lemieux, talking about watching his old tapes.

The former policeman has titled his first album ‘The Cops Can’t Stop Me Now,’ which he said will share many good-humoured stories from his policing days and that he is pretty sure won’t get him in trouble with his former coworkers.

“You get to do a lot of things and you’re like, ‘I can’t believe this is happening.’ You know, ‘I can’t believe this is what I saw.’ And it makes for funny stories,” Lemieux said.

He said he likes to joke and it took him 20 years as an officer to come up with an hour of material.

• Download our app to get alerts on your device
• Get the latest newsletters right in your inbox

Lemieux said he had some well-known comedians help him along the way – a fact he appreciates.

One of those well-known comedians is Derek Seguin.

The Canadian stand-up comedian told CTV News that Lemieux is always his first choice to open for him when he is in the north, even though he was a cop when they first met.

“That’s not usually the profile of close friends of Derek Seguin, if you know what I mean,” said Seguin.

“He may have been my only police officer friend and, like, being my friend forces him out of the police force. That’s probably the influence that I would have on him.”

Lemieux said Seguin and others would give him tips and tell him that he is ready to record an album. Though Lemieux admits he sometimes brushed them off as just being nice.

“What has happened to us that that would be a surprising, ‘oh my God, Derek Seguin, he’s probably just nice to everybody.’ Yeah,” said Seguin.

“What’s wrong with that? That’s a total good way to just go through life.”

Lemieux said though it’s taken a while and he is raising young adults, he is still driven to see his comedy career through.

“They think I’m ready for this, so I guess I am,” Lemieux said.

“This is something I really want to do and nothing’s going to stop me from doing it.”

Lemieux will be performing in Sudbury on Feb. 10 at Little Montreal at 9 p.m. and recording his album live at the Porcupine Dante Club in Timmins on Feb. 18.

Tickets for the ‘The Cops Can’t Stop Me Now’ live comedy album recording show are available online.

For more information on Lemieux’s shows, visit his Facebook.