“A lot of the stuff I’ve long retired from my act because I’ve moved on – it’s like a musician playing back a hit from the first album,” Hebert says.

Revisiting the material, he says, has been akin to an out-of-body experience. “It’s like you’re no longer the person who created this material. Like when you see a picture of yourself from years ago and think, ‘Who is that person?’ It’s you, but it’s not you.”

The audience will also get anecdotes from Hebert’s three years in Hong Kong after landing here in 2012. The city is close to his heart. He met his wife, who grew up in Hong Kong, during a stand-up act. She was in the audience. “I made fun of her from the stage.”

During an after-show chat – he wanted to apologise – he discovered they had more in common than a love for live comedy: both worked in publishing with offices across the street from each other. They met for lunch and the rest, as they say, is history.

Maxine is their daughter and the motivation for recording March’s live shows.

“These were all the old hits about travelling and the expat lifestyle wrapped in a bow,” he adds. “Why did I leave Canada? What was the purpose of spending 10 years overseas? At the time you have no idea why you’re making these choices but now I do because it was so I can have my daughter.

“The comedy, becoming a teacher in South Korea because of a global recession, it all led me to my daughter.”

But walking the “invisible line” is something he’s used to. He recalls shows in China when the rule was to avoid the three T’s: Tibet, Tiananmen, Taiwan.

In Thailand, jokes that insult the king or royal family are off-limits thanks to the country’s strict lèse-majesté law that protects the palace from criticism and carries a maximum jail sentence of 15 years.

In neighbouring Myanmar, where religious nationalism has surged, insulting Buddhism is a punishable offence.

In 2015, a New Zealand citizen and two Myanmar nationals were each handed a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence with hard labour for insulting Buddhism after a bar advertisement showed a psychedelic depiction of Buddha wearing headphones.

Hebert remembers the case well. A week before the arrests he arrived in Myanmar to be the first Canadian to headline a comedy show.

“It was a sobering reminder that this comedy thing is a weapon to be wielded carefully,” he says.

While Hebert says the responsibility lies with the comedian, he would defend their right to build an act around a topic if they did something unique.

“There’s a great comedian, Gary Gulman, who did [HBO comedy special] The Great Depresh about his struggles with depression. Tig Notaro did a special about her cancer diagnosis and Jim Jefferies is famous for his routines about gun violence in the United States,” Hebert says.

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“It’s up to the comedian to be clever and funny and to make sure the material has a perspective that gives comfort to the people affected by that.”

While Toronto is his home base for now, Hebert is protective of Hong Kong. “I had the opportunity to call Hong Kong home for three incredible years and I swear that I spent more time onstage at TakeOut Comedy than I did in my shoebox apartment in Sham Shui Po.”

Making sure the city stays on the circuit for international acts such as Tom Segura, who Hebert opened for 10 years ago when the US comic came to Hong Kong and Macau, is part of his mission.

Sean Hebert: The Trashpacker, TakeOut Comedy, March 1 & 2. HK$250 in advance, HK$300 at the door.