When Saturday Night Live alumnus Finesse Mitchell agreed to host the cross-Canada Just For Laughs comedy tour, he had no idea Barack Obama would be the Democratic nominee for president. So he jumped at the chance to perform standup in packed theatres from Hamilton to Victoria (the tour makes its Vancouver stop tomorrow at the Centre).

"Had I known he was going to win, I would have probably not done the tour because I wanted to be in the States," he says on the phone from a stop in sunny Saskatoon. "I thought Hillary was going to win. I'm like, 'I'm outta here. I'm going to Canada!' "

Obama's victory was an emotional time for the 36-year-old former University of Miami football player. "I cried and I cried watching other people cry," he says. "Every time I stopped crying, they showed somebody who was crying and then I started crying."

And then there were the missed social events. Mitchell was a frat guy in college and obviously still likes a good party. "Just the other day in Miami they had a Barack Obama bikini contest. It was like 80 degrees. So they gave me a call. They were like, 'Hey, Finesse, we want you to come down and be a judge. You in town?' I'm like, 'I'm in Saskatoon!' They're like, 'Where is that?' 'Somewhere very cold.'"

But Mitchell is having a blast criss-crossing his northern neighbour with a coterie of international comics featuring Canada's Pete Zedlacher, Ireland's David O'Doherty, Britain's Hal Cruttenden, with special guest Danny Bhoy from Scotland.

"We've become a small little family now," says Mitchell. "It's so funny because they're always talking about their history and who invaded who and who owes who what, who's in debt to who and all that type of stuff. Everywhere we go we're cracking jokes."

His three seasons on Saturday Night Live were two-thirds a joy. His last year was, he says, "a bit of a struggle and challenge. The cast was huge and it was hard getting my sketches on. I started losing confidence in what I thought my funny was."

After being let go, he suffered the usual actor's insecurities. "I thought the phone wasn't going to ring," he says. "You get terrified when you leave a show like SNL: 'Man, what's going to happen next?'"

Luckily, the phone kept ringing and he booked two movies, Who's Your Caddy? and The Comebacks, as well as signing a book deal, which became Your Girlfriends Only Know So Much, a dating advice book for African-American women. "I just basically took all my experiences and the experiences from my boys, who were thugs, professional athletes, doctors, lawyers, teachers and unemployed PlayStation dudes and put them out in one book and made a hit, man," he says.

On stage, Mitchell covers relationships, politics, pop culture and enjoys playing with the crowd.

"I'm always messing with the front row," he says. "So Vancouver, if you don't want to get messed with, don't sit in the front row. Especially with the wrong type of shirt on."

The show runs like clockwork, with Mitchell doing 10 minutes off the top and 10 more in the middle, but he freely admits he likes to talk.

"Sometimes I run long. It's hard for me to stick to my time. I've got a lot to say," he laughs.

Because, hey, sometimes you need a little Finesse; sometimes you need a lot.