A YouTube transfer of Brian Regan standup special, I Walked on the Moon (ironically prefaced with the caption, "This DVD is for private home viewing only"), is boldly dubbed: "Best Comedian Ever." That's debatable, to say the least, but it points to the enduring appeal of Regan's career since his first CD, the less bombastically entitled Brian Regan Live, was released in 1997 and went on to sell over 150,000 copies. An appellation more often applied to Regan, one that requires no debate whatsoever, is "comics' comic," which is to say he crafts a joke so precisely that even standups in direct competition must acknowledge its clarity and delivery. Better, richer comics are free to admire his work, so they do. He's been lauded by pros running the stylistic spectrum from Chris Hardwick to Chris Rock. Jerry Seinfeld featured Regan on the third episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Conan O'Brien had him on three times. He was animated in Squigglevision for two episodes of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. David Letterman booked him over two dozen times over 21 years.

Regan grew up in Miami, Florida, with seven siblings. He fell in love with the Smothers Brothers, Johnny Carson and Steve Martin at an early age and dropped out of Heidelberg College to step behind the mic himself in 1980. He learned quickly, winning K-Rock Radio's "Funniest Person in New York" contest in 1988 and graduating to late-night TV appearances a few years later. He finished that degree program in 1997.

Consider this exemplary Regan setup from 2010's All by Myself: "My wife and I have two wonderful kids. And another kid." (Look for the digital-download link to that concert exclusively on BrianRegan.com.) Here's another: "Godspeed. Can you imagine going that fast?"

"I know there's a thing called comedy," he told Guy MacPherson of The Georgia Straight, "but it just seems odd that people would walk into a building and go, ‘We're going to sit in chairs and laugh.' And they're not even really interested in what they're going to be laughing about! ... It would be like a club where ‘We're going to go to this place and cry.' ‘What are you going to cry about?' ‘I don't know. I just feel like crying.'"

Regan's success is all the more remarkable given that he works entirely clean. While that may yank volumes of surefire material off the table, it opens career doors as well. His 2015 special, Brian Regan: Live From Radio City Music Hall, was the first standup show ever broadcast live on Comedy Central. His G-rated material invites multigenerational audiences like the one he'll undoubtedly enjoy for his upcoming appearance at the Pantages. Feel free to bring Granny and the kids along - and don't be surprised if and when they spend the next few weeks quoting the same precisely calibrated jokes.

Brian Regan, 8 p.m., Friday, July 28, Pantages Theater, 901 Broadway, Tacoma, $62.50, 253.591.5890, broadwaycenter.org