Movers & Shakers: Ivan Decker on Stand-Up, Fatherhood and Finding Home

Award-winning comedian Ivan Decker has spent years travelling the world, but after thousands of flights, countless hotel rooms, and more moves than he can remember, he's come to a simple realization: home isn't about square footage—it's about having a place where everything, and everyone, belongs.

One of Canada's most acclaimed stand-up comedians, Ivan Decker is a Juno Award winner and a veteran of stages around the globe. His comedy specials have appeared on Netflix, Amazon Prime and Comedy Central, and he's become known for his thoughtful storytelling and razor-sharp observations. Between raising two young children, touring constantly, and balancing life on the road with life at home in British Columbia, Decker has developed a unique perspective on what it means to build a life while always preparing to leave it.

We caught up with Ivan for the latest edition of Movers & Shakers, where we ask notable Canadians about the places they've lived, the things they've carried with them, and how their idea of "home" has evolved over the years.

TSM: Where are you calling home these days?

Ivan Decker: I'm in New Westminster, just outside Vancouver. It's actually the former capital of British Columbia. Apparently when they were deciding where the capital should be, the representative from New Westminster showed up drunk and wasn't exactly persuasive, so Victoria ended up getting it.

I grew up nearby in Ladner, which used to be this little fishing and farming town. When I was growing up there it was pretty rough around the edges, but it's changed a lot as people have been pushed farther out of Vancouver by housing prices.

TSM: Have you moved around a lot?

Ivan: Yeah. I've had five or six apartments in Vancouver over the years before moving in with my wife. The first apartment I got was when I was about twenty. I'd just started doing stand-up and I was tired of driving into the city every night for shows, so I found a tiny bachelor apartment downtown.

Back then it cost me $750 a month, which tells you exactly how long ago this was.

TSM: What was that first apartment like?

Ivan: It was basically one room. Bathroom was separate, but everything else was just one big space. I had a futon in the corner, a little folding IKEA table for eating, and this enormous wooden desk my dad had brought all the way from Montreal years earlier.

The desk completely dominated the apartment. It was probably bigger than my dining table.

TSM: Was there anything in that apartment you'd be embarrassed to admit you owned today?

Ivan: Not really. It was just the most stereotypical single guy apartment imaginable. Futon. TV. Giant desk for writing jokes. Nothing matched.

Looking back it was pretty funny.

TSM: Did you ever have any nightmare roommates?

Ivan: I avoided roommates as much as possible. I grew up with two brothers and figured if I was moving out, I wanted my own space.

The exception was briefly living with one of my brothers while he was in art school.

He wins by default.

One day he was teaching himself how to use nunchucks in the living room and smashed my television.

We were adults.

TSM: Is there one thing you've moved with you every single time?

Ivan: Books.

My dad was a literature professor, so he was always giving me books. I have all these Kurt Vonnegut novels, Robert Anton Wilson books, Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses...

I've carried some of them through every move I've ever made.

I've barely read any of them.

Mostly they sit on my shelf making me look smarter than I am.

I also still have every old video game console I've ever owned. Somewhere downstairs there's a GameCube sitting in a storage bin waiting for the day I show my kids what video games used to look like.

TSM: Is there anything you've left behind that you still regret?

Ivan: That big desk.

It was incredibly well built and came with this fantastic rolling chair that didn't have armrests. I wish I still had both.

When I moved in with my wife I also lost pretty much every piece of kitchen equipment I owned.

Now if I buy something for the kitchen I have to sneak it into the house and hope she doesn't notice.

TSM: Did you ever move because of a relationship?

Ivan: Absolutely.

The penthouse apartment in my wife's building became available. It was an incredible deal and only one block from the comedy club where I worked.

She called me while I was performing at a festival in Halifax and basically said, "Do you want to move in together?"

I said yes immediately.

The apartment was too good to pass up.

TSM: Tell us about a move that went completely wrong.

Ivan: I made the mistake of keeping two apartments for a month because I thought it would make moving easier.

Worst decision ever.

Instead of doing one stressful moving day, I spent an entire month driving back and forth across Vancouver in my dad's work van, moving little bits at a time.

I must have made thirty trips.

At the end of the month you still have one giant stressful moving day anyway.

I learned something very important from that experience:

Hire movers. Do it in one day. Get it over with.

Dragging a move out for a month is torture.

TSM: So you're firmly on Team Professional Movers now?

Ivan: One hundred percent.

I'm too old to convince my friends to move couches for pizza.

Hire movers.

TSM: Which place has felt most like home?

Ivan: Where I live now with my kids.

That's home.

Before that, though, there was this little three-storey walk-up apartment one block from the comedy club in Vancouver.

For a little while it felt like everything was exactly where it was supposed to be.

The club was right there.

Life was simple.

Then the club closed, we moved, and life changed.

TSM: Is there somewhere you feel like you escaped?

Ivan: Definitely my hometown.

Ladner always had that feeling of being the place people wanted to leave.

Getting out and moving into the city felt like accomplishing something.

It's funny because then you get older and eventually start drifting back toward the suburbs once you have kids.

Life comes full circle.

TSM: If you only had ten minutes to pack one box that represented your entire life, what would be inside?

Ivan: My Juno Award.

Probably The Satanic Verses, since apparently I'm never getting rid of it.

And definitely the memory boxes we keep for our kids—the hospital wristbands, little handprints, all those tiny keepsakes from when they were born.

Those would come with me.

TSM: After all the places you've lived and all the travel you've done, what does "home" mean to you now compared to when you were twenty?

Ivan: Home is comfort.

As a comedian I'm constantly in airports and hotels. Every week I'm either leaving home or coming back to it.

When I get home, everything is where I left it. My phone charger is still plugged into the wall. My family is there. My stuff is there.

I'm not thinking about checking out of a hotel or making sure I packed everything.

Home is the one place where I don't have to worry about leaving.

I also think homes should actually look lived in.

Modern houses in movies all look like Airbnbs now. Everything's grey, perfectly staged, spotless.

Real homes are messy. There are toys everywhere. Pictures on the walls. Weird collections.

Things you've carried through half a dozen moves because they mean something to you.

That's what makes a place feel like yours.

That's what makes it home.

To keep up with Ivan Decker's upcoming tour dates and projects, visit www.ivandecker.com or follow him on Instagram for the latest announcements.