Check out this hot private business. It’s got a robust marketing plan, a national sales component and clients in the front row at Yuk Yuk’s, as well as in the executive suite.

Run the corporate brand up the flagpole and see who salutes.

It’s a Canadian flag, slightly modified for copyright reasons. This baby draws a customer’s eye like Hugo Boss or the Golden Arches.

Comedian Glen Foster is headed to Alberta to lighten up the corporate crowd.

In short, That Canadian Guy Productions Inc. is a cleverly marketed small business that shows nothing but upside.

And Toronto comedian Glen Foster is like any other CEO, except he may open a presentation with: “Y’know, a funny thing happened on my way to the conference room,” or, “Take my personal executive assistant . . . please.”

As company founder, president and VP in charge of sales and PR, Foster ain’t jiving when he tells you funny business is serious business.

Foster, a.k.a. That Canadian Guy, is heading west to appear as a headliner during FunnyFest, the Calgary Comedy Festival (www.funnyfest.com), which runs from June 6-15 at several city venues.

Foster dearly loves to unleash his creative juices on an unsuspecting club crowd.

An ex-Gemini nominee, he’s one of no more than 100 Canadian comics who can make a decent living in the business. And Foster’s so proficient he convinced both CTV and the Comedy Network to air his hour-long comedy special.

Nevertheless, corporate command performances are his bread and butter.

And for this kind of crowd, he’s willing to curb his more manic improvisational impulses.

Not only will Foster tailor material to suit audiences at business conventions, company banquets and golf tournaments, he’s happy to customize the act to deliver key messages during seminars and training sessions.

Foster insists employees are more likely to retain a message delivered with a comic spin. Whether you buy that or not, he sure beats a flip chart. As a Foster blurb puts it, do YOU really want to sit through another slide show?

Such gigs are light-years removed from the stage of Yuk Yuk’s.

With a corporate crowd, Foster delivers a line, then watches the audience check to make sure the bosses are smiling before committing to a laugh.

When it happens, he’ll remind listeners: “Don’t worry, these guys are only management. They have no idea what they’re doing.”

It’s a lucrative market that Foster hopes to exploit further. Better, the competition’s limited.

“Only a handful of guys can do this kind of thing and keep it clean,” he explained.

“With this type of audience, there are limitations on what you can say. I’m clean — but with an edge.”

Foster compares himself to a professional guitarist who keeps food on the table by adapting to market conditions.

On Saturday night, he might bludgeon the sound barrier in a Black Sabbath tribute band. But come Monday, he may be paid to lay down understated rhythm tracks for an Anne Murray CD.

Foster attributes his marketing savvy to his former day job as an advertising copy writer.

Though he tells friends he used to be Darrin Stephens (the henpecked adman/husband from Bewitched), he only wore a suit half the time.

“There was only one suit between me and the art director,” he smirked. “I think he hired me because the suit fit.”

And Foster’s business really took off after he started joking about his website (www.thatcanadianguy.com) during TV spots.

The day after a Millennium New Year’s Eve TV broadcast, his site registered more than 2,000 hits.

And today Foster markets a line of T-shirts and concert videos via the site. He has assembled a database of several thousand e-mail correspondents who’ve asked to be alerted whenever That Canadian Guy makes a move.

“Because there’s really two parts to this job. First, you have to entertain. And second, you have to find the people to entertain,” he explained.

“The Internet has made me a moderately successful dot-com,” Foster laughed.

“When I go to Calgary, I hit a button and everybody on the list gets an e-mail.”

Like most CEOs, however, Foster farms out his books and tax accounting chores. Why? It’s because that type of ruthlessly linear thinking is too painful for a creative stand-up guy preoccupied with writing gags, flogging T-shirts and finding bookings.

“Yeah, I’m the weak link in the organization,” he cracked.

Badda-bing. Foster’s heading out to Alberta at just the right time. The way the markets have been tanking, we could all use a good belly-laugh.