In 2013, when he had already been on Chinese television for 25 years and wanted to do something new, he noticed that young audiences in Beijing and Shanghai were beginning to enjoy modern Chinese stand-up comedy.
His Irish-American comedian friend Des Bishop invited him to perform at one such show at Renmin University in Beijing.
"I hadn't done comedy (for long) and my voice was shaking," he recalls.
Later that year, he started performing at small venues with Chinese stand-up comedians Xi Jiangyue, Tony Chou and Jeff Shi, who are also expected to be guest performers at his upcoming show.
"This is not something you do inside a TV studio. You have to talk to live audiences rather than talking to cameras. You have real reaction," Rowswell says.
"Of all the things I have done in my career, this is by far the most difficult. It's much easier to host a big event when a prime minister visits. It's hard to do an original composition, hold the attention of audiences for an hour and make them laugh," he adds.
He believes that stand-up comedy has a market in China because young people are not satisfied with what they see on television.
He hopes to develop a new performance every two years and take the show on tour before putting it online.
With his family living in Toronto, Rowswell frequently travels between China and Canada. Married to a Chinese woman, the father of two teenage children says that unlike young performers, who are looking for every opportunity to make a breakthrough, he is just focusing on one thing.
"This is the last stage of my career. I am writing the end of my story, not the beginning."
He is proud of his shows from the '80s.
"But nobody wants to watch them in 2016. That era has passed. I want to do something that's more current, something that I can look back in 10 years and say ... that was a good show I did (in 2016)."
If you go
7:30 pm, Sunday. Tianqiao Performing Arts Center, 9 Tianqiao South Street, Xicheng district, Beijing. 400-635-3355.
