 At the age of 12, Tockar won his first public speaking award for reading a two-thousand word essay on horror films.During his teenage years, before graduating from Kelowna Secondary School, Lee opened a graphic arts business which enabled him to travel around British Columbia and paint wall murals for restaurants.In 1988, he won the British Columbia Playwright competition for his original work, "Confessions", which was performed at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island in Vancouver, British Columbia.