Sentence:  He has his dark -- well, darkish -- side under control. Which is to say that he is an <WSD>Englishman</WSD>, well practiced in masking pain and absurdity and descents into sheer goofiness with mannerly behavior, sly irony and stiff upper lips. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A male native or inhabitant of England; a man who is English by ancestry, birth, descent(,) or naturalisation. (from 7th c.)