MONTREAL - Danny Bhoy has a title for his new one-man show: Wanderlust. But he can’t get more specific than that.

“As usual, I have no idea exactly what shape or form the show will take, but I can assure you there will probably be a few belly laughs,” the ever-affable Scottish wit says of his latest Just for Laughs spectacle, which runs Tuesday to July 30 at the Gesù.

True. And therein lies the beauty of a Danny Bhoy show. He never does the same 90 minutes twice, and yet he never fails to enthrall audiences on whatever tangent he may be – no matter what he labels the spectacle. It’s likely that no one has ever asked for a refund after his show.

“Actually, that’s not entirely true. I did get one request for a refund.” Pause. “From my mother. She bought a ticket to one of my shows and asked for her money back. She was supposed to have been on the guest list for a complimentary ticket. So I had to pay her back. That stung a little.”

Even during a sometimes tumultuous set of gigs in the deep U.S. South last year – the equivalent of what Bill Hicks used to call his Flying Saucer Tour – Bhoy never had to deal with a refund request. But he had other concerns. At some stops, he wasn’t sure if the audiences were ready to applaud or dismember him.

“I got heckled during one show and when I put the guy down, he actually told me he was carrying a gun,” Bhoy recalls. “Honestly, I love my art form and will guard it with everything – except my life.

“So I backed away from the situation. ‘Comedian dies after putting down heckler’ was not the headline I first wanted to have about me in the U.S.”

After completing his tour of the South, Bhoy had another bewildering experience – on the David Letterman show. “I always assumed that Letterman had one of those shows where everyone fist-pumped each other after, then went out for dinner together and then headed back to Letterman’s home for a big party.” Not exactly. “You just get shown out the back door and onto the streets of New York City. It was a bit underwhelming.

“All the instincts that feel natural for a comic were not there. They tell you before going on that you don’t need to say ‘hello’ or ‘thank you.’ That was strange. I was also in a suit. I had never worn a suit in my life before.”

He spent six months in the U.S. last year trying to break into that market. Though Bhoy is one of the mega-stars of the Commonwealth comedy circuit, he wanted to learn if his act could cut it there.

“The jury is still out on that one. I did a Comedy Central special before leaving the U.S. and reaction was positive. So I guess I’ll only know the next time I visit.

“But I really did throw myself into the whole experience. I even took up residence in an apartment block in L.A. Turned out it was full of porn stars. Nice guys, but I didn’t get to the pool much.”

As other stand-ups from the United Kingdom have noted, Bhoy points out that performing in the U.S. can be a difficult adjustment.

“There is a major stylistic difference between us, and often that’s hard for us to overcome,” he says. “Problem was that I was following acts there with brash, explicit sexual material. And I was coming on talking about the Vikings or whatever. But when it worked, it was glorious.”

Bhoy has had no such difficulties getting audiences on side in Montreal. “Scottish humour is an easier sale in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, because people there tend to know something about Scotland. Americans tend to know the Hollywood side of Scotland – the Braveheart side.”

After catching Bhoy on stage, they certainly learn more about his beloved homeland. Or as he has described it: “A land where Tourette’s is seen as a gift; where one learns to conjugate the verb ‘f---’ by the age of 5; where the national symbol is a weed, (the) thistle; and where the diet was deemed by the UN as worst in the world, even worse than places without food.”

The World Health Organization did indeed claim the Scottish diet was worst of all: “We’ll eat anything. Bring out your dead. As long as it’s deep-fried, we’ll devour it.”

Bhoy also found it rather funny to be told by a bouncer at a New York City club that there was a two-drink minimum. “ ‘No problem,’ I told him. ‘I’m from Scotland, so long as there is no maximum ...’ ”

There is a website devoted to Bhoy’s comical insights, put together by a group of his fans. “It’s great, because I have such a bad memory. So before a show, I go to the site and get my brain jogged with some of my material,” he says.

Bhoy is among a group of comics and deep thinkers from the U.K. who have been taken aback by the star power of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

“After a few rocky years, it appears that everyone has become born-again royalists. Yes, it seems that everyone has fallen in love with Kate and William. That is, everyone in England, Wales and parts of Ireland.

“Ah, but Scotland is still resolutely republican. So much so that on the day of the royal wedding, there wasn’t a single request for a street party in Glasgow. That was the only place in all of the U.K. where there wasn’t one request for a street party,” Bhoy insists.

“On the other hand, we were all content to get to take the day off after it was decreed an official bank holiday. After all, we don’t need a lot of encouragement to get out to the pubs if such is required.”

Danny Bhoy’s one-man show Wanderlust runs Tuesday to July 23 and July 26 to 30 at 7 p.m. at the Gesù, 1200 Bleury St. Tickets cost $39.50 and are available by calling 514-845-2322 or visiting www.hahaha.com.

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