Ex-'Insomniac' still out on the road

He put Comedy Central's "Insomniac" to bed a couple years back, but comedian and veteran carouser Dave Attell has hardly caught up on his sleep.

"The most erudite pervert in history," as fellow comic Lewis Black once called him, is a committed road dog, touring almost nonstop. He plays the Byham Theater Saturday with comic Sean Rouse.

"I'm in between drinking binges," jokes Attell, who used "Insomniac" to take television viewers on freewheeling after-hours tours of dive bars, strip clubs and factory graveyard shifts. The documentary-style show mixed interviews, wisecracks and 100-proof shots of whatever they were serving at the time.

Attell is using the tour, which still carries the "Insomniac" brand name, to promote his concert film. It will be shot July 2 and 3 during a two-night stand in Las Vegas. The film, which also features Rouse, Dane Cook, Greg Giraldo and Doug Stanhope, is to premiere in October on Comedy Central.

"Other guys would have toured after the movie, like I wanted to," Attell says. "My people said that would be too easy."

It would also be too easy to do old material. Attell says this show is new stuff. A new DVD, titled "Your Mouth's Not Pregnant," will soon be available for purchase on his website.

Attell shut down "Insomniac" because it became harder to find places where people hadn't heard of the show. The film crews attracted ever-larger crowds.

"It's not me. It's the cameras," he says. "It's not like I'm Ryan Seacrest. It's their coming down for the shooting."

Now, at least, some of these folks seem to come to his live shows. In Orlando, Fla., for example, a fight broke out between two fans.

"People were bringing me beer onstage," he says "Then, it become shots. Then, it became cases of beer. You know, like in prison and the guy's about to die and everybody gives him their dessert? One dude came up and grabbed some beer and he said something to some other dude and fists were thrown."

Other times, Attell has been assailed by verbal brickbats from offended audience members. The last time it happened was in New York City, where he dared to mention the Dec. 26 Tsunami. The tragedy wasn't the butt of the joke, he says.

"I just referenced it," he says. "Some guy was screaming at me ... he was like 'What are you, 8?'"

Such incidents remind Attell that doing comedy can be a political act, even for a guy whose show is closer to happy hour than the McNeil-Lehrer Hour.

"It's going to be the last holdout of the freedom of saying whatever you want," he says.

In the meantime, he's still working on more new material.

"Don't worry, Pittsburgh," he says. "I will have a pope joke by the time I roll into town."