At Yuk Yuk’s on Saturday, February 23. No remaining performances

Mike Bullard makes me laugh. There, I’ve said it, and I’ll stand by it. The longest-running late-night talk-show host in Canadian history, Bullard has always divided people: he had legions of fans and detractors during his six years on the air. Count me among the former.

After his Global show was cancelled in 2004, Bullard went back to his roots doing standup comedy. His act, such as it is, largely consists of bantering with the audience. He’s got an impressive memory for the names and details he culls from the crowd, and he can weave the most innocuous statement into comedic gold. Not only does he tolerate heckling, his act depends on it.

At last Saturday’s early show at Yuk Yuk’s, Bullard was hit with an anti-Toronto bullet almost right out of the gate, thanks to an older fellow who spoke rather slowly. I immediately thought, “Oh no, here we go. This guy’s going to ruin the show for everyone,” before I remembered that Bullard thrives on these situations. A likable pit bull in the Don Rickles vein, Bullard struck up a conversation. “I gotta know, because this could go badly for me,” he said. “Are you drunk or have you had a stroke?” Ouch. “What’s your name, sir? Your parents give you one before they took off?”

When Bullard learned that the man was a retired BC Tel installer-repairman, his mind immediately generated a punch line: “My guess is as soon as you installed something, you went right to the other job.” That beautifully economical joke would have taken others hours to write.

Another example came when, after speaking to an American music teacher, he got to know a man with a gutter business who gave a convoluted explanation of his job. For clarification, Bullard turned to the American, who replied, “I wouldn’t know about that, I’m a teacher.” “That’d be a great bumper sticker,” the comic replied, laughing. And while we were all chewing that over, he added, “If you can’t read this, chances are I was yours.”

Not all of his jokes are as clever, but he gets extra points from the improv aspect of the show. Some lines work just because we know they’re in the moment; if they were part of a prepared act, they’d be less noteworthy. But the bottom line in the comedy business is laughs, and Bullard got ’em.