When Scotland’s Danny Bhoy begins to create one of his biennial standup-comedy tours, he starts with a few ideas and looks for a general theme. Once he’s got that, the writing begins.

This year, his show is called Age of Fools. Sounds like it could be political. Well, it is and it isn’t.

“I gave it that title and sort of set myself the task of writing a semitopical, political-type show,” he says on the phone during a break in Montreal from his cross-Canada tour. “Without giving too much away, this show is slightly more partisan than my last shows, but it needs to be because the whole idea was to write a show about this moment in time. Naturally, everything now is viewed through the prism of your beliefs, whether they be political or religious or whatever.”

Ah, so it is political.

“I’ve tried to steer away from saying ‘political’ because when I first started doing this show about a year ago, I used to walk on-stage and say, ‘Every time I do something different, and this year I’ve written a political show.’ I literally could hear the audience exhale with disappointment because no one wants to hear that at the moment,” Bhoy says. “Everyone wants to get away from politics. Everyone wants that escapism of being in the theatre and not having to think about how bad things are. I enjoyed the fact that over the course of the show, I would turn them around because it doesn’t feel like a political show.”

Okay, so not political. Got it.

“It’s a political show, if you like, that doesn’t feel like a political show,” he replies. “But now I’ve dropped the word political and I just say ‘topical’ because it’s just less of an uphill battle in the first few minutes.”

Oh, so topical it is. That’s all. Nothing to stew over.

“To be honest,” he clarifies, “it’s not even topical anymore. It’s relevant rather than topical. It's stuff about now, rather than stuff from previous shows about childhood or whatever.”

Let’s just forget about descriptors other than the most important one: funny. That's all that counts in a standup show.

Bhoy sells out theatres in North America without a regular presence here on TV, or anywhere else, based solely on the strength of his live performances and word of mouth. He doesn’t rush into a half-baked tour just because he needs a paycheque. He’s the Paul Masson of comedy: he will sell no comedy before its time.

“I’ve never been driven by the economics of standup, the financial side of it. I don’t mind if it takes me two years to write a new show. I’d rather do that and put all my effort into it and make sure it’s good. I have the same approach that Daniel Day-Lewis had to making films,” he says with a laugh. “He tossed away three or four scripts, but then made sure the one he was doing was something that he could put his heart and soul into.”

Just don’t call it political. But if you do, you’ll get over it.

“There’s no way anyone will come to this show and not go away laughing,” Bhoy promises, "even despite the fact it might not have the same views as them."

Danny Bhoy plays the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Saturday (December 7).