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Under normal circumstances, being accosted at the bar by a gnomish, foul-mouthed dude with a cue-ball head and slept-in clothes isn't something that makes you glad you decided to stay out late.

But if the dude signs his tax returns "Dave Attell," then something else happens. And it's been happening too much lately, says Attell, who opens a four-night stand at the Pittsburgh Improv in Homestead.

The New York born comic, 39, wrote and hosted four seasons of "Insomniac With Dave Attell," the dive-bar bomber Comedy Central show that took viewers through the after-hours haunts of cities across America and beyond. Attell was a Rabelaisian midnight rambler who prowled bars, strip clubs, diners and the graveyards shifts of sewage treatment plants and a Tastykake factory.

But he says it became harder to find places where people hadn't seen the show. People began to audition instead of being their normal sloshed selves.

"We'd get circled by hundreds of drunk people," says a just-out-of-bed Attell, reached at his apartment in Manhattan. "We'd go to a bar where there was nobody, and somebody would make a phone call and 50 people would show up. There was no security. I kept thinking people were going to get crushed like (at) a Who concert."

In search of untapped territory, he took "Insomniac" overseas to Germany, where he filmed a two-hour special, rubbing elbows with drag queens and contortionists, and entertained troops at a U.S. military base. The special aired recently on Comedy Central.

That will be the last "Insomniac" for a while, he says, although he's not averse to filming an episode in Iraq or "someplace very off the map."

Meanwhile, he's going back to the comedy clubs. His act, which he describes as "a little blue and a little dirty," will be different than the one he did during last year's Comedy Central tour with Lewis Black, which stopped at the Benedum Center. Much of the material was included on his CD, "Skanks for the Memories."

"I get more stuff from doing club work," he says. "Theater shows, you always feel this pressure to make it a great show. The clubs are better, because you get more time, and it's looser."

An underrated wit, Attell says he improvised most of the quips and banter on "Insomniac." Asked about the recent basket-brawl between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons, who charged into the stands to retaliate against taunting fans, he dunks a three pointer.

"Those (fans) who got popped, it's not often that you get beaten down by a millionaire," he says. "If you look at it that way, it's like, 'Wow, this is kind of cool. Here's a guy who's worth millions chasing me around and getting me in a headlock. It's kind of your world being turned upside down. It's not like Bill Gates is going to chase you down the street."

He'll hang out with fans and sign autographs after the show, but he politely declines an offer to go along on an impromptu "Insomniac" tour of after-hours Pittsburgh.

"One way to look at it is: It's a sign to stop drinking," he says. "The other way to look at it is that they like the show and understand that it's their show. If it wasn't for drunk people, the show wouldn't have lasted as long as it has."

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