Comedian Dave Attell will bring in a third season of his Comedy Central show, “Insomniac,” at 10:30 p.m. on Thursday. Attell, who describes “Insomniac” as ” ‘E!’s Wild On’ for ugly people,” visits the night life of cities across North America, hanging out all night anywhere from bars for dogs to newspaper stands. The day before his new season begins, Attell touched on what we can expect from his latest cross-country romp.

Jesse Stensby: I guess we’ll just start with the obligatory “talk about the new season” stuff. Is there anything different or new people can expect from this season?

Dave Attell: There are some new shows coming out. Myrtle Beach is the first one. We went down there during Bike Week so that was pretty interesting. We hit Cleveland, Portland, we hung out with a guy in Oakland who does crime-scene cleanup. We went up to Alaska during summer solstice in Anchorage. That was pretty interesting to see like a party scene during the — well, it looks like it’s daylight, but it’s really night. The sun’s up the whole time.

JS: OK, does anything particularly crazy stick out in your mind from the whole run of the series?

DA: I think it was in Boise, Idaho, where we did the artificial cow insemination, which was pretty cool. In the show you’ll see tomorrow night, we got to see alligators at an alligator farm which was pretty neat. Usually anything involving animals is pretty interesting, whether we’re shooting them or inseminating them or hanging around them late at night — kind of creepy.

JS: I noticed your show always starts out with the tail end of your standup show in every city. Do those shows get scheduled first and then “Insomniac”? Or do you try to get a standup show where you’re filming?

DA: In the beginning we were doing it where my stand-up shows were. Now because of the shooting schedule where it is, I try to get a show in the town we’re going to go to.

JS: Where did the motivation for a show like “Insomniac” come from?

DA: It’s a nonscripted show and I wanted to do a show that kind of was on the road like I was as a comic, you know. The idea is basically I just keep going till the sun comes up. Like a comic, you know, you do your show and then you hit the bars. I always wondered if there were people who were working late doing other jobs. It’s a real simple idea.

JS: Do you ever find yourself running out of things to take up the time till sunup?

DA: It’s not so much running out of things to do so much as running out of places that will let us in. Unless they’ll give us permission to shoot in locations or with jobs or with people, we can’t do it. Sometimes it’s hard to get access to stuff.

JS: Were you always such an extrovert, going up and talking to random people or did that come about more through your career choice?

DA: As a kid, I didn’t really think I’d end up being a stand-up comic. I’m mostly kind of a loner type who has a job where he’s not alone. Being a standup comic, you’re on the road a lot alone. You spend a lot of time in bars and that kind of stuff. That’s kind of where all that bar stuff came from — just hanging out with the bar people. I guess there’s been a long time … I guess “Cheers” was the last real bar show.

JS: Do you see yourself getting noticed on the street a whole lot more recently?

DA: Yeah, it’s shocking, because I’m not much of a celebrity. You won’t catch me doing anything celebrity-like.

JS: Speaking of that, David Cross tells a story about how he gets confused for you at times. People come up to him in a pizzeria insisting he’s “that late-night guy.”

DA: Really?

JS: Yeah, have you gotten anything like that?

DA: No, people come up to me … they don’t believe I’m that guy. They get really adamant that I’m not him. I’m like, OK, I don’t care either way. But people come up and they know it’s me. They’ll ask me where the cameras are and what I’m doing up so early.