He’s warm, he’s witty and most of all you never know what is going to happen when you go to a Adam Hills gig. The exuberant Australian, who is no stranger to being the clown - after all he does have a certain gift for leaving his audience feeling uplifted, is back in the UK with his latest show, Clown Hearts.

The 45-year-old, who will be visiting Watford next week, talks of how his latest material is based on his recent life experiences. He says: “It’s about what’s going on in my life, having kids and losing parents. It is sometimes a tough area to go into, but the crux of the show is a story about when my daughter was four and asking about death because my father had just passed away. She asked, ‘Am I going to die?’ I replied, ‘Yes, but how about we have as much fun as we can because we’re here?’”

The award-winning comic adds how his daughter is not the only inspiration for this show: “At one of my shows, I met a guy with cancer. He did this thing called Naked Tuesday, so I did it with him. We recreated the famous naked photo of John and Yoko. He became an inspiration for me.

“Clown Heart is a show about laughing in the face of death. We all know that death is going to have the last laugh, so we have to get in there first. A lot of palliative care nurses have said to me that my message strikes a chord with them – and that’s lovely to hear.”

Adam, who raised (Australian) $45,000 for local homeless charities by shaking a bucket after the show during his 20-night run in Melbourne, is well-known for his spontaneity and partly what makes his shows so memorable. The Sydney-born comedian admits that he loves the “freedom of live comedy”.

He says: “I have 60 minutes of material, but each show lasts 90 minutes. Every night I try and improvise 30 minutes based on who is in the crowd. Otherwise, I’d get bored doing the same show over and over again. I love the spontaneity of things happening in the moment, and I genuinely like meeting people. It’s like compering my own show.

“Also, the audience feel like they’ve been at something special rather than merely watching a guy spout the same stuff every night. Because of that, I really feel a real connection with them. I want them to have a lovely 90 minutes and then float out of the room.”

Adam, who often jokes about his prosthetic leg, is particularly famous for taking an audience out bowling after a show. “During the last tour, I had a pre-show ritual of going tenpin bowling every night,” he explains. “But in Barnstaple, I didn’t have time before the show, so I decided to take the audience bowling afterwards.

“I told them I was going to do it, but they thought it was a joke. I had to keep telling them I was serious. So at the end of the show, I took 240 people – about half the audience – along to the bowling alley. As well as bowling, we did karaoke, the arcades and air hockey. We stayed there until one in the morning. One lovely sixty something couple told me that was the first time they had been bowling for 20 years. As I left, another couple in their late 40s were still playing air hockey and just giggling.”

He adds though, “The only problem was that word got out, and when I didn’t take the audience bowling the next night in Exeter, they got grumpy.

“When you’re touring, you can trudge through stuff,” Adam continues, “so it’s great to have a moment of pure spontaneity like that. You forget you’re on stage. You feel that you’re just in a room full of people celebrating. It’s absolutely wonderful. Each show should be an event rather than a guy just talking for an hour.”

Watford Colosseum, Monday, March 7, 8pm. Details: 01923 571102, watfordcolosseum.co.uk