The 32-year-old Australian comedian has just begun a national stand-up tour, Whoopsie Daisy, but its official launch took place in the tiny NSW town of Brunswick Heads.

He's also become a global success, having inked a multi-year Hollywood TV deal - but when he picks up the phone he tells me he's getting ready that morning to "go on commercial radio and feel weird about it".

"They're all really excited, it's like being in America," he says. "But I've got tickets to sell!"

Thomas is currently living in Los Angeles, a long way from where he grew up in Brisbane. He says it's different, but it's "all just people, trying to have a nice time".

That said, he's excited to get back to a familiar environment - not just Australia, but stand-up itself. Whoopsie Daisy marks the first time he has set foot on the stage since 2013.

"I made the show I wanted to make, which is why I did the tour," he says.

"This wasn't a case of me wanting to do a show then deciding what to write. I had stuff to talk about."

Thomas has never been someone to shy away from speaking his mind. He famously took on Bob Katter on Q&A in 2014, after the North Queensland-based MP pointedly refused to accept he had a role to play in addressing the issue of queer mental health.

And he found international success with Please Like Me - a critically acclaimed comedy series that tackled topics like mental health, suicide, sexuality, divorce, abortion and infidelity with an honesty rarely seen in the most earnest of dramas.

It's a big reason he doesn't buy into the self-pitying mantra adopted by a generation of big-name stand-ups - the idea that comedians "can't say anything these days".

"I feel like people are actually more open to talking about issues. You just can't be mean," Thomas says.

"Some of these comedians ... are so angry. And they're listing all this stuff, like 'Ahh, it's the PC brigade' or whatever. No, it's just people being like 'No, don't be mean to me'.

"I think it's good that people are getting held to account. I don't think it means you can't talk about issues, it means that you have to be more thoughtful.

"Which I think really plays into my hands, to be honest. Fine for me."

Taking a deliberately thoughtful approach to his craft has worked well for Thomas - so well, in fact, he's about to debut a new show, Everything's Gonna Be Okay, which will begin airing in January on the US network Freeform.

In Everything's Gonna Be Okay he plays Nicholas, a 25-year-old still living at home who suddenly finds himself having to raise his two American half-sisters, one of whom has autism.

Nicholas looks just like Thomas - "and we sound the same and we behave the same", Thomas points out - but he isn't Josh from Please Like Me (alas, there don't appear to be any plans for a Josh Thomas cinematic universe).

"Please Like Me was semi-autobiographical. Tom [co-writer Tom Ward, who played himself in the show] was my actual best friend and the main character was very much me," Thomas says.

"But this show is completely fiction. So changing the name [of the character] was just signalling that. Nothing in this show happened in real life.

"Making things autobiographical [in Please Like Me] was an easy first step to working out how to tell stories ... I now have the skills required to make stories up. Which is harder to do.

"But I couldn't keep making shows about me. I don't have that much going on."

Writing, starring in and producing a TV show is very much a full-time gig - Thomas writes "TV producer" now on his visa paperwork - which means there hasn't been much time to test drive a lot of the material in Whoopsie Daisy. But he thinks there'll be plenty in there that people can relate to.

"It's a show about turning 30, I think," he says.

"It's that feeling like 'Oh God' ... In your 20s you're still figuring it out, but when you're 30 it's all just [supposed to be figured out], which is scary because I wasn't really paying attention in my 20s."

So is that why the show is called Whoopsie Daisy?

"Don't ask me that! It's a reveal in the show," he says.

"Which I've realised is a mistake because it's the question everyone's asking me. But I can't tell you the answer.

"It's also because I think that scene in Notting Hill is funny where Hugh Grant says 'whoopsie daisies'."

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Friday's Canberra shows in particular will be a homecoming of sorts for Thomas. Several members of his family now live in the capital. His brother, he says, loves Canberra and lives on "that cool street".

As for what Thomas himself thinks of the capital?

"Well... I mostly just sit at my mum's house," he says diplomatically. "It's got nice trees?"

So is a permanent Australian homecoming on the cards? Not quite yet, he says - and he makes the case in a typically low-key but also highly strung fashion.

"I've got a contract, so I'm [in Los Angeles] for seven years if they want me," he says.

"Plus I can't bring my dog back, he's too old. I've got to stay until my dog dies!"