Less than a year ago, Andy Bumatai was lying in a hospital bed. Incapacitated by the aftereffects of chemotherapy for cancer of the tongue and lymph nodes, Bumatai kept his mind on two things that were on his bucket list.

His first wish was to be able to drink water from a cup instead of through a feeding tube. The other was being able to resume work on the customized 1967 Harley-Davidson chopper that he had build up from a bare frame to fully functional showpiece.

By the end of 2016, Bumatai was able to strike both those goals off his list.

Beyond that, he’s recovered to the point that he feels ready to return to the stage.

He’s returning to Waikiki for a one-night, one-show performance with friend and fellow comedian Kaleo Pilanca at the Blue Note Hawaii on Sunday. It’s a one-off show, as was the pair’s Koolau Ballrooms appearance on Feb. 18, billed as the “Damaged Goods Comedy Tour.”

Bumatai’s gig at the Blue Note will kick off a series of comedy nights at the Waikiki nightclub.

Bumatai said Pilanca played a role in his return to live comedy.

“Kaleo and I are doing ‘The Daily Pidgin’ online together,” Bumatai explained, referring to a YouTube series that they have developed. “He asked if I’d ever consider getting back into stand-up. Then promoter Greg Azus suggested doing the Blue Note.”

The younger Pilanca has become something of a protege for Bumatai, 63. One of the changes Bumatai has made since recovering from chemotherapy is creating a new channel for “The Daily Pidgin,” to go with his ongoing “Toolin’ with Andy Bumatai,” which features videos of him riding his Harley around Oahu shooting the breeze with people along the way.

Pilanca is the new host of the pidgin show, but it retains Bumatai’s slogan, “No quote me, I might be wrong.”

“His pidgin is way more authentic; it’s how he speaks normally,” Bumatai said, praising Pilanca. “I don’t really speak pidgin on a daily basis — well, maybe I did in the sixth grade — and all that stuff he talks about, he’s genuinely like that.”

These days, Bumatai looks healthy and energetic, and sounds almost as good as ever. But he said returning to stand-up after a two-year break is an intimidating prospect.

“Comedy is like (shooting) pool. The one who does it the most is usually the best at it, so when you take two years off like I did and come back, you’re always a little worried.”

Happy as Bumatai is these days — he is officially cancer-free — he isn’t taking the future for granted. His older brother, the late actor/comedian Ray Bumatai, battled cancer and appeared to have beaten it, but then the cancer returned. Jimmy Borges and Kirk Matthews likewise had periods when they were officially cancer-free. Whatever the future holds, Bumatai describes his own near-death experience as a life-changer.

“You don’t survive cancer. You survive cancer treatment,” he said. “It’s a killer — and aside from the physical side of it, the psychological effects are something I hadn’t counted on. You you really prioritize things.

“You really appreciate your time. Every day is a gift and my ‘pain threshold for bull—— thing’ is so high, it’s like nothing bothers me any more.”

Bumatai recalled visiting Ray shortly before he died.

“As soon as I got there I started complaining about how I’d spent 20 minutes stuck in traffic on the way to the hospital. Ray looked at me and said, ‘I’d kill to be stuck in traffic.’”

“The alarm almost went off for me,” Bumatai said. “Now every day is a gift. Comparatively I’m feeling great, but as far as being 100 percent, I would give myself a solid 85. My energy is a little low maybe, and the voice is a little raspy, but it’s coming back. Every day is a gift and it’s really hard to be an acerbic comic when you feel like that.”

He paused a moment, recalling his experience in battling the cancer.

“I lost 45 pounds. When I was 210, my doctor told me two more points in the wrong direction and I’d be on insulin. This is probably a healthier weight, but I can’t recommend the diet.”

Bumatai has been a pioneer and a pacesetter in island entertainment almost from the time he got his first paid engagement — doing stand-up between Frank De Lima’s shows at the Noodle Shop — in the late 1970s.

“I kept the $10 check for years,” he said, adding that Melveen Leed took him aside one night and said, “You know, boy, you’re not that funny but you get balls.”

“I always appreciate Frank’s mentoring,” Bumatai says. “He really helped me in a lot of ways — even wardrobe.”

Bumatai rose quickly after that. He filled Rap Reiplinger’s place as a third member of Booga Booga; headlined Kojack’s, a cocktail lounge across from what was then the police station on Young Street; opened for Keola & Kapono Beamer at the Ocean Showroom in the Outrigger Reef Hotel; and then headlined the Monarch Room at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

His latent talents as an actor and scriptwriter were tapped by television director/producer Larry Fleece and resulted in his first television special, “Andy Bumatai’s School Daze” in 1979, a thinly disguised account of his years as an underachiever at Waianae High School. He followed it with a second special, “All in the ‘Ohana,” in 1980.

“One of the criticisms of ‘High School Daze’ was that all the characters I did looked the same,” Bumatai said. “So I said, ‘If I’m gonna do a new show, how can I do a show where it’s OK that all the characters look the same?’

“That’s how we came up with the family thing. That was Larry Fleece’s baby — Larry, Phil Arnone, John Wray, but primarily Larry.”

The mainland called and Bumatai answered, taking his made-in-Hawaii insights to audiences nationwide. Eventually he returned to Hawaii and branched out into other business ventures.

“I’ve tried a bunch of day jobs. I had a chain of cellphone stores, and I realized I have to be very careful about getting bored. It wasn’t creative enough. I had fun doing the commercials, but other than that, the daily grind of being down there and ‘activating people’ and all that kind of stuff — I left it to other people, which was a big mistake.”

Bumatai found more creative opportunities working with local television stations and producing shows online.

“I was on TV for five years including OC16 and K5, and then social media came along — YouTube channels and all that — and I think the dynamic is changing. I love television, don’t get me wrong, but it’s so much work compared to other things,” he said.

“YouTube you cut for content, you cut for creativity. With television, everything is timed down to the second and you cut or add for length. Right now I have to conserve energy as best I can.”

When Bumatai hosted his first online television talk show 10 years ago, the concept of “online” was difficult for many people in Hawaii to grasp.

“I’d say I was online, and they’d ask, ‘What channel is that?’” he said.

Now he’s reaching an audience for whom hand-held devices are the preferred platform, and the idea of passively sitting somewhere and watching something seems quaint.

“My plan is to apply the television producer model to YouTube and social media,” he said. “I also want to be on the ‘leading edge’ and get off the ‘bleeding edge.’

“The ‘bleeding edge’ is like I’m blazing the trail for everybody and doing all this stuff and then I eat it and someone else comes along and says, ‘I see how you did it!’ and copies it.” Bumatai said. “I was doing the car show thing six months before (comedian Jerry) Seinfeld, and now he’s the guy who ‘invented’ the car interview. Then ‘car karaoke’ came along. I guess its proof of the concept.”

“Now people ask me how I set up the cameras on the motorcycle. It took me several months to work that out and they want the secret just like that!”

A Bumatai Timeline

1977: Bumatai gets his first paid job as a comedian performing during Frank De Lima’s breaks at the Noodle Shop

1977: Joins James Grant Benton and Ed Ka‘ahea in Booga Booga

1979: Becomes resident headliner at Kojack’s

1979: Opening act for Keola & Kapono Beamer at the Ocean Showroom

1979: Wins his first Na Hoku Hanohano Award (Most Promising Artist) for “Andy Bumatai — Hawaii’s First Stand-Up Comic”

1979: Stars in his first television special, “Andy Bumatai’s School Daze”

1980: Wins his second Hoku Award (Comedy Album of the Year) for “Andy — Live in Waikiki”

1980: Stars in his second television special, “All in the ‘Ohana” (original air date Aug. 14, 1980)

1981: Brings local-style stand-up comedy to visitors with precedent-setting engagement headlining the Monarch Room at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel

1981: Wins his third Hoku Award (Comedy Album of the Year) for “All in the ‘Ohana”

1992: Cast as Big Kahuna in the CBS action/drama series “Raven”

1995: Wins his fourth Hoku Award (Comedy Album of the Year) for “Stand Up Comic 198421994”

1999: Releases “Andy Bumatai’s School Daze 20th Anniversary” with additional content

2007: Stars in “The Andy Bumatai Show” online

2012: Creates weekly local television series “In the Car” and “Toolin’ Around with Andy Bumatai”

2016: Announces that he has cancer in the base of his tongue and nearby lymph glands; undergoes treatment and experiences a full recovery

2017: Returns to Waikiki for a one-nighter at Blue Note Hawaii