Ben Elton in Get a Grip at ASB Theatre

Ben Elton describes his fridge as a halfway house for food between the dinner table and the bin -

Ben Elton has undergone a transformation. No longer is he the cynical young smart-arse he once was. Now, he is a grumpy old codger.

As the lights went down at 8 o'clock sharp, Elton began his 2-hour tirade (including a 20-minute interval), which covered everything from politics and religion through to ageing and parenthood.

Elton raced through the first 15 minutes, equally oblivious to the late-comers and stragglers as he was to the bemused faces of the audience, struggling to comprehend his rapid-fire dialect.

It's hard to tell whether his pace slowed, or if we simply became accustomed to it. But gradually things started to make sense, the audience relaxed and some belly laughs were had.

Elton announced the show has a theme, a political satirical theme: "The size of my Mars Bar." Surprisingly, this wasn't a puerile phallic metaphor, but a genuine observation of today's society and our obsession with "big is best".

When it seemed Elton had forgotten this theme entirely - as he embarked on ranting tangents about American fundamentalists, conspiracy theories and scrotal waxing - he would subtly and masterfully come back to the theme, explaining his logic.

Without doubt, this is Elton's forte. He is a master storyteller. Even when you are not laughing, you're entranced by his energy and smirking at the truism of his tales.

Elton is also a master impersonator. Whether it be Prince Phillip, Bob Geldof or his Australian mother-in-law, Elton's skilled mimicry is hilariously uncanny. A personal favourite was "those two bitches", Trinny and Susannah. Or "Skinny and Tranny" as Elton prefers to call them. "One's an annoying Nazi and I swear the other's a bloke."

But perhaps the funniest part of Get a Grip was Elton's recollections of parenting.

He refers to his fridge as a halfway house, for food between the dinner table and the bin. "A unit for rotting food in."

Whether you have children or not, you relate to his predicament and laugh half out of amusement and half out of pity.

Elton has been transformed. Now he's just like the rest of us. He may be a grumpy old codger, but he's still very endearing and a funny bugger to boot.