AK03: It's in the Bag at the St James Theatre

By TIM WATKIN

Selwyn would never have run money up the mike or dug deep in his pockets in a suggestive manner. Selwyn would never have broken a leafblower - one of the prizes - while blowing cash into the audience. Selwyn would never have called Canberra a "shithole". And he would never have finished the show with a hilarious song and dance routine featuring a choir, cheerleaders and glitter.

Yet at the St James last night Mikey Havoc and Jeremy Newsboy Wells successfully brought the classic gameshow It's in the Bag to a new generation - something Selwyn surely would have loved.

A radio show 49 years ago, then a TV hit from 1973, It's in the Bag was a New Zealand institution - televisual hokey pokey. It was always going to be a risky revival, yet it was a fair bet nostalgia and our fondness for Selwyn and Tineke Stevenson would overcome any purists.

A full house lapped up the distinctive 70s theme tune, backdrop and prizelist. Yes, there was even a Fisher and Paykel autowasher up for grabs.

Most of the questions were familiar: Where's North Head (Cole got that wrong), how many cents in $5, spell Rotorua ... But there were some new generation questions: Who's George Bush ("Yes, American President. I would have accepted bully, idiot, Daddy's Boy ... ), how many WMDs have been found in Iraq, and which broadcaster has destroyed his career recently?

There were also new bags - drag bag, stag bag, and the lacklustre money or the band. Poor old Dan ("I'm not single, I'm here with lady luck") struck the former and had to come back on stage in a sequinned dress and heels. It would have given Selwyn the shakes.

But Dan was not alone. Newsboy, playing Tineke, was in a flowing tangerine gown. Sadly, he was largely redundant as Mikey asked the questions and bantered with the contestants.

Walking in Selwyn's footsteps is tough and Mikey struggled at times with a live audience. Selwyn was from a time when entertainers hit the stages of smalltown New Zealand and knew how to work an audience. He knew how to boom - stop mumbling Mikey - and command.

Last night's show was late to start, dragged midway and stretched to over an hour and a half and, disappointingly, the young pretender never delivered the money line, "What'll it be Auckland?"

Nothing that a bit of tightening won't fix. There's another three nights for that. And it mattered little to the crowd - most too young to remember the 70s - who loved it. Havoc and Newsboy's reverence to the original, and infectious good humour, won the night.

"You're home and hosed," as Selwyn would say.

* It's in the Bag runs until Thursday

Herald Feature: Auckland Festival AK03

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