Debbie Reynolds at the Aotea Centre

Debbie Reynolds

The jokes sometimes came with cobwebs attached, but there was an irresistible joy in watching Debbie Reynolds do her fabulously Hollywood thing in front of paying punters.

From the moment she wandered on stage, her larger than life personality outshone the sequins covering her tiny, 74-year-old frame.

"Welcome, welcome to me ... come on, take pictures if you want. You folks have paid for your tickets. I've even got my good leg showing."

It would be too easy to label her performance as simply professional. It was also celebratory, laugh-out-loud funny and way more than we probably deserved given the less than adequate turnout.

Where was everyone? This was silver-screen royalty on a flying visit. Given the huge crowd for Boobs on Bikes, maybe she should have threatened to take her top off?

Reynolds presents herself as a retirement-aged Jill of all entertainment trades, but it was the easy and at times pointed humour that made her such a romantic-comedy mainstay that dominated.

She was never a Marilynesque bombshell, frontline singer or the most twinkle-toed of dancers, and she didn't claim to be - she happily wrote herself off as "Princess Leia's mom" - but even with her backing band reduced to drums, piano and a backing track, she flew effortlessly through cabaret-flavoured medleys of '40s hits, rattled off gags about her movie mates and ex-husbands and pulled off a spookily good Barbra Streisand.

The only pauses for breath came during some clips from her earliest film roles as a wide-eyed 16-year-old and a collection of star-filled out-takes, mostly revolving around US President-to-be Ronald Reagan's hamfisted attempts at doing up his trousers.

If there was a showstopper, it was her closing performance of her one real hit, Tammy. You could hear the pride in her voice and, from where I was sitting, it looked as if it drew a few tears from those in the bleachers.