Laugh! Festival at the St James Theatre

By PETER GRIFFIN

Flamboyant one-man comedy machine Peter Bergman elicited a murmur of agreement when he delivered a single line of wisdom early in last night's comedy show: "You Kiwis have been the butt of poor humour for far too long."

Unfortunately, Bergman then trotted out some of the lame jokes that his touring counterparts from the Northern Hemisphere have been filling their shows with for far too long.

There was everything from violating sheep to crossing the dateline to teasing our national icon - a wimpy green fruit that often decorates a serving of salmon in the United States.

The Kings and Lovegroves of this world know better than to even go there, though Bergman did squeeze a couple of good cracks out of the Maori TV saga.

And he wasn't so arrogant as to not give his own culture the satirical once-over.

His over-the-top impressions of American TV ads were hilarious, showing his flair for role-play and a wonderfully animated voice, cultivated no doubt through decades of writing and performing comedy for radio.

But then the subject matter turned to September 11. "You may ask is there anything funny in terrorism? I would say, hopefully my last 20 minutes."

Well, maybe the first 10 anyway.

It was only when Bergman dispensed with the cliched localised jokes and quips about anthrax and American patriotism that he really began to satisfy his small audience.

Hilarious rants on everything from the digital revolution and rise of the virtual office (where virtually nothing gets done) to genetic modification and human cloning, hit the mark.

As did Bergman's ingenious poems delivered with the skill of a seasoned storyteller.

In the end, as comedy always does, Bergman managed to steer the jokes in the direction of the male genitalia - which was all the more appropriate given the penis puppetry which was taking place in another part of town.

"It's your one straight friend you can't rub the wrong way," Bergman told the men in the audience.

With that he trotted off the stage ending a show which had it been compressed into a half-hour would have been a real laugh fest.