KYM Whitley makes her living from making people laugh and she believes that all of us need to see the funny side of every situation, no matter how serious or tragic it might appear to be.

Laughing is important, so life can go on, says Ms Whitley, and laughs will be high on the agenda when she appears at City Hall in the show A Belly Full of Laughs tonight and tomorrow night.

Ms Whitley is already familiar to thousands in Bermuda as a presenter of the BET show Oh Drama! and she has also appeared in movies such as Ice Cube's Next Friday.

Her impressions of the island and its people will provide her with much of her material for the show in Hamilton.

Photographer ARTHUR BEAN and reporter JONATHAN KENT stopped by for a chat with Ms Whitley on Wednesday, the day after she arrived on the island.

Q: What brings you to Bermuda?

A: I'm here to do the show A Belly Full of Laughs. Robin Givens asked me to come. I've known Robin for several years and we did a TV show called Sparks together. She also had a play her mother had written, Joy In The Morning, that we did in New York.

Robin is not in the show, she's the producer. She will not definitely not be telling jokes. She has nothing funny to say. I've taught her all her comic skills. She asked me to come down here about a month ago. When Robin comes up with ideas, they usually come through.

Q: You must have a busy schedule, so this show must be important to you for you to fit it in?

A: Her doing it in Bermuda helped. If Robin had said, 'Look, we're doing this thing in Texas', she might not have seen me! Robin always does everything first-class. She has me at the Fairmont Princess Hotel. We ate at this wonderful restaurant, Rustico. The treatment that you receive here is an experience in itself. The people are fabulous.

Q: What are your first impressions of the island?

A: Everything's A-class. Even though the weather's not sunny and beautiful, the people are wonderful and the hospitality is great.

Q: I understand you have been to Bermuda before, as a little girl. What memories have you got of that visit?

A: My memories are of being at the Southampton Princess Hotel. I remember white sandy beaches and my brother got to ride a moped. All these years, it's like I've been abused as a child because in my mind I've been thinking, 'I have to ride a moped'.

Q: Is that something you're going to do this time?

A: Yes. I want to get on a moped. But I'm afraid because I might get on the wrong side of the street. I want to go to the Aquarium and I want to ride the Wildcat. And I want to go downtown . . . I'm running out of days.

Q: How long are you here for?

A: I'm here until Sunday. The shows are on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and they all start at 8 p.m. Then we'll have parties after each show.

Q: How did you get into comedy?

A: I would say I've been doing comedy for ten years. Actually it was right before Redd Foxx (a stand-up comedian who starred in the hit 1970s TVshow Sanford and Son) died. Redd (pictured right) saw me talking and being funny - I wasn't trying to be funny - and he said, 'Are you a stand-up?' I said, 'No', and he said, 'Well, you should be'. He said, 'Put ten minutes together and I'll help you out'.

When you first start, ten minutes is like climbing a mountain. If he'd said three, I might have said, 'OK'. I believe I missed out on an opportunity there, but the day that he passed was the day I did my first three minutes. And I dedicated my show to him. I was scared to death, but I said, 'I believe I just missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime'.

Q: Where was that first show?

A: It was in Los Angeles, on a small little stage called the World Stage. There were about 20 people there. It was nerve-racking. But once the comedy bug has got you, that's it. I call myself an 'impro' comic. I don't have a set routine. I do have some things I like to talk about. I really like to talk off the top of my head and talk to the audience, just have a good time.

Q: How did that first show go? Do you remember much about it?

A: I got a couple of chuckles. It was enough to say, keep it going.

Q: Where did it go from there?

A: From there, it went to comedy clubs and then on to a show called Comedy in the Hood. We were on the road doing stand-up. And then I did stand-up on television for the Apollo Comedy Hour. Now that was scary. I almost passed out on stage, literally. I had stage fright.

The stage manager had to push me on stage - I would not go. He said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, Kym Whitley!' and I just said, 'No, I'm not going'. And he looked me me as if to say, 'You'd better go out there'. So once again he introduced me.

It was a huge auditorium and it was packed. Then he pushed me. There was a little ledge in this doorway you had to go through and I tripped over it when I went out on stage in front of all these people. All I said was 'I'm tripping!' and they laughed. The rest of it was a blur. I was on automatic pilot. I don't think I waited for laughs and at the end I said, 'Thank you, good night', and I ran off the stage.

Q: Where did you go from there?

A: After that I went on television and I got myself a comedy club in LA, called the Ha Ha Cafe.

Q: Do you do shows there?

A: I've hosted there for the last five years, on Wednesday nights. It was just a restaurant and I saw it and talked to the owner and said, 'You know what, I can bring some people here'. We changed it into a comedy club with a stage and lighting. Then I went onto television and into films.

Q: So how did you get onto the BET show Oh Drama?

A: Actually, me and Robin, we did a talk show together called Girlfriends for Imagine Television. They almost sold it and it didn't go anywhere so I took the concept to BET and said, 'Why don't you do a show with three women talking?' And they took it. The rest is history and it's been a lot of fun.

Q: How long have you been doing the show?

A: That has been going on for two years, going on three. But at the moment, they are just showing re-runs. We haven't done any new shows.

Q: Is comedy something that comes naturally or do you think it can be taught?

A: I think it has to be natural, because timing is very, very important. Sometimes I think I'm funny and there are a lot of people who think I'm funny, but I know people who are really funny. I think it's something you have to work on, finding things to talk about.

Q: Where does you comedy come from and what's it inspired by?

A: Life. Everything is about life and you can make it funny. Tragic things that happen - comics wait about two days before they do something on it. Take 9/11. That was so tragic. Comics waited about a week before they started on it. We do it because life has to go on and that's why you have to be able to make fun of everything.

My parents are actually very funny. They say crazy things. My mom, she doesn't even think she's being funny. The other day, she was watching Oprah and they were talking about females and their eggs and how they could freeze them.

She called me up and said, 'You'd better freeze your eggs, you're getting kinda old'. And she didn't realise that was funny. It's like if I bought something that was too small, she'd say, 'Why'd you buy a medium, you've never been a medium'. My brothers are funny too.

Q: I understand you were brought up in Africa.

A: Yes, I was in the Sudan for four years. My father was building schools there. He's an architect. There was a black family, a white family and a Chinese family. I know it sounds like a joke, but we were three families there and we were very close.

So I was in Sudan early in life and I had a British accent. I went back to the States and my mother said I lost the accent within about a week. She said, 'Oh my God, what happened to her British accent?! We have to go back to Africa'. So that was interesting.

Coming to Bermuda was also a highlight of my life. My parents have always travelled. I've been to Europe and have cousins in Sweden. It's been a good experience.

Q: Who are the comedians you admire the most?

A: Eddie Murphy, I'm definitely a big fan of his, it's the characters he can pull together in movies, and Whoopi Goldberg. Monique of The Parkers, she's very funny and is a good friend of mine. Of course, there's Redd Foxx, the one who told me to do it. I admire people who are quick off the top of their head, like Jamie Fox, every time he opens his mouth, it's funny - people who are just naturally funny when you're around them.

Q: What sort of comedy will you be doing in Bermuda? Will it be family stuff or will it be risque?

A: I'm an impro comic, so it will be whatever the people of Bermuda give me. It will be somewhere between family, risque, everyday life, relationships. I'll talk a lot about Bermuda, what I've seen when I've walked around and seen things and people. The British accents, the black people with green eyes - that's been amazing to me. I was thinking, what kind of country is this, I thought everybody was wearing contacts.

Q: You haven't spent many hours on the island but have you seen much already that would make comic material?

A: Oh yes, I have. I saw something on television yesterday that said Bermuda had hardly any unemployment, no poverty. That's pretty much heaven. I was looking for the Pearly Gates when I got here. I will talk about the big Bacardi building, a beautiful palace of liquor. The black people with the green eyes and the British accents. I'm going to look around and see what is really going on in Bermuda. God has really blessed me to be able to come here.

Q: What sort of format will the show have?

A: With Robin as the producer, it could be anything. I might end up tap dancing, who knows? There's going to be music, the gombey dancers, stand-up comedy, lots of giveaways. There'll be singing, a few Christmas songs. In fact, I would call it a holiday special, there'll be something for everyone.

Q: So is Christmas a fun time for you?

A: You know, I loved Christmas as a child, but now that I have to buy gifts for people, no. No, really I like Christmas, it's a nice time of year.

But I think we should always show our appreciation for one another throughout the year. Christmas is a time for doing that, but everyone's doing it, so sometimes you don't feel so special, so sometimes I wait until January to send things!

Q: How's your movie career going?

A: Wonderfully. I have a film coming out in January called Deliver Us From Eva, it's a love comedy with LL Cool J and Gabriel Union. It's going to be really funny. I just finished a movie with Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston and Alec Baldwin. And they're still filming that and they don't have a name for it yet. That comes out some time next year. I'm working constantly. I have a web site, kymwhitley.net

Q: You must have a fantastic lifestyle, don't you?

A: No, it's not that fantastic. I am blessed. I know it could be worse. That's what I say to people, 'You think you have troubles, look at the next person and be thankful for what you have'. I have a comfortable life, but I worry about how I'm going to pay the bills in three months' time or next month.

As an actress, you're always looking for the next job. You don't have the security of a 9 to 5 job. So when you're working on a job, you're looking for the next job. You might be working on a movie, but you're always on the phone trying to work out what's next.

Q: What are your ambitions?

A: To keep producing - I just produced a movie called Love Chronicles which we're working on the sale of right now. Writing, creating, having a family one day and travelling, one day I want to go back to Africa. I would love to take my parents back. And to lose maybe 150 pounds. That would leave me at about 20 pounds, but's that's what I want to be, walking around at 20 pounds!