Steve Solomon feared his comedy might not go down well out of his native New York.

But on Thursday night a wildly appreciative audience took him to their hearts in a performance that drew an ovation from some sectors of a packed City Hall.

Not that his brand of humour will have come as a surprise. Anyone who has seen a Woody Allen movie will be familiar with the "why does it always happen to me" school of comedy.

Making the most of a gift for voices and an ear for dialogue, Mr. Solomon drew the audience into his life as a put-upon son of mixed and eccentric parentage.

His one-man show My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish and I'm in Therapy is, understandably, set in his shrink's room.

And, as he waits for another session, he takes us through anecdotes about real characters in his life including chain smoking sisters and flatulent dogs.

The show features a few good one liners as well as a few hundred jokes older than the pensioners his comedy concentrates on.

More than once he told the audience: "Don't get ahead of me" as he lined himself up for another rather geriatric pay-off line.

But it was all lapped up by an audience who were up for it from the off, roaring with laughter at every comic morsel pushed their way.

It reminded me of the receptions given to the last act in a comedy club who normally gets a glowing response in the wee hours as the the audience is thoroughly warmed up after hours of drinking and laughing.

Yet Mr Solomon managed to get the same response from his opening gags at 8 p.m. in a seemingly sober City Hall from a crowd determined to relish old school comedy.

Indeed the liner notes on the programme come with the disclaimer that Mr. Solomon has been penning jokes for so many years that the old ones are his anyway.

The raconteur told us about the significant moment on his life's journey from Brooklyn boyhood to stage performer where he recalled playing to Japanese tourists who knew not a word of English.

This reviewer knows how they must have felt as he was virtually the only one in the audience not constantly convulsed with laughter ? something which led his neighbour to cast disbelieving glances in the few moments she wasn't dabbing the tears from her eyes.

But who am I to quibble when a good time was had by (nearly) all?

His set isn't just a hit for comedy-starved Bermudians but has played in 37 US cities and is due to hit Broadway in November.

It must be the way he tells them.