One of the stars of Bee Movie, Tom Papa, will put some buzz into a comedy show opening tomorrow bringing a few laughs to lighten the recession blues.

It is the opening night of Just for Laughs Bermuda, presented by Transact Internet Services,which will be staged at the Mid-Ocean Amphitheatre, at the Fairmont Southampton Hotel, from tomorrow to Saturday.

The event will be hosted by Shaun Majumder, of the recently cancelled Fox comedy 'Unhitched', and will feature international comedians such as Danny Bhoy, Arj Barker, Matt Kirshen as well as Bermuda's own Jonathan Young.

The opening night will be a gala event 'comedy club style' with reserved round tables and table bar service.

"In these times people are looking for a laugh more than ever," Mr. Papa told The Royal Gazette in a telephone interview from his home in New York. "I think in the last great depression what got people through was booze and comedy and I am hoping that will hold true this time.

"People are stressed and are looking for a good laugh. If you go to a good film comedy, you are lucky if you laugh five or six times. This is a live comedy show where you will be able to laugh for three straight hours."

Mr. Papa said he had been to Bermuda before, as a child, but it wasn't necessarily a happy trip.

"I was there once when I was 12 years old with my parents," he said. "I got poison ivy behind my knee. Every time I walked anywhere it hurt, so I mostly remember lying in a bed in the hotel room."

He said he planned to just wing it when he got to Bermuda, rather than research the Island beforehand.

"What I remember mostly from when I was a child was a lot of pink homes and mopeds," he said.

Mr. Papa has been in several television shows including 'The New Adventures of Old Christine', and he worked on the Bee Movie as the voice of a pollen jock, and the guy with the bear in the courtroom. He also performed in the cartoon 'The Haunted World of El Superbeasto' which he co-wrote with Rob Zombie based on the comic book series.

"Being a voice in a cartoon is pretty easy, actually," Mr. Papa said. "You don't have to memorise your lines. You can just read them while you are doing it. You just go crazy in the sound booth."

Mr. Papa has two children aged six and three. He said they did not know him as a world famous comedian, just as a bee.

Putting modesty aside, Mr. Papa said his comedy routines are usually "hysterical". "My comedy routines are pretty much observational stuff," he said. "I talk about friends and family."

He started in comedy in New York, while still in high school. "After school I showed up at a comedy show on an open mic night and gave it a shot," he said. "It went really well the first time and then it didn't go well for about a year.

"I think my first routine was something about how they were handing out condoms in school; and we needed a blood test for a library card."

He said after high school he had a bunch of bad jobs, including working in a car factory. "It was a factory that made these crappy little cars," he said. "I thought 'there has to be something better than this'."

And there was something better. Today, he is most proud of making a career out of comedy. "The biggest thing so far is that I am still going," he said.

He most admired comedians such as George Carlin, who died last year, Bill Cosby and Jerry Seinfeld. "I worked with Jerry Seinfeld on the road a lot," said Mr. Papa. "That was great, because I grew up watching him."

Mr. Papa is currently working on an upcoming movie called 'The Informant' directed by Steven Soderberg. It is based on a true story about a corporate whistleblower and stars Matt Damon. Mr. Papa plays Matt Damon's character's boss.

"It is a pretty funny movie," said Mr. Papa. "Tom Smothers of Smothers Brothers fame plays my father.

"Everyone was a bumbling idiot in this price fixing scheme involving the agri-business company ADM, and they turned it into a movie. I got to yell at Matt Damon, so that was fun."

But he said, being in movies was just a way to attract people to his real love, stand-up comedy.

As a stand-up comedian, Mr. Papa ran his one-man show Only Human at the prestigious Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal in 2007.

He has starred in two of his own Comedy Central Presents specials and has been hand-picked by Jerry Seinfeld as the opening act on his ongoing tour. In 2005, Mr. Papa independently released his live comedy CD Calm, Cool and Collected.

Tickets for the opening night of Just for Laughs Bermuda are $100, and $75 for the following nights. Show times are 8 p.m. tomorrow, 9 p.m. and 10.30 p.m. on Friday and 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Saturday.

For tickets, go to www.comedyevent.bm or buy them at Transact Bermuda on Internet Lane off Reid Street or at Picture Perfect at the Heron Bay Plaza in Southampton. Or telephone 232-2255.