ORGANISERS of the 2009 Bermuda Festival of the Performing Arts have quietly added an up-and-coming comedic star to the line up as part of the "Dahn De Hill" Fringe Festival at the Daylesford Theatre.

John Oliver, a featured actor and writer on the award-winning satirical news programme The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the host of his own stand-up special on Comedy Central earlier this year, will be performing four shows on January 23 and 24.

Mr. Oliver, who spoke exclusively to the Mid-Ocean News this week, said his trip here is a chance to hone some new material but also a chance to catch up with his good friend, Bermudian comic Jonathan Young, who will be performing with him in the festival.

"Jonathan Young is one of my best friends," he said.

"We lived together in London when we were just starting out doing stand-up. He would often talk longingly to us of Bermuda as he stared despairingly at the grey, raining London skies. I came to visit in your self-parody of a paradise last year, to see if he was telling the truth. Turns out he was. This gig is a great excuse to see him again."

While Mr. Oliver's recent comedy special John Oliver: Terrifying Times was just released in April, audiences will be treated to new material come January.

"The point of doing that special was to bury all that material – I get bored quickly," he said. "So I think it'll be all new stuff."

The comedian focuses a lot of his comedic attention on social and political commentary, particularly on the "American and British Empires". It's a very timely and fitting topic for Bermuda as the topic of Independence is always on the political dinner table.

"You are one of the last bastions of a fallen Empire," Mr. Oliver said.

"Without you, it's pretty much just us and the Falklands. And we really don't care about them, despite how we behaved in the '80s."

Growing up in Liverpool and educated at Cambridge University, Mr. Oliver was a player in the comedy troupe Footlights, which boasts other famous English actors as alumni, including Hugh Laurie (Dr. Gregory House on the hit Fox show House) and Emma Thompson, the Academy Award-winning actress. Though being an Englishman, Mr. Oliver counts a Scot as one of his main comedic influences.

"I particularly liked the work of Armando Iannucci as I was growing up," he said.

"And Jon Stewart and The Daily Show was my favourite programme before I got offered a job working here, which made that job offer all the more strange."

Mr. Oliver landed the job in 2006 as a writer and an actor portraying a hapless news correspondent on the show, making audiences cringe by asking painfully funny questions about important and newsworthy topics.

Working with some of the best comedic minds in the US can certainly be a daunting task, although Mr. Oliver says he is thoroughly enjoying the ride.

"It's about as much fun as you'd imagine it would be," he said.

"We work hard, but only at trying to make each other laugh all day. There are much, much worse ways to waste your time."

While he does act on the show, Mr. Oliver's passion is his writing.

"I like writing the most," he said. "I'm not really an actor – I can only comfortably perform stuff that I've written, or at least helped write first."

Trying to develop material for a daily news show might prove to be difficult especially since time is running out for lame-duck US President George Bush (pictured) , who some consider to be comedic gold. With President-elect Barack Obama coming to office next month, is it possible for the comic well to run dry?

"Not at all," said the comedian, who met Mr. Obama during the show's "Indecision 2008" coverage.

"Writing about the Bush administration was often a deeply depressing experience. It's actually a lot easier to write comedy about things when you're not dying inside.

"I'm really looking forward to January 20 on both an artistic and a human level. Plus – he (Mr. Obama) has Joe Biden as VP and Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State. It's not like he isn't trying to provide material already."

Along with many Bermudians and residents on the island, Mr. Oliver is a loyal Liverpool (football) fan and, like many others, disappointed about Monday's goalless draw against West Ham.

"I've learned from experience that Liverpool are only ever a game away from breaking your heart," he said. "And, they pretty much did that again with the West Ham game. They are a labour of love."

Tickets are still available but going quickly for Mr. Oliver and Mr. Young's shows that are scheduled for Friday, January 23 and Saturday, January 24. Tickets can be purchased via www.bermudafestival.org and via phone at 232-2255.