Lacerations risked

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33664, 14 October 1974, Page 18

Lacerations risked

At the risk of severe lacerations from the handbags of the middle-aged housewives of Christchurch, most of whom underwent marked 'emotional stress in the Town 'Hail on Saturday night, I (must admit that 1 had'never (regarded Des O’Connor as I much more than an inI offensive comic with an inInocuous voice, the charm of la happy-go-lucky milkman, and a very durable hairspray, i Perhaps I have a cynical television set or perhaps the (housewives are more susceptible to well-preserved 1 boyishness than me; I was painfully aware as Des O’Connor slinked on to the stage amid an atmosphere of matronly tension that I might be the only unmoved figure in a sea of swooning twin-sets. Mother of five Bishopdale, you were right. Des O’Connor, on stage, I found more charming and entertaining than I am entirely

willing to concede readily. He was in extremely high spirits, having spent the day celebrating twenty-one years in show business (he could still remember the day when I he stepped on to the boards | of that dingy little theatre in Newcastle, etc, etc, and his exuberance was matched by an audience whose laughter almost ran ahead of the punch lines. He himself seemed at first a little taken aback by the audience’s enthusiasm — they began cheering and clapping five minutes before he ap- ■ peared — but it would be unfair to his performance to ' say that he could not go wrong. Maybe he couldn’t; he 1 certainly didn’t. He was a 1 crooner, a rocker, a soft-shoe shuffler, competent through! 1 a range of song-and-dance-; ■ man oldies with cane and ■ boater to a strong up-tempo 1 version of “Help me make it ■ through the night.” There would have been no shortage ; of volunteers, would there,! • ladies? ! His voice was firm and • pleasant, his jokes judged' I well for his audience, nothing :too complicated and of exactly the sort that probably still rocks them in the

aisles at Butlin’s holiday: camps, where he was once a staff entertainer. But his main strength was his boyish cheerfulness, the winning smile of the sort that leads lonely middle-aged ladies to remain staring thoughtfully out of the kitchen window long after the cheeky delivery , boy’s bicycle has gone around i the corner. It was a very professional performance by an - infectiously cheerful and talented i entertainer; and another; indication that live perform- , ances can be very different ,

(from television light entertainment. Even if Des O’Connor had not been so enthralling, the show would have been worth while just to hear Pat Carroll, the Australian singer who opened the first half, and later closed it with a splendidly rollicking rock-and-roll medley that really set the pearls a-clicking. —J.M.C. Softball.— Cardinals, the touring New Zealand men’s softball club team, maintained their unbeaten record when they defeated East-; ern Transvaal, 1-0, in Germiston.