COMEDY REVIEW : Jokes Only a Koala Could Love

“G’day, hi, buenos aires, what’s up,” said Paul Hogan, giving a multilingual introduction to his evening of “stand-up anthropology” at UCLA’s Royce Hall Wednesday night, and pretty much establishing the depth of all his cross-cultural digging right there.

For anyone curious about what sort of comedic performance art the promised “stand-up anthropology” might turn out to be, the full extent of his ethnographies were, in fact, a lot of low-key gags about the fact that Hogan is from Down Under and we aren’t and, hoo ha, aren’t there some amusing differences in the way we do things?

As a wry social anthropologist, or even as a (let’s call a spade a spade) stand-up comic, let’s just say that Hogan makes a great Australian commercial pitchman.

Hogan had a few extant moments, but for the most part, the “Crocodile Dundee” actor came off as a dated “Tonight Show” comic professing to spoof culture who’s made the mistake of isolating himself from it.

Despite having featherweight, mark-missing material, Hogan still managed to ride the good will of his audience with decent timing, likable droll presence and an overwhelming geniality that precludes any hint of raunchiness or mean-spiritedness. Given the tide in the other direction, gentility and g’delivery count for something.