COMEDY may be a recent addition to the entertainment circuit in Hongkong, but down in Admiralty a double act with a 22-year history is bringing the house down.
No discredit to the real performers at the Godown's Sunday comedy club, but Ms Carole Allen and Mr Bill Nash - partners of the popular bistro, bar and nightclub - should be the ones on the stage.
Over 22 years of working together, they have acquired an amazing repertoire of real-life jokes and stories. These they tell with self-deprecating humour, fluidity, loud laughs and the occasional table thump for emphasis.
Where others view interviews as a hard-sell opportunity, Mr Nash and Ms Allen treat them as a stage on which to perform. One is witness, not participant. There is little point in attempting to direct proceedings.
This camaraderie started in 1971. The first Godown was founded by Mr Nash in 1967, and Ms Allen began working as manageress - three days after arriving in Hongkong from England - in 1971.
''She came from heaven,'' Mr Nash said. ''I thought she'd only stay for two or three days.'' Their roles at the Godown are distinct. He is the strategist; she the day-to-day manager. Or, as Ms Allen succinctly put it: ''He's the brains, and I get on with the nitty gritty.'' ''I just come and pick fault - when I'm allowed to,'' Mr Nash added.