Thursday April 24, 02:26 PM

Interview and Review: Little Howard and the Magic Pencil of Life and Death

By Mike Kilpatrick He has his own Children's BBC television show; he's entertained the Queen at the Royal Variety Performance and even stolen the show from John Campbell on Campbell live.

Now Howard Read, accompanied by the animated Little Howard, is entertaining children and adults alike in his Herald Theatre show "Little Howard and the Magic Pencil of Life and Death" as part of the NZ International Comedy Festival.

A grown-man who gives his best lines to a six-year old, two-dimensional character projected onto a screen may not sound like your cup of tea, but the show has something for everyone - almost a real-life Bart Simpson, if you like.

Kids laugh at the rude bits, while adults grin when Little Howard makes a statement straight out of an impotence advert.

But it's that endearing ability to appeal to both genres which had the busy theatre, adults included, singing and shouting and clapping at the requisite parts of the show.

However Read, who occasionally does a solo stand-up show, doesn't mind handing all the laughs to his young alter-ego.

"The best lines I have get bigger laughs coming out of his mouth than they do out of mine," he says.

"When I stopped doing stand-up I thought, 'Oh, I'll just give these lines to little Howard.'

Read thinks people listen to Little Howard more than him, because of the effort needed to create the character means he has to have thought about what has to be said . And the evidence seems to back him up.

"A joke I've done several times in front of reviewers has passed people by. But word for word the same joke from little Howard has been picked out as the best joke of the Edinburgh Festival."

But Read doesn't appear bothered by this knowledge. After all, Little Howard is voiced and animated by Read. In fact, Little Howard is practically Howard when he was err. . . little.

"Most of Little Howard's comedy comes from misunderstanding the adult world - a kid's eye view of things.

"I was very much like that as a kid. I was dyslexic so I was constantly misreading things and misunderstanding things.

"There's a joke [not in this show] where Little Howard says 'My trainers were made by Nike. They let children as young as nine work in their sweetshops in Indonesia.'

"That's based on the fact that I never knew how to spell sweat or sweet. It all came from my brain and the way it misunderstands the world."

The duo, while new to New Zealand, have been around in the UK for a few years and are obviously well thought of. They were nominated for a Perrier Award - an influential award at the yearly Edinburgh Comedy Festival - in 2003, alongside New Zealand's own Flight of the Conchords.

That should give you an idea of the esteem they are held in by the comedy fraternity, which isn't bad considering the idea started out as a "smug joke", according to Read.

"When I first started doing little Howard basically he did compeering and stuff. He'd walk on and he'd say 'What's your name, where are you from - the man in the front row with the beard.'

"I'd be controlling him with pre-recorded and pre-animated things - a database of responses - so he could then say 'Where are you from?'".

"He'd then say your home town if it was programmed in and if not he'd say 'That's my favourite town in the world'".

He could also do the same with a pre-programmed joke about someone's occupation, making it appear Little Howard was a master improviser.

"That was his trick to start with but it turned into the bit that people got really excited about.

"So the next year I wrote the whole show as a double act and then we got nominated for the Perrier award and then carried on from there."

Which brings us back nicely to the current show.

From the moment the doors in the theatre opened, Read was working the crowd. He stood in the wings, drawing people as they came in and delighting in the reaction as they recognised themselves on the screen.

He incorporates the kids into the show as much as possible, having them throw things for Little Howard to catch, and even animating two of them so they can play on screen with Little Howard.

Thankfully the kids are all well-behaved, unlike a little girl at his last Melbourne show who went on stage and sat beside him and refused to leave - even after he asked her politely.

"The audience is slightly more savvy than Australia. Kids are getting into the show quicker and getting the jokes," he says.

So with his parting crack at our Antipodean neighbours, Read heads to the Classic for his next meeting., with Little Howard safely tucked up in his Apple laptop, ready for the next opportunity to entertain.

This is the first time a kids' comedy season has been included in the festival, and if the organisers can continue to bring talented comedians like Read to New Zealand, it won't be the last.

Grab a ticket for what is sure to be one of the hottest shows in town this year. You'll laugh, and the kids will love you for it.

Little Howard and the Magic Pencil of Life and Death is showing at the Herald Theatre until Sunday April 27. Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for children under 15.

http://www.littlehoward.co.uk