Comic and musician Jimmy Keys is coming back to Bermuda to ring in the New Year – but he is warning that life abroad has left him somewhat reformed.

Mr. Keys made a name for himself in Bermuda during the 1980s for his raucous performances at restaurants like Henry VIII.

But he moved to Florida a few years ago and has changed his show a lot since moving to the United States.

"You have to be pretty politically correct in the United States, unless you are in certain comedy clubs," Mr. Keys told The Royal Gazette in a telephone interview.

"I do a lot of theatres in the United States," he said.

"I don't do bars anymore. I am doing 200 or 300 seaters now. The changes are for the better, definitely. I did one show in front of the Archbishop of New York City."

A more refined Jimmy Keys seems to be paying off, as he was recently named Entertainer of the Year (2008) for SouthWest, Florida by Gulfshore Life Magazine. Mr. Keys is a musician but he also features comedy and does visual impressions. "It is really a cabaret variety show," he said. "I am doing some new characters this year."

Mr. Keys was last here in 2006 to play a similar New Year's Eve show to a sold-out crowd of 400.

"A lot of people came out two years ago that I hadn't seen for a long time," said Mr. Keys. "It was a real mixture of old and new people."

Although he has worked a show in Florida called 'Jimmy Keys in the Keys' he is actually living in Naples.

"Naples is quite similar to Bermuda," he said.

"There are beaches and water. There a lot of high-end places, and all types of people live here."

He has also recently performed in New Zealand, Fiji, Australia and Canada, among other places.

"My wife Kimmy (yes Kimmy and Jimmy !) and I travel quite a bit," he said.

"We are going on a cruise to the Caribbean soon."

Mr. Keys is originally from Gravesend, in Kent, England, a few miles from London.

"I grew up in the 1960s when it was a great time for bands," he said. "I never saw the Beatles, but the Rolling Stones were born 10 miles down the road from me.

"A lot of musicians came from the area that I was from. I did meet a lot of people during those days.

"Playing keyboard and singing in bands took me all over the place."

He moved to Bermuda in 1983 and ironically, it was a few months after moving to the Island that he learned that his great grandfather once lived in Bermuda and married a Bermudian.

"My grandfather was actually born in Bermuda," said Mr. Keys. "It didn't help me to get status though.

"My father never went there or lived there. I didn't know anything about it until after I moved there. I always felt a closeness to it, but didn't know why."

He said when he went back to England his father said 'you do realise, your grandfather was born there?'.

"I had no idea," said Mr. Keys. "When my wife and I were here we researched it quite a bit."

He discovered that his great grandfather, James Hewson, was in the British Army and stationed in Bermuda.

He married Bermudian Jessie Adams in the 1880s and lived on Tee Street, in Devonshire.

"I even found pay slips from when he was stationed in Bermuda," added Mr. Keys, who was born 'James Hewson', but legally changed his name to Keys a few years ago.

In his early career he was in bands, but he went solo in 1981.

"I was in Europe," he said. "Then I got a job in Bermuda through an agent in London. Things took off when I started playing at Henry VIII."

He decided to leave when Bermuda's financial industry began to overtake tourism.

"Tourism was changing and business was taking over and it was time to move on," he said. "But we love it there."

He will be performing in a New Year's Eve Show at the Fairmont Southampton called 'The Jimmy Keys Gala Show' on December 31 from 10 pm to midnight.

The Jimmy Keys Gala Evening is $199 and includes a reception featuring choice of two hors d'oeuvres, plus cash bar, a plated four course dinner.

He will perform a non-stop two-hour show and after that there will be a DJ and dancing.

For reservations telephone 238-8000 and ask for the hotel concierge.

For more information about Mr. Keys go to his website at www.jimmykeys.com.