P.M.

*** The storyteller holds a special place in the history of most peoples.

For the gift of the gab is reckoned a gift from the gods from Ireland to Africa.

And Mr. Keens-Douglas is a worthy successor to the Celtic bards and the African griots with the talent to spin a tall tale as easily as a West Indian bowler spins a ball.

The Trinidad-born and based broadcaster, writer and raconteur held the audience at City Hall in the palm of his hand with a wry examination of the way people are seen from life's boundary line.

And from politics to cricket to beauty contests, he hits some major truths spot on the head with, paradoxically, a masterly use of hyperbole and exaggeration.

Mr. Keens-Douglas -- who comes, as he said himself -- from an age where the diaphragm was located in the chest, has lived and travelled all over the Caribbean.

And his picture of islands divided by a common language and blindsided by doublespeak rings like a bell.

Like the Tourism Minister who said: "Tourism is on the precipice of disaster -- it's time we took a giant step forward.'' Eco-tourism, of course in the Keens-Douglas canon, is when the government say the same thing over and over again.

It's on a par with the Government Minister in Bermuda, who shall remain nameless, who once claimed: "It would be premature to comment at this late stage.'' Mr. Keens-Douglas, a sociology honours graduate, obviously puts his early emphasis on people-watching to good use with a cast of characters rooted deep in Caribbean culture -- but mostly recognisable no matter where an individual is from.

It can't be easy holding an audience with just a stool, a table and a water jug as props for around two hours.

But Mr. Keens-Douglas, who uses his hands and his entire body superbly as living illustrations to his striking word pictures, carries it off with deceptive ease.

And his exploration of the absurdity of language -- reversing back and original copies to name just two -- had the audience in stitches.

From the "bulletproof'' and starched ex-Army khaki shorts of his boyhood Scout troop to the Catholic school choir where a five minute hymn "had one minute of hymn and four minutes of amen'', his stories are expertly and lovingly observed.

The story of how Papa God created the world -- and Adam, a moaning malcontent West Indian -- is alternately touching and hilarious.

And the trauma of being perhaps the only West Indian who's useless at cricket hit the audience for six.

Mr. Keens-Douglas, of course, became a commentator -- and his whirlwind tour of the eccentricities of the islands, not to mention estate agents, newspapers, and the world of advertising is well worth joining tonight.

RAYMOND HAINEY TALL TALES -- Storyteller Paul Keens-Douglas last night held a Bermuda Festival audience spellbound with his wry look at politics, cricket and life in the Caribbean. You can catch his performance again tonight at the Hamilton City Hall theatre, beginning at 8.