It may be a critically acclaimed show this side of the Atlantic, but it was a brave decision by the producers of Ian and Martin's Laugh-In to open their US tour in New York, writes Frank McNally
Theatrical convention decrees that you normally start somewhere in the provinces, like Chicago, and iron out any script problems before transferring to Broadway. For example, I see that on the opening night, Dr Paisley told Wall Street investors about Northern Ireland's "skilled and loyal workforce". No doubt his fellow funny-man, Mr McGuinness, has already pointed out to him that the line should read "skilled, loyal and/or republican workforce".
That's a minor point, however. More worrying is the question of whether the humour that has wowed audiences here will work on Americans. We can see the comedy in a situation where, as our US correspondent reported, the two men "interacted [ warmly], sharing jokes and taking every opportunity to compliment one another". But without knowing the historic context, will the Yanks seen how funny that is?
Already the signs are not encouraging. Dr Paisley may have stopped saying "No", "Never", and "Not an inch". But according to reports, traders on the New York Stock Exchange continued to experience negative sentiment during and after Monday's Laugh-In, with the Dow Jones finishing 44 points down.
It's difficult enough that they have to perform in front of audiences who think that "IRA" is an acronym for Individual Retirement Account and that "Provo" is a city in Utah. The real problem, as they attempt to woo US business, is the continuing effect of the sub-prime crisis on banks' willingness to lend. "Liquidity" is the key to investment. And as the International Herald Tribune put it in a grim piece yesterday: "Liquidity is drying up."
Against this background, Dr Paisley's quip that, being a strict teetotaller, he would keep American investors "away from the main distillery in Northern Ireland, which happens to be in my constituency" takes on a dark irony. If the US banks spend too long drying out, the IHT predicts, a recession - and "possibly a nasty one" - will follow. In the meantime, we can only hope that Messrs Paisley and McGuinness can use their humour to disarm the bankers, or at least put their arms beyond use.
Incidentally, some critics of Ian and Martin's Laugh-In have complained that the routine breaks a sacred rule of comedy duets by which one of the pair must be a straight man. But of course, in the famous 1960s partnership to which they pay homage - Rowan and Martin - both the leading men took comic turns.
The big difference between the two acts is that the Ian and Martin show has more of a surreal element. The nearest Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In ever got to that was in their weekly "News of the Future" slot, which on one famous occasion - in 1968 - included a comic item set 20 years in the future and mentioning a "President Ronald Reagan". It got a big laugh at the time.
Whereas, the idea of Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness jointly holding a gavel while posing for photographs on the podium of the New York Stock Exchange? Well, in 1968, you couldn't have made that up.
It really has come to something when, as reported last Friday, the slump in the ESRI's latest "consumer sentiment index" (down to 63.1 in November, a four-year low), as well as the decline in "national footfall" - ie consumers on streets (down 3.2 per cent) - have to be set against the number of Irish shoppers flying to Manhattan to save money. (For what it's worth, I sense that the public mood is indeed subdued. According to my latest reading - as of Sunday night - the National Craic Index was 74.2, down from 78.4 in October, and well off the all-time high of 90.)
But then New York has long been a measure of Irish hopes and dreams, whether it was 19th-century emigrants clutching their few earthly possessions as they boarded ships bound for Ellis Island, or 21st-century shoppers clutching the few miserable items now allowed in cabin luggage as they board planes back to Ireland.
Even as I write this, the radio stations are again playing that classic song of the Irish-American dream, the Pogues' Fairytale of New York - in which, with Manhattan as the backdrop, a young couple start out full of joy and optimism, before experiencing a sharp fall in consumer sentiment during later trading.
For those of us still struggling to believe the Northern peace settlement really happened, it is hard not to see Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness in the role of the doomed young lovers, as they trip through Wall Street clutching their gavel and paying compliments to each other.
They think they're the lucky ones. Came in eighteen to one. They've got a feeling this year's for them. But there's a second verse coming soon, and some of us are worried that the song will end in tears yet.
fmcnally@irish-times.ie