I just took in Louie Anderson‘s show at the Excalibur tonight, and I’m still smiling. What better way to wind up a holiday weekend than to enjoy a couple of hours with a guy who makes you laugh about things like garage sales, hammer toes, and pot pies?

As luck would have it, the theater where Anderson performs (which he shares with the “Thunder from Down Under“) is quite near my favorite attraction in the Excalibur: the Krispy Kreme donut machine. While I waited for the theater doors to open, I got to see a dozen circles of flat dough ride on a conveyer belt through a “proofing chamber,” get dumped into boiling oil, flipped over, and then doused under a waterfall of sugar glaze. I would have bought one hot off the belt if it hadn’t been time to head into the theater and claim my seat.

All I knew about Louie Anderson before tonight’s show is that he once hosted “Family Feud” and he looks like he lives on Krispy Kreme donuts. Would his banter consist of nothing but fatso jokes? I hoped not, but I couldn’t help wondering.

Well, Anderson does not exclude himself as the target of jokes, so his repertoire includes plenty of references to the size of his jacket and his love affair with butter. But what caught me by surprise, got me laughing, and left me with a warm glow is the rest of his material, which draws on his Midwestern childhood, the challenges of getting older, the difficulty he had in giving up smoking, living with cats and dogs, and a variety of other everyday topics turned into comedy by a guy who really has the knack.

Another thing I really appreciated about Anderson’s style is that he’s gentle, not only with his subject matter, but also with his audience. Like many comics, Anderson exchanged banter with audience members. This is such a standard feature of comedy shows, in fact, that I always make a point of getting seats far enough back that I’m in no danger of attracting the headliner’s attention. Comics aren’t always nice, and some are downright cruel. Anderson, though, is nice. And he’s still funny. If someone can be considerate and funny, too, that makes him a star in my book.

During his show, Anderson talked about eating donuts. The first one, he said, vanishes so fast you can’t even believe you actually ate it. The second one goes down pretty quickly, too, so you have to eat a third one. Then…[insert mental image of fat guy holding stomach and grimacing]. So — hey, you better eat another one!

Without even intending to, I managed to leave the Excalibur without eating even one Krispy Kreme donut. I did leave, however, with a new appreciation for Louie Anderson. Like a donut hot off the conveyer belt, his show was over too fast and left me hungry for more. And the great thing is, I can take in his shows as many times as I want, and the only stomach ache I’ll get will be from laughing.

If you’d like to get a taste of Anderson’s material, check out the video below or the video and audio clips on his Web site.