OTTAWA -- Engelbert Humperdinck. Way beyond music.

The man with the big voice and the name to go with it made his seemingly annual pilgrimage to the National Arts Centre last night, in a concert that quickly turned into musical comedy.

The sold-out house at Southam Hall was a tribute to Hump's enduring charisma and two, perhaps three, generations of big hair. After all, this was a night to look and feel fabulous.

Humperdinck played a dozen roles on stage. Dancer, comedian, impressionist and romantic singer, the man just loves to entertain. He loves the lights on him, the glow in faces, the flowers just before his ovation.

That chemistry with an audience is like a pheromone for veteran celebrities like Humperdinck, who just seem to get more turned on as the night wears on.

So, while he gave it his all last night, I'm here to say one thing: It's hard to break the awful stereotypes that circulate around Humperdinck when he keeps working them into his show.

Dressed either for seduction or a wedding, with more red napkins (which he perspired into and then gave to brazen, uncontrollably lusty women) than a spaghetti house, Humperdinck let his singing do most of the romancing.

To his credit, even after 30 years of recording, the guy's still on the road, flogging his new release, All in The Game, which he featured prominently in the first half of this 90-minute spectacular. But this new material is generic adult contemporary, strictly for the fans.

They came to hear him sing old favourites and shake his old favourites too, dammit, and that's what he did. Lonely Is The Man Without Love, Quando, Quando, Quando, Too Young, There Goes My Everything and Bicyclettes de Belsize made the house sigh collectively.

Then there were jokes and impressions of Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin and Elvis Presley that were older and smellier than your grandpa's bottle of Old Spice.

But by now the lovefest was in full swing.

Humperdinck is an unabashed big star for some, a guilty pleasure for others, but the one constant is he knows his audience and gives them an evening's entertainment with its share of glamour that's funny, kind of naughty, a little embarrassing and almost as dreamy as he was 30 years ago.

JAM! Rating: 4 out of 5