“Where were you the last time you had it?”

Anyone who has ever posed this question to a friend who has lost a wallet was the butt of a handful of Brian Regan’s jokes Sunday night at Hoyt-Sherman Place Theatre in Des Moines.

Regan is even more hilarious live than his appearance on “Comedy Central Presents” or late-night talk shows would infer. His mannerisms are more authentic while sitting three rows back from the stage, where every one of Regan’s facial expressions are clear.

Regan’s delivery of his jokes was definitely the strong point of the show. Every joke seemed to be backed with odd facial expressions or the mildly hunched swagger he is so well known for.

Although delivery may have been his forte, Regan’s jokes were clever enough to be “funny” on their own. The comedian touched on everything from airplane pilots to lost wallets, and even performed his well-known “humpboy” bit, a popular skit from his early career.

“Humpboy” is a childhood story about how Regan “called” the middle seat in his parents old station wagon knowing he would have to sit in the middle with his feet on the hump because his three older brothers always claimed the window seats.

There were a few awkward moments in Regan’s performance in which he seemed to forget where he wanted to go next, and would pause for a moment or two to collect his thoughts. He even seemed lost in his swagger during a few of the pauses.

He recovered nicely, however, and the solid delivery from his previous jokes made up for the rough spots.

During one bit, Regan made jokes about airplane pilots, each of which were followed by different animal noises. This got annoying, however, the crowd seemed to appreciate the addition of the noises.

The only other downside to Regan’s performance was that he only performed a few of the bits from his “Comedy Central Presents” special, which is the performance for which Regan is best known. He tested out quite a bit of new material at the show, and sometimes lost the audience’s attention.

Opening act Joe Bolster’s performance was practically the inverse of Regan’s, as far as performance stylings go. Bolster’s jokes were more clever, but his delivery wasn’t as strong. Bolster seemed to rely on the substance of his jokes to get a laugh out of the crowd, whereas Regan got his best response when he would make a goofy gesture.

The only problem with Bolster’s set was that it seemed shorter than it had to be. Granted, he was the opening act and probably shouldn’t have been on stage as long as Regan, but the guy was on a roll and could have been entertaining for at least 15 more minutes.

Despite a few foul-ups from both comedians, the show was an overall success.