Even with the dreaded “Carmageddon” happening over the weekend, there was no way I was going to miss the annual Tiki Night at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. We were prepared to take the subway (free that weekend!), but the gridlock warning turned out to be a bust so we did the typical Angeleno thing and drove instead.

Ukulele Dave kicked things off with some lovely Hawaiian melodies and there were tempting things to buy from tiki vendors like Eric October.

King Kukulele and the Friki Tikis even had a special song written for Carmageddon, to the tune of “Viva Las Vegas.” Their little band of hecklers really adds to the show, kind of like Martin and Lewis.

This year’s format was different than previous events. The catered picnic-style dinner was out and guests were encouraged to order from Maui and Sons, a surfwear-inspired restaurant that opened in the courtyard earlier this year.

I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt that they ran out of proper glassware and don’t normally serve non-beer beverages in Dos Equis glasses.

Also new for this year was a “tiki fashion show” featuring the costumes of the Polynesian Paradise Dancers.

Richard Sherman, the composer of The Enchanted Tiki Room theme song, was supposed to be at the event but apparently there was a scheduling conflict. Instead, the show started with a tribute to Wally Boag, who provided the voice for Jose and wrote most of the script for the attraction.

He also performed as Pecos Bill in literally thousands of shows with Betty Taylor at Disneyland’s Golden Horseshoe stage, and Steve Martin credits him as an early comedic inspiration. We watched part of this very entertaining clip from a 1962 episode of “The Wonderful World of Disney.”

The main event was a screening of “Bird of Paradise” from 1951, a South Seas drama filmed in Hawaii several years before the islands were even a state. Debra Paget is captivating as the Princess Kalua, although she barely says a word, mostly batting her technicolor blue eyes. (Oh, and there were some tikis in the movie, too.)