If the diplomacy game doesn’t work out for former prime minister Kevin Rudd, he could give stand-up comedy a crack. Australia’s ambassador to the United States cut an unassuming figure on the blue carpet of the annual G’Day LA gala. But by the end of the night he’d stolen the show.

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“I don’t have an autocue,” he told the audience in Los Angeles as he took to the stage at the Skirball Cultural Centre.

“They heard I was from Queensland and assumed I could not read,” he quipped.

In fact, CBD’s sources say Rudd felt his prepared speech was a tad too serious and quickly drafted a replacement on his phone while nibbling on the radicchio salad starter.

“There are so many things that bring [our] two cultures and peoples together and these are good things,” Rudd said. “And yet we are quite different as well, and it’s not just the dulcet tones of our Shakespearean English which separates us from the wider American masses and their massacre of the English language.” Cue applause.

“That is not a statement on behalf of the Australian government, it’s a personal reflection,” he quickly added, to uproarious laughter from the crowd. “It is well known that Queenslanders are the natural masters of diplomacy. It’s the broadsword or nothing.”

Rudd’s set enthralled the audience, which included Marvel actor Sebastian Stan, Grammy award-winning singer Kelly Rowland, American Australian Association president John Berry and the night’s three Antipodean stars, actor Samara Weaving, director Craig Gillespie and singer Delta Goodrem, who were honoured for their excellence.

But back to the unstoppable Rudd, who offered high praise for those who are part of Australia’s deep cultural footprint in the US, noting our “sheer talent, ability, chutzpah, seriousness about life and ability to celebrate, all wrapped into a personality, somehow translates itself onto the silver screen. And that is what is uniquely Australian.”