A lawyer-comics night? It’s no joke. The...

A lawyer-comics night? It’s no joke. The L.A. Cabaret in Encino hosted just such an event the other day. You had to read the small print to know that three of the five comics were former lawyers.

But, another performer, Diane Faber, has combined both worlds--litigation for a large firm by day, laughs in small clubs by night.

“The two professions are similar,” said Faber. “You have to prepare, be able to think on your feet and you want the people listening to get a certain reaction.”

When Faber, a regular at L.A. Cabaret, appears before yuppie-type audiences she tosses out one-liners about lawyering, such as: “My job is to be the most unpleasant person possible--and I do it well.”

But she sometimes hesitates to reveal her daytime profession to blue-collar crowds. “Their reaction often seems to be, ‘We don’t have to laugh. You’ve got a good enough life,’ ” she said.

Booking agents can be discouraging, too. “Sometimes,” she said, “one will come up to me and say, ‘I really liked your show--uh, I was in an auto accident . . . ‘ “

Only in L.A. Real Estate Notice of the Week:

In a flyer announcing the listing of a $449,000 Silver Lake house, agent Andrew Chase included the usual sharp photos, florid adjectives, bright colors and exclamation marks.

But--and it hurts us to reveal this--Chase concluded the flyer thusly:

“Does anybody read these things? Come on--sell this house and save the owner’s neck!”

The uncredited star of “Darkman,” a film about a scientist wreaking revenge on the bad guys who disfigured him, is (envelope please) . . .

L.A.’s ever-growing skyline.

The scientist, dangling from a helicopter over Bunker Hill, whizzes by the 73-story Library Tower as well as the twin, polished granite Wells Fargo buildings and crashes through a window of the California Plaza, disrupting executives who are taking a meeting.

The movie, unlike the city, even found a use for the still-undeveloped Convention Center property, where a carnival is staged.

Critics who contend that downtown L.A. is congested because of its many building projects can take solace in the fact that the movie’s villain is a developer.

Mention of L.A. is, however, omitted, possibly to lend credibility to a scene in which the hero is blown out of a loft in the industrial section. He survives because he lands in a wide, deep, flowing river.

Since we recently mentioned USC grads who became Watergate figures, it’s only fair that we give equal space to UCLA alumnuR. Haldeman.

We received a press release about a company called Americom International that began:

“What do George Bush, Mikhail Gorbachev and H. R. Haldeman have in common?”

Give us a second. We’re sure we can come up with an answer.

miscelLAny:

The crossroads of Veteran Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, used by 127,401 cars during one recent 24-hour period, is L.A.’s busiest intersection, according to the city Transportation Department.