COMEDY REVIEW : Duo Deliver Frantic Pace, Double Punch : Stage: The pairing of Debbie Tate, followed by headliner Bruce (Babyman) Baum proved to be a perfect match.

Someone must have known what they were doing when they set Debbie Tate up with headliner Bruce (Babyman) Baum this week at the Comedy Nite in Oceanside.

Wednesday night the two proved a perfect match. Instead of two separate acts, they functioned more like a tag-team comedy routine.

Both comedians hit the lights running and kept the frenetic pace going until the time bell rang. Both comedians show incredibly confident stage presences and both boast worthy material.

Tate, with wild blond hair she constantly has to brush out of her face, starts by talking about men and women and finishes by talking about men and women--with splendid segues into childbirth, relationships, Catholic guilt and children--before tossing the baton to Baum.

Baum, who grew up and lives in the San Fernando Valley, started his 45-minute set by parodying a beer commercial and ended the set with his trademark rock ‘n’ roll segment, in which he uses two shopping bags roughed against the microphone to provide all the accompaniment he needs.

In between, wearing a white sweat shirt and blue pants, the balding comedian with a walrus mustache told the audience that, a while ago, he had to change his ways because Visine no longer took the red out. He said he needed liquid paper.

He once bought a solar cookbook. “It said: Tie lamb securely to the ground and wait.”

He’s impressed with the Cleveland Zoo’s tropical rain forest. “It was so authentic they were installing cocaine labs.”

Baum got his nickname from a routine in which he wrapped himself inside a huge carrot and came out a minute later wearing nothing but a diaper.

His prop arsenal has expanded to include, among other things, a contraption that looks like a whiteplastic-pipe knapsack (a sweat-purification system) that turns

perspiration into water for watering the lawn and provides residue that can be used for flavoring fish; a portable lap saddle with a mobile that sticks to the parents’ forehead for carrying and amusing babies, and a stick-and-shave system that eliminates the need for razor blades.

Baum got into comedy around 1970, when he transferred from UCLA to UC Davis to play football but ended up playing comedy clubs instead. “I’m not exactly sure how that happened,” he explained.

Until 1990, he toured 35 to 40 weeks a year. Now, 80% of his time is devoted to television and film projects. He writes, directs and produces video shorts for Fox’s “Comic Strip Live “ on Saturday nights and has also appeared on Hollywood Squares, Match Game and 45 episodes of Make Me Laugh.

The glue for Baum’s rambling act is high energy, the props and silliness (“If a parsley farmer goes bankrupt, can the IRS garnish his wages?”) as he bounces through his material with little or no regard for where he’s going. “The audience determines the order,” he said. Tate’s act, on the other hand, reads almost like a day in the life of a frustrated wife/mother/henpecker, starting at 4 a.m. with waking up the family. “How did we get this job?” she wondered.

Like Baum, high energy, constant movement and good material tie her act together. Tate, a San Diego resident, also brings an acting background to the job, which is evident in her expressions, emotions and imitations.

She is a pleasure to watch.

Doing the best Igor imitation anyone ever did wearing a pink satin top, lots of silver jewelry and baggy black pants, Tate thanks her husband of 16 years for releasing her from the ball and chain. She is off and running, constantly using pinpoint expressions and a little blue language in her 25-minute set to underscore the gags--many of them in story form, including what she considers a woman’s responsibility in a relationship: to bring up a few faults. “Over and over and over.”

Tate’s credits include an appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s show, films and clubs throughout the country.

“I found out I was pregnant when I woke up one morning and had (breasts) for the first time in my life. Didn’t get to keep them, though. That (upset) me. I figured they should have been a consolation prize.”

Bruce Baum, Debbie Tate and opening act Bob Ettinger will appear tonight at 8 and 10 o’clock at Comedy Nite, 2216 El Camino Real, Suite 104, Oceanside. On Sunday, at 8:30 at the club, they will be part of a USO benefit with Gabe Kaplan.