Jackie Mason: Mining the ‘Politically Incorrect’ : Comedy: Despite occasional controversy, the veteran Jewish comic finds his retirement-age audience responsive to material of questionable taste.

Jackie Mason won’t ever be accused of running from a fight. Even if this desert town near Palm Springs is a solidly friendly place for the man who’s been called “the Howard Stern of the retirement set” to work on his punches.

During the recent New York mayoral race, the veteran Jewish comic got in a spot of trouble for referring to Mayor David Dinkins as a shvartzer , a Yiddish term for black that some contend is insulting and others claim is non-pejorative.

Naturally, in Mason’s new work-in-progress show, which he calls “Politically Incorrect,” the relationships of the Jews and blacks in the liberal New York Establishment play a prominent part--as does the unapologetic use of the now-infamous “S” word.

“They called me a bigot because I called Dinkins a shvartzer ,” he reminds the sold-out house during the opening minutes of his show at the McCallum Theater Saturday night.

This does not sound like the lead-in to a retraction, and isn’t. “The man is a shvartzer . What do you want from me?” And the crowd goes wild, not because local folk have any stake in Dinkins’ deflation, but because in many climates right now, not just the desert one, P.I. is P.C.

Still, even given the universal eagerness of audiences to hear material that pokes holes in overly careful academic standard-setting, Mason pushes the edge of the envelope.

He’s in familiar territory with his traditional Jews-and-Gentiles delineations: “Gentiles are always crashing from drinking. Jews are always crashing from dialing. ‘I’m in the car! I’m in the car!’ ”

And he’s on fairly safe ground venturing into the well-trod realm of Clinton-as-sexaholic humor, joking that the President is continually being found in compromising situations: “Why do you think every time you see him he’s running with his shorts on?”

But Mason gets a little edgier when he repeatedly calls Clinton a liar and cheat, riffing not just on inhaling, draft dodging and broken tax promises but “bribing” congressmen for NAFTA votes, the one time his vociferousness cows the audience into getting a little quiet.

“Is there anybody on this Earth dumb enough to believe he didn’t inhale? Would you put a pastrami sandwich in your mouth if you didn’t want to swallow it? . . . Nixon was considered a great liar, too, but at least he had the decency to twitch a little when he lied.”

Just once, Mason crosses the line so far that he gets hissed--when he makes assertions about Attorney General Janet Reno’s sexual preference. He further adds to his NOW minus point tally: “I give Clinton credit for putting more women in the higher levels of government than ever before. They don’t look like women, but they are. You can tell these are the women that Hillary picked out. . . . Of course, they’re brilliant women. They didn’t have any place to go, so they became brilliant.”

The McCallum crowd is adoring.

“We’re exhausted from laughing,” says Sylvia Moses of Palm Springs. “There’s only one thing we didn’t like in the whole show, maybe because we’re women, and that was the Janet Reno stuff.”

“I think he’s probably the most culturally literate comedian today,” says Roger Krupnick of Palm Springs. “He ran Reagan the same way as Clinton. His attitude is that they’re all liars and cheats.”

In the McCallum green room after the show, Mason is resolutely unapologetic for any of his attitudes.

Of the New York controversy, he says: “I used that word for four years on Broadway, got the Tony Award, and did one person ever say it was a disgusting word? The ironic truth is that there never was a black person offended by the word shvartzer, but the sick Jews told ‘em, ‘You should be offended by this.’

” . . . I’ve probably done more NAACP shows than all the black comedians put together. (Nelson) Mandela wrote a letter on my behalf, saying we love Jackie Mason, we want him to come back anytime. You should read this letter. You would think he was my brother-in-law. You would think he can’t live without me. You would think he wants to marry me. If I was a (gay), I’d have to be in bed with him.”

*

Backstage, Mason is sitting at a table with his old pal Larry Gelbart, the award-winning writer of “MASH,” “Barbarians at the Gate” and “City of Angels.” The two are discussing the merits of Mason’s most “incorrect” material and the occasional topical moments in the show where the crowd got a little quieter. Mason wants to know what doesn’t work--he plans to go back to Broadway with “Politically Incorrect”--but he’s not a pushover.

Gelbart wonders if the public is rooting for the President too much to enjoy the more derogatory ribbing: “Clinton’s riding a high right now,” he warns. But Mason is convinced the President is widely unloved, and thinks he just needs to better explain the NAFTA material.

Mason asks what Gelbart thought of his bit in the show on gay pride, in which he got laughs asserting the tide had turned so far that now it’s straights who are afraid to come out of the closet.

“I’m not sure it’s true,” offers Gelbart, playing devil’s--or P.C.’s--advocate.

“Oh, it certainly is true,” says Mason. “People would not laugh if they didn’t identify.”

“People will laugh out of shock sometimes at your guts for doing it. . . .”

“If it’s only guts, they don’t laugh,” counters Mason. “You’re depicting a heterosexual trying to apologize to a homosexual, and I’ve got news for you, it happens all over.”

“Are you as a heterosexual intimidated by homosexuals?” asks Gelbart. “Do you feel inferior?”

“I don’t feel inferior, but I feel I have to be solicitous. . . .”

“Well, say ‘sometimes’ instead of saying, ‘This is an absolute truth.’ ”

“Nah,” asserts Mason, “you say it as the truth. Because every comedy is an exaggeration! Comedy is never so selectively perfect. . . . Comedy is an exaggeration of the truth.”

“That’s what it is!” says Gelbart. “Goddammit, for years I’ve been searching. . . .”