THEATER REVIEW : A Political Agenda in the Hands of Cutups : Satire: ‘Carpa Clash’ is clever, impassioned Chicano vaudeville with a knife’s edge at the Mark Taper Forum.

To begin at the beginning, what is a carpa ? For the uninitiated, it is the Spanish word for tent . But in Mexico it has come to stand more for tent show , the word used to describe the small traveling vaudevilles that once toured Mexico and the Southwestern United States.

This is not a secret. You’ll find the information in the program for “Carpa Clash,” the new satirical Chicano vaudeville that opened Sunday at the Mark Taper Forum. This final event in the Taper’s fall festival is created and performed by Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas and Herbert Siguenza, those zany guys a.k.a. Culture Clash, accompanied by their “special guest,” the specially talented Marga Gomez.

Infinitely funnier and more electric on stage than they are on their weekly television show, these guys are cutups with a political agenda, real clowns with an arsenal, to paraphrase a Chinese proverb, of sharp knives in their tongues.

They are earthy, skillful, clever, passionate and have, if anything, blossomed since their earlier shows (“The Mission” and “Bowl of Beings”) at the defunct Los Angeles Theatre Center. Mainstream they have become, but this appears only to have strengthened their resolve to remain revolutionary or simply rude: Chicano comedians who speak their politically incorrect minds. You may not always buy it, but how refreshing it is in a world where everyone is tiptoeing on euphemism.

The clown show (they wear clown makeup and red noses as a badge of their Chicanismo) is nominally divided into 15 skits that mostly run one into the other and carefully correlate. But don’t let the clown costumes fool you. Slapstick and scrappy humor aside, their satire cuts with a scalpel.

No one is spared. Or nearly no one, from Jesus Christ to Jewish doctors, from patriotic songs to Irish priests and nuns. The borderline reverse racism gets a little dicey and a lot indiscriminate, but satire isn’t polite and rarely tidy. Don’t mention Gov. Pete Wilson (they have their own rowdy version of his name) and don’t even think the word Hispanic . They are Chicanos and, don’t worry, they won’t let you forget it.

The chortling self-affirmation can get a little smug and the coda of thanks at the end of Sunday’s performance could be dispensed with (this is not an awards show). And, while it’s in the scattershot nature of satire to take on all comers (these burladors even find a moment to puncture the balloon of Le Cirque du Soleil), there are the occasional bloopers.

All in a night’s work and generally outweighed by the irony that makes it. Canned laughter and whoops--a perilous practice in the theater--actually work here. This “Carpa” thrives on raucousness.

Gomez, a fine comedian in her own right, is a sharp addition to the group. While Montoya is an unquenchable, incorrigible comic, Salinas a tender fool and Siguenza a good straight man and partner, Gomez brings balance and a touch of whimsy to the proceedings.

Her “Mimi” monologue, written by her as well, showcases a breadth and depth of talent. And her other work with the guys only confirms her versatility.

Director Jose Luis Valenzuela, however, has not been a useful editor. A particularly affecting, technically accomplished finale, done as a sincere tribute to the late Cesar Chavez, would benefit from being trimmer. So for that matter would some of the other sketches, in particular Salinas’ “Silent Tango,” a delicious mime solo to music about a joyous immigrant from El Salvador who finds senseless death in Los Angeles.

The politics of satire aside, this Culture Clash show also has the best production values ever enjoyed by the group--not the least of which are musicians Dennis Gurwell and Lorenzo Martinez and the spectacular, Chagall-esque artwork by Gronk that decorates Edward E. Haynes’ carpa set.

But it is the simplicity of this group’s stratagems, their quick wit, their props, their plots, their unencumbered brashness and their cool that makes them the right comedians for the times. They are serious artists in hot pursuit of truth and justice who know that art has greater impact than bureaucracy.

If their focus is, by the same token, narrowed by the magnitude of this immediate task, it will not always be so. They may be Chicanos, but, perhaps more than they know, they are the inheritors of a tradition that knows no borders and is as old as the world.

Sooner or later it will catch up to them. If one finds buoyant traces in their work of Cantinflas, Chaplin or Fernandel it’s for good reason. These Culture Clashers have the same right stuff. Their aim will only get better and their material will spin with the political weather. But they are now integrally part of the local theatrical landscape, where they’ll do more to clean up the air than the AQMD.

* “Carpa Clash,” Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 2:30 p.m.; dark Dec. 14. Ends Dec. 23. $28-$35; (213) 365-3500, (714) 740-2000, TDD (213) 680-4017. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.

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Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, Herbert Siguenza, Marga Gomez. Ensemble

A Mark Taper Forum presentation of a Culture Clash production. Producer Corey Beth Madden. Director Jose Luis Valenzuela. Writers Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, Herbert Siguenza, Marga Gomez. Dramaturg Oskar Eustis. Scenic concept/artwork Gronk. Sets Edward E. Haynes Jr. Lights Jose Lopez. Costumes Patssi Valdez. Sound Mark Friedman. Musicians Dennis Gurwell, Lorenzo Martinez. Production stage manager Jill Ragaway. Stage manager David S. Franklin.