Playing for a Few Good Laughs : Folk musician John Wesley Harding says of his songwriting: ‘You don’t have to be precise, you have to be understood.’

John Wesley Harding, wise-guy British folk singer type, will be cracking musical jokes aplenty, temporarily turning the venerable Ventura Theatre into a laughing academy when he performs tonight.

Usually just a guy and his guitar, Harding will be aided and abetted this time by award-winning bass player, Rob Wasserman. Native American activist, John Trudell will open.

What would you expect from a guy who names most of his albums after Frank Capra movies? Actually, the 1991 album “The Name Above the Title” is named for Capra’s biography, but you get the idea. Born Wesley Harding Stace in Hastings, site of a famous battle in 1066, the singer took his name (sort of) from the title of a Bob Dylan album. He moved to the Bay Area, where he still lives, about five years ago.

Ever since Harding’s 1988 debut, “It Happened One Night,” he has been touring relentlessly and making funny songs on five releases, all the while tottering on the verge of becoming the Next Big Thing, which attracts better press than say, No Big Thing, Anything or Nothing.

A year away from a Ph.D. in English lit from Cambridge University, Harding quit to become a rock star. The smarter you are, the funnier Harding is. Some of his memorable tunes deal with off-the-wall subjects such as a dictator having a bad decade (“Hitler’s Tears”), the Savior’s kid sister (“The Original Miss Jesus”), limousine activists (“July 13, 1985”) and stars on the road (“When the Beatles Hit America”).

During a recent phone interview from Connecticut, Harding talked fast about the usual topics.

How did you hook up with Rob Wasserman?

Actually we live near each other. Warren Zevon introduced us about a year ago at a fund-raiser. Then there was the band--Rob, Bob Weir and myself, but Bob decided he didn’t want to go, so Rob and I started writing these eccentric songs. The way it is now, I play first; the words are first. Then Rob plays, then we play together, some of my songs, some of his, plus four or five of our own.

Do you make him watch Frank Capra movies in the hotel room?

No, I haven’t put him through that yet.

A comedian named Doug Ferrari once noted, “If you can’t laugh at it, it’s not worth taking seriously.” Are your jokes over the heads of your audience?

You can’t be too funny, then it won’t work, will it? I think I’m pretty well understood by my audience. After all, there is a lot to laugh at these days.

On your bio in discussing songwriting, you said, “You don’t have to be precise, you have to be understood.”

That’s very good. I can’t imagine I said something that good. I read books. I think about things. I talk about things. I get a word or a phrase, sit down with a guitar--so it occurs.

It seems like you’ve always been on the verge of becoming the Next Big Thing. What’s the alternative?

Actually, I’m getting smaller. I used to be six feet. I think to be the Next Big Thing, you have to be tied to a movement. By the time you become a movement, you’re already a watered-down version of something that was actually good. I’ve very successfully managed to dodge that.

No MTV, no radio and now no label?

I’ve been looking for a good enough record label for the last eight months. Sire picked up my option, but they didn’t seem that enthusiastic, so it’s not just about money. I’ve rounded up the usual suspects, and should have a new label soon. The beat goes on.

How do you fit into the folk music tradition and/or is there a folk music tradition?

There is. To know the lineage probably begins with Guthrie and Dylan, then people like them such as Phil Ochs and David Blue. In the ‘70s, there was what I call wistful folk with people like Tim Buckley and Tim Hardin, then country folk with John Prine and Steve Goodman. Bruce Springsteen and Joni Mitchell, I think, have folk influences. In England, there was Fairport Convention and Nick Drake. Obviously, I’m a folk musician, but people thought for awhile that I wasn’t, maybe because KROQ would play me between Metallica and Depeche Mode. Recently, Springsteen came up and sang a song with me at McCabe’s. That was the greatest moment of my life.

In Hastings, is there a statue of King Harold or William the Conqueror?

Neither. The battle was actually fought outside of Hastings. The rock that William stood on when he landed is still there.

It’s been awhile since you recorded with Elvis Costello’s band, the Attractions; do people still make the Costello comparison?

Perhaps, because of my voice, they compare me to Elvis Costello, perhaps because I played with his band; and it was a very good band. But I never listened to him. And when I saw him when I was 12 years old, I was very excited.

But would John Prine or Bob Dylan rename themselves after a Frank Capra movie?

Should they? Maybe Dylan could change his name to General Yen.

Details

* WHAT: John Wesley Harding and Rob Wasserman, John Trudell.

* WHERE: Ventura Theatre, 26 Chestnut St.

* WHEN: Tonight at 8.

* HOW MUCH: $12.50.

* CALL: 648-1888.