THEATER REVIEW : ‘Thoughts’: A Smart Night of Stand-Up

Kate Clinton, funny lesbian, came to Highways in Santa Monica last week with her new stand-up show, “Impure Thoughts.” Although she expressed some lust at the thought of Jamie Lee Curtis in “True Lies,” Clinton’s act is hardly impure. Fresh-scrubbed, with a Julie Andrews haircut and a horror of body piercing, Clinton exhibits the cheerful self-possession of the high school English teacher she once was.

And, although she likes to call herself a “fumerist” (that’s feminist humorist), she never fumes. Sure, she might call Rush Limbaugh an “impotent windsock” under her breath, but who doesn’t?

So, unless you think people should just not be lesbians, you would be wise to catch this casually structured and smartly observed evening of stand-up, full of jokes that you know are new because they’re often about things that happened a few days ago.

As always, her political stuff is sharp. Dan Quayle had that morning announced he would not run for the presidency next year. “That was probably the Clinton Administration’s ace in the hole,” she noted. She took swipes at Jesse Helms, Nixon, Kissinger, Salt Lake City, Connie Chung, the Contract With America (“I thought it was called the Constitution”) and the President of Rutgers University, who recently expressed doubts about the academic abilities of African Americans.

She also mused on a recent Mormon conference that exposed “the three biggest threats to democracy.” She relished each one: “Feminism, homosexuality and . . .” she paused to indicate just how good this last one would be, “. . . critical thinking.”

She sometimes polled the audience on how it felt about a certain concept or line of thought, asking, “Should we go on with this?” A theory about gays and Snapple remained tantalizingly elusive.

“Should we make this an O.J.- free zone?” she asked, knowing full well everyone wanted to hear at least one of her thoughts on the trial. She wondered about the makeup of the jury. “What are they, six Amish and six Mennonites, all going, ‘What’s a Bronco?’ ”

* “Impure Thoughts,” Highways, 1651 18th St., Santa Monica, (213) 660-8587. Wed.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 8 and 10:30 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. Ends Feb. 26. $14-$17. Running time: 90 minutes.