In ‘Ado,’ Jackie Mason Shticks With the Basics

Jackie Mason feels President Bush is basically a decent man, even if he has trouble completing a sentence.

So OK, Mason would say, so speaking English is not Bush’s field.

“Winston Churchill was the greatest prime minister of all time. No one heard a word he said.”

Anyone familiar with Mason can hear his inflection in these jokes; it’s what has made him beloved to some, a Broadway fixture and an ethnic embarrassment to others. The Mason who took the stage Tuesday night at the Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills, where he began a six-performance run of the one-man show he has been doing in recent years, “Much Ado About Everything,” was less the political pundit, which is to say there wasn’t the ranting about Bill Clinton and his various scandals.

The fire is still in Mason’s belly, but the pilot light seems a little lower than it has been in the past. Clinton has given way to the son of a patrician political dynasty, and as gentiles go, Bush is evidently less objectionable. Mason’s way of complimenting someone is not to complain about him. And so, he doesn’t spend much time on Bush, beyond mild digs at his lack of presidential swagger. Funniest is Mason’s bit about the only two sentences that Bush seems to say in response to the terrorist threat: “We’re going to smoke them out, and bring them to justice.”

“Sometimes he reverses it,” Mason joked. “ ‘We’ll bring them to justice, and smoke them out.’ ”

No one, it can be said, does what Jackie Mason does quite as well as Jackie Mason. He can still fill two hours on a stage telling ethnic jokes that to some ears are offensive or racist--a charge that, in the context of Mason, doesn’t quite suffice. He has, after all, earned the right to be this curmudgeonly Jew, this politically incorrect kibitzer declaiming in bursts of Yiddish, after lo these many years onstage.

Mason talked about e-mail and Yasser Arafat, too, but not very memorably. Mostly, his nearly two-hour show is marked by his bread-and-butter--the Jews-versus-gentiles worldview that has sustained his comedy since producers told him he was “too Jewish” to make it in show business.

He has, of course, gone on to prove them wrong. Though not a superstar comic, Mason found niche stardom in his 50s and 60s, beginning with his Tony Award-winning “The World According to Me” in 1987, which was followed by more Broadway runs and tours, including “Jackie Mason Politically Incorrect” and “Jackie Mason: Brand New.”

Whether old or new, Mason’s jokes, if you’re a fan, are evergreen. Thus, gentiles can sleep on the street, but ask a Jew who wakes up in his $9-million condo how he slept, and he’ll tell you, “Not so good.”

There were complaints too from the audience Tuesday--at least from those sitting in the upper reaches of the theater, who evidently were having trouble hearing Mason. For that matter, seeing Mason up close not only enables you to hear him better but also to catch his facial expressions--the comic grimaces of complaint. And Mason, to his credit, is still a comedian with sharp timing--gifted with voices (Kissinger, for instance) as well as physical moves that make his Ed Sullivan impression hilarious. As cantankerous as he can be, Mason can also give off something much more unexpected--a certain warmth.

“Jackie Mason--Much Ado About Everything (The Broadway Tour)” repeats at 8 tonight, 8 p.m. Saturday, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Wilshire Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills. $37-$67. (213) 365-3500. Running time: 90 minutes, with a 20-minute intermission.