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JACKIE MASON GOES LEGIT The World According to Me!, a one-man show by a former Borscht-Belt comedian, proves to be a hilarious B'way hit [[image - black & white photograph of Jackie Mason standing behind a director's chair with his name on it]] The first rule of comedy, as we all know, is always leave 'em laughing, but the night he bowed on Broadway, Jackie Mason left his audience with something a little grander: after the laughter came the tears. They came quietly at the end of the show -- a slight glistening around the eyes when the spotlight caught him right -- and even the most jaded of first-nighters could recognize the joy in them. Jackie Mason, from the Borscht Belt and beyond, was getting his first rush of legitimacy and fairly glazing over. "I tell you the truth, I wouldn't lie to you, I don't know what moved me to tears. It has been such a long time in coming. I just remember the relief, thinking 'Oh, thank God.'" Almost four months later, the late-blooming Broadway star is still in full flower, still packing 'em in at the Atkinson, still not believing a minute of it. He doesn't even look like one of the New Faces of 1986-87 -- sawed-off, curly-headed, an unprepossessing Goliath straining to seem convincing in the star dressing room occupied last season by Rex Harrison. Somehow, he suggests a man on the brink of waking up from a wonderful dream. "Besides the exhilaration, I'm still in a state of shock," he admits right out. "I find this whole thing almost unbelievable, especially since there was no way to expect it. If I really did something different, I could understand it -- say, if one of my movies that I had tried to make had come through and become a Beverly Hills Cop, at least that's a reason for becoming a star, something specific that you accomplished that promoted itself into such huge numbers. But, here, all I'm doing is telling them jokes. You never think of jokes turning you into a big Broadway hit. I don't remember it ever happening before." It certainly didn't happen with the Atkinson's last tenant, Rowan Atkinson, who found himself on the boat back to Britain by the end of his first week. Indeed, the Broadway woods are full of failed one-man shows, but Mason turns out to be the exceptional exception. Not only does his immaculate timing serve him well onstage, he's coming at a time when Broadway audiences are hungry for jokes. Mason leaves 'em not only laughing but sated. Line for line, laugh for laugh, his is the funniest show on Broadway right now. As well as it should be, considering where he's coming from: he got his training in night club combat -- a baptism-by-fire that conditions a fella to be fast on his comedy by Harry Haun [[end page]] [[start page]] [[advertisement]] IT WAS A MOMENT OF ATTAINMENT. OF EXCITEMENT. OF PROMISES FULFILLED. A MOMENT YOU'LL LIVE AND RELIVE. OMEGA. FOR ALL YOUR SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS. [[image - black & white photograph of a woman and man embracing amidst confetti with the words Significant Moments]] [[image - color photograph of an Omega Constellation watch]] Registered Model OMEGA ALWAYS MARKS SIGNIFICANT MOMENTS. IN THE OLYMPICS. IN THE SPACE PROGRAM. IN SIGNIFICANT LIVES LIKE YOURS. THE OMEGA CONSTELLATION. ADVANCED SWISS TECHNOLOGY. WATER RESISTANT. IN STAINLESS STEEL AND 18K GOLD. [[omega symbol]] OMEGA H. LEWKOWITZ 430 Madison Avenue, New York 10017. (212) PL 5-4241 [[/advertisement]]
