Showtime (Sat., Aug. 19, 10 P.M. ET)
A
These back-to-back half-hour comedy specials present two sizzling new stand-up comics, Richard Jeni and Carol Leifer. Both are brutally funny without being vulgar or puerile.
First up is Jeni, who's like a marlin on a fishing line. Once he gets his teeth into a joke, he knows how to run with it, exploiting all of its comic potential, from health clubs to TV game shows to easy-listening FM.
Leifer performs on a Norwegian cruise ship, the MSS Seaward. She's a kind of combination of Ruth Buzzi and Lily Tomlin. more off-the-wall than a fallen painting with a cracked frame. Talking about shopping at Neiman-Marcus, she says, "Why is every rich woman looking at me and saying, Ms Penney's closed?' " She claims too that AIDS has put a definite damper on her love life: "I'm attracted to bisexual Haitian guys who like to shoot up."
Jeni and Leifer are spirited talents worth discovering. Applause, applause.
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