'Excavating the 2000 Year Old Man'

CLIPFEST "Excavating the 2000 Year Old Man"

WHEN|WHERE Tonight at 7 on WLIW/21

REASON TO WATCH What, you met a man 2,000 years old, you wouldn't pay attention to him talking?

WHAT IT'S ABOUT That's writer-director-actor Mel Brooks, riffing like a madman, and a madman who happens to be 2,000 years old. Maybe 2,060 years old now. He and fellow Sid Caesar/"Your Show of Shows" funnyman Carl Reiner (pre-"Dick Van Dyke Show") started having fun at 1950s cocktail parties -- straight man Reiner asking curious questions, nut job Brooks giving wacky answers -- until George Burns threatened to steal the act and Steve Allen bought them studio time to immortalize it.

Comedy records were big then, so "The 2000 Year Old Man" was big, influencing younger comics (now older comics) who testify in this fast-moving hour (really 40 minutes minus pledge breaks) -- Paul Reiser, Garry Shandling, Richard Lewis and fellow '60s comedy-record king Bob Newhart.

Then Brooks and Reiner get together to reminisce, amid too-brief clips of their original standup act from '60s variety shows. "You knew Jesus?" "He wore sandals. He came to the store . He never bought anything." And Paul Revere. "He hated the Jews! 'The Yiddish are coming! The Yiddish are coming!' All night he was yelling." No? "Oy. I'm gonna have to send his wife a note."

MY SAY "Excavating" brings on a Hollywood rabbi to say, "There's no American comedic voice that is more profoundly Jewish than Mel Brooks." Yes, but there's no more profound comedy lesson for all than to find a distinctive character from which endless comedy can erupt. Too bad Andy Kaufman isn't around to testify, too.

The most resonant part of the show, though, is the cozy warmth and trust of BrooksandReiner -- "a single brain," says Newhart, "that they're both attuned to."

BOTTOM LINE "You really feel like you're seeing somebody in their living room screwing around," says Shandling, "except they're two of the most respected pros that there have ever been."

GRADE B+