A 'CARNIVAL' TO DELIGHT THURBER FANS.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

The folks at the El Portal Center for the Arts are quite correct to introduce ``A Thurber Carnival'' as a kind of ancestor to variety shows like ``Laugh-In'' and ``Saturday Night Live.'' A more urbane ancestor, that is. Never in a blue moon could Mike Myers have wrung a laugh out of a pet counselor advising the distraught owner of a seal who refuses to juggle.

Bearing the distinct stamp of the late humorist and New Yorker writer, ``A Thurber Carnival'' - which plays the El Portal's Circle Theater - dramatizes a handful of James Thurber's short stories. That famous dreamer Walter Mitty is present, as is Ulysses S. Grant, drunk off his stool at Appomattox. We also meet the Agatha Christie fan who picks up Shakespeare's ``Macbeth'' and becomes convinced that Macduff is the actual assassin.

This kind of humor you can't kill with a bayonet. You can, however, fluff it, as director Todd Nielsen's cast proved a few too many times with flubbed lines during a recent matinee performance. Still, the early- in-the-run gaffes are forgivable. ``A Thurber Carnival'' is largely a delight.

Aaron Harper's set is a multiplatformed job, festooned with some big-top bunting and featuring - in a nice touch - reproductions of many of Thurber's cartoons. Amid an array of colorful lighting, the guests at a Manhattan-esque soiree enter, drink out of highball glasses, dance and toss off Thurberisms (``You may call it sleepwalking, but I say she's promiscuous''; ``Why didn't they repeal inhibition while they were at it?''). This ``Word Dance'' opens and closes the 1 3/4-hour production which clicks along at a smooth pace.

In between, we get some classics, some of which actually feature Thurber as a character (the author reportedly performed the piece during its original run). Stuart Thompson locates Thurber's droll wit with greater ease in ``File and Forget'' than in ``The Night the Bed Fell.'' The former piece chronicles the author's labyrinthine quest to return 26 copies of a book called ``Grandma Was a Nudist'' only to discover widespread cluelessness at every turn. Thompson endures it all with stiff-collared exasperation.

Tony Burton is a gleeful Walter Mitty, U.S. Grant and Mr. Preble, the ineffectual would-be wife murderer (``Why don't we go down to the cellar?''). Jason Guess also has the Thurber-ian tone dead on as the pet counselor faced with the weirdest of animal calamities. Tammy Dahlstrom, Karen Knotts, Michael Miranda, Norma Morrow, Bobbi Stamm and Gwen Van Dam make up the rest of the quite capable ensemble.

``A THURBER CARNIVAL''

Where: El Portal Center for the Arts, Circle Theater, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; through July 15.

Tickets: $20. Call [phone].

Our rating: Three stars

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Tony Burton and Norma Morro star in ``A Thurber Carnival,'' at the El Portal Center for the Arts.