UCLA LIVE WELCOMES A PAIR OF RIGHT JOKERS.

Byline: David Kronke Television Writer

Comedians Dave Gorman and Dylan Moran both hail from the British Isles, but the shows they will bring to UCLA Live's spring season reflect utterly different sensibilities. Except, of course, for the humor part - both received rave notices when they performed last year in New York.

Gorman, whose show opens tonight, is a feel-good comic of the best stripe - though his shows are about his experiences encountering often eccentric strangers, he discusses them affectionately; most of the humor is turned toward himself, and his quixotic, neurotic behavior.

Moran, on the other hand, is more like your standard acerbic stand-up, the observational comic with a touch of Lenny Bruce's political anarchy. There's very little Moran can bring himself to like, even those just nominally younger than he: He decries their text-messaging on cell phones (``They've given up completely on verbal communication'').

If Gorman would make a fine guest on Craig Ferguson or Jay Leno's late-night talk shows (in fact he will be on Leno's ``Tonight Show'' on March 31 and on CNBC's ``Dennis Miller'' on April 5), Moran - assuming he'd trim his mop of hair, throw on a suit and cut back on the cigarette intake - might fit in as the overseas correspondent for ``The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.'' You could introduce Gorman to your parents - if he hasn't already met them on his own, as much of his material involves circling the planet and meeting people. You could introduce Moran to your favorite garage band.

``Dave Gorman's Googlewhack! Adventure'' relates the comic's epic propensity for procrastination - while allegedly working on a novel, Gorman became obsessed with the online search engine Google and began entering combinations of words in hopes of finding two words that could only be found on one Web site. He then used the advance money for the novel he wasn't writing to circle the globe in search of those who ran these inimitable Web sites. Among those he discovered were ``hippocampi wallpaper,'' ``pomegranate filibusters'' and ``psychosomatic rambunctiousness,'' the Googlewhack which, appropriately enough, brought him to Los Angeles.

The comic's previous one-man show, ``I Am Dave Gorman,'' which involved meeting as many people as he could who shared his name, began as a bar bet. Both shows became TV specials; ``Googlewhack!'' became a best-selling book in England (though Gorman never finished that novel). So, essentially, Gorman has built a lucrative career based on bar bets and avoiding responsibility.

``When bad things happen, they reward me for it,'' he admits. ``It's a dangerous system to set up - it'll teach me bad habits. The odd thing about this show is that the audience leaves feeling uplifted - and it's about the worst thing that ever happened to me. I didn't know what I was doing would become a show and a book, it was just happening to me, against my wishes.

``But then, it became the best thing that happened to me. If I were to tell you this story in a bar, it would be a story of misery and failure - it clearly would have bankrupted me. But by becoming a successful show, telling the story has become part of the story itself, and now everything's OK. Without that, it's about me failing to write a novel in order to do something utterly trivial.''

Gorman concedes convincing people to allow him to visit them out of the blue required some finesse. ``If I explain to someone this is the reason I want to meet you, that doesn't make any sense. But if they go and put those two words in Google and discover that that part is true, they have to think, 'If he wanted to rob me, how did he find that Googlewhack, and why would he go to all that trouble?' As strange as the truth is, anything truer than that is even stranger.

``And I'd always tell them how far I was coming to meet them: How could you not meet a man prepared to travel 6,000 miles to meet you?''

Gorman no longer spends hours Googlewhacking and accepts Googlewhacks that fans have submitted only politely - the story has been told and he no longer needs any. And he hasn't ruled out writing a novel, though he notes that given his track record, no publishing company in its right mind would sign him to a contract.

Dylan Moran, who will come to Los Angeles in April, is also working on a novel and, in fact, expects to do some research while in town. It's about a rock band, so naturally he wants to check out the architecture in the Hollywood Hills, and he also wants to visit a Hollywood cemetery or two.

But mainly, he will be concentrating on ``Monster,'' his 90-minute screed against, well, just about everything. As he grouses in his show, ``Other people don't think like I do, and that is what makes the day so long.''

Moran recalls that he did once perform in ``one club in L.A., but I was very drunk.'' He promises moderately better behavior this time around.

His show isn't necessarily designed to be user-friendly; Moran uses the war in Iraq to springboard into a reflection on anti-Americanism abroad, though, he hedges, it's ``isolated mainly just in the world.'' As opposed to, say, the rest of the galaxy.

``I thought, I'm not going over there (to America) saying, 'You're a bunch of ass-----,' '' he says. ``There are a great many people who feel this way about America, many in America. It went over well in New York, and I expect the same in L.A.

``I would've been very interested to see how a line would go down in some s--tkicker town in the South that sacrifices virgins every Saturday morning before the farmers market. I'd love to go there and find out. Maybe they'd eliminate that virgin requirement in their sacrifice - 'Take this used-up hairball!' But I'd like to gauge the public opinion in other parts of the country.''

David Kronke,[phone]

david.kronke(at)dailynews.com

DAVE GORMAN'S GOOGLEWHACK! ADVENTURE

What: British comic Gorman relates his online adventures, meeting people with unique Web sites.

Where: Macgowan Little Theater, UCLA.

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday; tonight through April 10.

Tickets: $20 to $25. Call [phone] or go to uclalive.org.

DYLAN MORAN: MONSTER

What: Irish comic Moran shares his impressions of America, as well as the usual stand-up concerns.

Where: Macgowan Little Theater, UCLA.

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, 7 p.m. Sunday; April 13 through May 1.

Tickets: $20 to $25. Call [phone] or go to uclalive.org.

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Photo:

(1) GORMAN

(2) MORAN