WRITER TRADES ON WIT; WESTLAKE VILLAGE MAN'S HUMOR HAS LEGENDS LAUGHING.

Byline: Annette Bailey Daily News Staff Writer

From company jokester to comedy writer for the stars, Gene Perret's been laughing all the way.

For more than 30 years, the Westlake Village resident has provided the sidesplitting material for the likes of Phyllis Diller and Bob Hope, walking away with three Emmys for his work on the classic ``The Carol Burnett Show.''

A love of laughter and a natural ability to draw guffaws as he tested his material on co-workers at the General Electric plant in Philadelphia propelled Perret into a life of comedy writing.

His break came in 1963, when one-of-kind funny lady Diller got a sample of his comic quips and hired him to write witty, caustic one-liners.

Hope was his idol, and Perret set out decades ago to emulate his style, carefully studying the comedian's television monologues and duplicating his humor.

The persistence and determination paid off. Hope gave him a call.

``When I came out to Hollywood, he called me and asked if I'd like to write some jokes for his Academy Award appearance,'' Perret said.

Perret spent the next two days preparing, writing more than 300 jokes. Hope was so pleased with the witty one-liners that he called Perret the next day and hired him on the spot.

The conversation went something like this:

``You know something, it looks like you've been writing for me all your life,'' Hope said.

``I have, only you didn't know about it,'' Perret replied.

Perret was starting to get noticed, garnering the attention of the wacky Burnett, who liked his quips and and offered him a chance to be head writer of her variety show.

The laughter from the living rooms of Burnett fans from 1973 to 1978 was largely credited to Perret, who has the trio of Emmys to prove it.

``It was fun to work on because you could do anything - if you work on a sitcom you're tied to a particular character, but on a variety show you can make an entirely new character,'' Perret said.

Perret quickly points out that the high jinks between Harvey Korman and Tim Conway on Burnett's show were the real thing - no script could have produced such genuine comedy.

``Tim's whole purpose in life was to make Harvey laugh,'' he said.

Life for Perret hasn't slowed much since the golden days of TV variety shows. He's written 20 books on humor - among them ``Bigshots, Pipsqueaks, and Windbags,'' ``Great One-Liners'' and ``On the 8th Day God Laughed.''

He's just finishing his latest - ``Talk About Hope'' - a book sharing personal accounts and stories about his comedy idol. He's also preparing for the annual Round Table Convention, where aspiring comics can try out their comic skills before an audience and learn firsthand what it takes to write comedy. The convention will be held July 10-12 at the Westlake Hyatt Plaza.

``Someone asked Sammy Davis what he would have done if he hadn't gone into show business, and he looked at them, and said, `I have no idea,' '' Perret said.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO Comedy writer Gene Perret of Westlake Village has three Emmys to attest to his talent.

Evan Yee/Daily News