Call it trading places. This summer, for the first time Jerry Seinfeld will bring his stand-up comedy routines to a legit Broadway theatre. Conversely, Jackie Mason, who has brought several stand-up shows straight to the Great White Way, is now testing his latest evening on the club circuit.

He recently finished a Houston gig at the Laff Stop, Apr. 22-May 3, and now he's gearing up for an engagement, May 22-June 4, at NY's Catch A Rising Star. The show is being billed as a "Work in Progress" (quotations theirs), though Mason's (tentative) upcoming Broadway performance will be titled "Much Ado About Everything."

Quoted in the April 21, 1998 issue of The Houston Chronicle in Ken Hoffman's column, Mason said, "When I put together a new show for Broadway, I don't repeat one joke, not one thought, from the previous show." Mason first appeared on Broadway 12 years ago with a routine entitled The World According to Me. Since his initial smash, he has returned to the Great White Way to popular acclaim; Politically Incorrect ran for nearly three years. "If I tell you an old joke and ask you for money, then I'm robbing you," the one-time rabbi philosophized.

For tickets ($27, plus $10 minimum) and information on the Jackie Mason shows at Catch A Rising Star, 253 West 28th St., call (212) GOC-ATCH.

-- By Peter Szatmary
Texas Correspondent
and David Lefkowitz