The Real Deal

 ((Fri. (28), 11:30 p.m.-midnight, Comedy Central))

By JOHN P. MCCARTHY

Videotaped in Lake Tahoe by Comedy Central. Executive producers, Jack Meoff, Art On, Tyrone Chewlaces; producer-director, Scott Preston; writer, Robert Krausz; created by Vinnie Favale, Marc Chusid, Tony Fox; camera, Andrew Sobkovich; editors, Dave Salamone, Sal Fischler; sound, Fountainebleau Sound. #With: Kevin Pollak, Robert Wuhl, John Mendoza, Allan Havey, John Caponera. The Borscht Belt meets ESPN in Lake Tahoe. Comedy Central offers the first of three unscripted half-hours (airing on consecutive nights) with five comedians playing poker and telling bawdy, and largely unfunny, jokes. This poker "Skins Game" comes off as a prank dreamt up by a hip Friar. Show is credited to three exec producers who are clearly pseudonyms -- according to sources, it's the three Comedy Central staffers who are the show's creators. With each player given $ 4,000, the stakes are fairly high, but the taste level is low.
 

Kevin Pollak, Robert Wuhl, John Mendoza, Allan Havey and John Caponera were flown to Caesars Tahoe to tell off-color and off-putting stories while playing a marathon game of seven-card stud that's impossible to follow.

The average age of the jokes is 40. There's little effort to make the poker match engaging and every joke or story is interrupted by officious dealers asking the teller to ante up or see a $ 10 bet.

With the exception of Wuhl and Pollak, the guys don't seem all that thrilled to be there. Pollak's imitations of Peter Falk and Sammy Davis Jr. are the highlight.

"The Real Deal" doesn't live up to the disclaimer that's read by announcer Penn at the top of the program and after every commercial break: "The following program contains a truckload of dirty jokes, graphic conversations and four-letter words. Those viewers who like to send nasty letters of complaint to networks like Comedy Central are advised to sharpen their pencils." They wish.