JOKER’S WILD

Paul Shaffer, David Letterman’s show-biz happy bandleader, is in (where else?) Las Vegas filming an hour Cinemax Comedy Experiment, due to air next spring. “Viva Chez Vegas” is written by Shaffer, Tom Leopold and Harry Shearer (who also directs). “It’s a Vegas that I don’t think Francis Ford Coppola quite captured,” said Shearer.

“Paul plays himself after he’s been talked into doing a nightclub act at the Tropicana, complete with muscle guys, showgirls painted gold and bad outtakes from the Letterman show.”

There’ll be lots of offbeat music, including Sonny Charles & the Checkmates performing their old hit, “Black Pearl,” a new version of the Buffalo Rebels’ obscure rock classic, “Wild Weekend,” and the act’s show-stopper, “Was It Good Enough for You (‘Cause It Was Good for Me).”

Shearer also will be on-camera playing “the kind of rabbi that you’d see hosting the Chabbad telethon.”