COMEDY : Being a Victim for Laughs : Hearing-impaired comedienne Kathy Buckley has learned to poke fun at her disability, and to help others.

Kathy Buckley makes her living playing the victim, a role she was all too familiar with during childhood and young adult years. Now, Buckley plays the part strictly for laughs.

“When I do my stand-up routine, I use myself as the victim, as the object of humor,” says Buckley, a hearing-impaired comedienne who got her start at Encino’s L.A. Cabaret four years ago. “I never want to point the finger at anyone, unless they ask for it. Fingers were pointed at me all my life. I know what that feels like.”

Hearing-impaired in high frequencies since birth, Buckley of North Hollywood has appeared at Los Angeles’ premier comedy outlets: the Ice House in Pasadena, and Igby’s and the Laugh Factory in West Los Angeles.

A massage therapist, Buckley was ill-prepared for her five-minute debut in 1988 as an entrant in an L.A. Cabaret comedy competition sponsored by United Cerebral Palsy. In fact, it wasn’t until months later, when she had improved hearing aids, that Buckley could hear the laughter she evoked. Until then, she relied on vibrations through the stage floor.

Before her first performance, a panicked Buckley rented videotapes of comic performances to acquire tips. “All I knew was that Robin Williams had the fastest lips and Whoopi Goldberg had the slowest,” Buckley says. “I couldn’t figure out what they were saying. I just sat in front of my TV and cried. I just didn’t get ‘hearing humor.’ ”

Recognizing the humorous aspects of her disability, Buckley amplified it. For a start, she wore a huge plastic hand that she cocked behind her ear. Sometimes she sported an enormous ear. As for her slight speech impediment, “I just tell people I’m from New York.”

Besides her hearing, Buckley pokes fun at other disabling events in her life. “Like the time a lifeguard ran over me with a Jeep while I was sunbathing,” says Buckley, a slim 39-year-old who tops 6 feet. “I was paralyzed for two years. Now I tell people I used to be a size 44D.”

Buckley concedes that her former victim status--a misdiagnosis of mental retardation at birth, her hearing impairment, the Jeep accident and a bout with cervical cancer at age 27--taught her volumes about life.

“First I was told I was retarded, then that I couldn’t hear, then that I couldn’t walk and finally that I couldn’t live,” Buckley says. “I really do believe some cancers are caused by stress, so I changed my diet, my attitude and my entire life. The experiences taught me to take my life back--from doctors, from my family, from everyone. I discovered the obvious and stopped acting like a victim.” Buckley says doctors have been unable to find any trace of cancer for 10 years.

Born in Wickliffe, Ohio, Buckley was unable to form words until she was diagnosed as hearing impaired at age 7 and received specialized education. She now wears hearing aids behind both ears. “The only time I don’t wear them is at home when I want some quiet--or when my mother’s around.

“I think my humor, as a kid, was more of a defense mechanism than it is today. I was so used to people making fun of me that I concluded the prettiest thing you could see on a person’s face was a smile. I did absolutely anything to put it there.

“People from my past said I was always funny, but I remember just feeling pain and not being accepted.”

L.A. Cabaret owner Ray Bishop says Buckley’s observation of ordinary events that contain a core comic element makes her successful.

“Many times there’s something funny about a situation, but people just can’t articulate it,” Bishop says. “Kathy’s able to zero in on humorous circumstances.”

Buckley tours clubs nationwide about three-quarters of the year and volunteers as a motivational speaker. Although some comics pass their days waiting for evening gigs to begin, Buckley phones schools, setting up appointments to talk to students. “We have to let them know that someone cares.”

Buckley also champions rights for the disabled at corporations, education departments and support groups for parents who have disabled children.

“There’s no better way to teach than through humor,” Buckley says. “If you make ‘em laugh, the information goes in further and stays longer.”

Where and When Location: L.A. Cabaret, 17271 Ventura Blvd., Encino. Hours: 9:30 p.m. show Saturday. Buckley will appear for 30 minutes, beginning at 10:30 p.m. Price: $12 cover. Call: (818) 501-3737.