“The studio audience laughed and I started making jokes about fingers,” Mr. Mason said yesterday.

What was visible to millions of viewers was an upward thrust of a finger by the comedian. He told the audience he had been “getting lots of fingers tonight.” Pointing in different directions, he added: “Here's a finger for you and a finger for you and a finger for you.”

Mr. Mason also thumbed his nose at the camera.

He said yesterday that none of the gestures were intended to be offensive.

“I had no obscene thoughts in my mind,” he asserted.

Mr. Sullivan appeared to be upset wen he came back, on camera after Mr. Mason had left the stage, but he made no comment about what had happened. ‘“I was furious and sick to my stomach,” he said yesterday by telephone from Las Vegas.

Mr. Mason said that after the show Mr. Sullivan walked over to him and said, “I will destroy you in show business.” Mr. Sullivan denied this.

Elaborating on the charge that Mr. Mason had deviated from the material agreed upon, Mr. Precht said:

“During dress rehearsal Sunday afternoon, Jackie had lots of Goldwater and Johnson jokes. As we near a Presidential election, we always ask comedians to drop political jokes because it's a touchy situation.