So what do you think of Texans so far?

"I think everybody here is, like, really nice. It's scary actually, a little bit. Either they're the nicest people on Earth or they're just about to crack."

(Everyone is offered refreshments. Everyone declines.)

Ace is the first movie in which Carrey has been allowed to go completely "out" with his high-energy comedy. The sort of energy he has imparted to the popular "Color" character Fire Marshal Bill is also present in Ace Ventura.

"He's a sort of comedy 007. I based him physically on a smart bird. I wanted Ace to be from another planet and everyone around him to be the reality of the situation. He's a winner. That's what I like about Ace. If his head was severed, he'd spit at you with his last breathe. He's what everyone wants to be, the guy with the answers."

Carrey credits the sharpening of his comedic instinct to his experience on "Color."

"I think 'In Living Color' has set me up to be real creative. At 'In Living Color,' the sketch is never done until you get on the air. You never know what the hell you're doing. That kind of pressure really sets you up to think on your feet."

Carrey's favorite scene, when Ace Ventura realizes he has unknowingly kissed a man, showcases this improvisation. "I was supposed to come in and brush my teeth furiously and throw up in the toilet. I wanted to take it further, the worst homophobic reaction that's been documented, ever.

"First, I want to burn my clothes. I want to get under a hot shower and be blubbering like I'd been raped. Then I saw the plunger, so I induce vomiting with the plunger. Just things like that, things that haven't been done before."

What was it like kissing Alex P. Keaton's girlfriend (Courtney Cox)?

"I wasn't really thinking about that at the time. And I don't think she was thinking about him either." (Smiles) "Courtney is great, she's wonderful. They were sending me out of the room all the time. She did practically all of her close-up lines to somebody else because she couldn't keep a straight face."

Before all of this, as a kid in Canada, Carrey began to let his imagination loose and, in the process, worry his mother.

"I spent a lot of time in my room growing up. I used to look in the mirror and make these faces. My mother was really worried about me because it was kind of psychotic. She's say, 'Jim Carrey, if you don't stop looking at the mirror you're going to see the devil!' Of course, that just made me want to do it more.

"I just had a great time all by myself. The only time I would freak out is if I was drawing a picture or I was coming up with some sort of idea and someone would ask me to do something normal. Then I would freak out and break everything in my room and lose my mind."

Then you'd run out and kill a villager?

"Right, don't tick me off. Get off my cloud, man."

You're still making faces. What did your mom think?

"She got into it after a while. She saw the possibilities."

What about your children?

"I have one little girl. She's probably as bad as I was. I worry about it like my parents did, I guess. It's very weird. I did 'Arsenio' the other day and they put the camera on her. She just went crazy. She started sticking her tongue out at Arsenio. She's the sweetest kid on Earth, but she seized the moment."

Seizing the moment is very much a Carrey trait, an instinct he has learned to trust. Now and again it can backfire. He professed Jimmy Stewart, whom he adores, to be the favorite impression he does on stage.

Have you ever met him?

"Yeah, I totally freaked him out. He's shy and I came up to him- it was like meeting Santa Claus for me. There was this receiving line to meet him, and by the time I got up to him I had become this bizarre 'Jim Carrey: Friend to Man & Beast' kind of thing. I was him in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington: 'Jimmy, you're my greatest inspiration.'

"He turned red, blood red. It was one of those living lessons. 'Thou shalt not honor false gods.' "

Does William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch) know about your talking asshole scene with Tone Loc?

(Laughs) "I can't wait to see children coming up to me and doing that, 'Oh, please, no, what have I started?' I've already got people coming up to me with their kids doing Fire Marshal Bill."

What about the rumors that co-star Sean Young is impossible to work with ? Carrey didn't let that go unchallenged on the set for even one moment.

"We'd heard all these horror stories; that was one of the reasons I wrote the big fight scene. The world wants to see that, someone kicking the hell out of Sean Young.

"When she showed up on the set, in front of the entire crew, I just turned in the middle of the scene and said, 'Sean, we're not gonna put up with any psycho crap.' She started laughing. When the thought is there, you've just got to attack it."

Carrey contends that Ace is a different sort of comedy. He hopes to separate it from the Wayne's Worlds and Naked Guns erupting from Hollywood.

"It's not a Naked Gun thing. It's more of a character piece. Everything is a joke in Naked Gun. The lamp is a joke. The poster in the background says something goofy. There is no reality at all. In this (Ace), the story is real, but the character is absolutely ridiculous. The fact that he could walk into a murder scene and have his free reign in ridiculous. But Ace is that guy."

(It is announced there is time for one final question.)

(Silence)

What did you have for lunch today?

(Laughter)

"I had the ehhh-two-feeehhhh. It was a dish down in the dining room, some sort of spicey seafood, fettuccine étouffé."

(Someone asks Carrey what he's doing later on.)

"I have to leave at 5. I have to go to Chicago. Otherwise I'd be partying with you guys. I wish I had some time to hang out.

"Thanks a lot, guys."