You can call Jean Shepherd many things including storyteller, filmmaker and novelist. When you see him perform in person you have to also call him spellbinder. For two hours Tuesday night Shepherd, working on a darkened stage under a spotlight, held an audience of about 700 people in the palm of his hand as he told, basically, two stories. Shepherd appeared in the Fine Arts Auditorium of Calvin College in a concert performance sponsored by the college and WGVC-TV, the public television station at Grand Valley State College. One of the stories Shepherd told was about when he was a boy in Indiana and his father took the family for a drive. ("My old man had a 4th hand Oldsmobile. It fit him like a catcher's mitt.") The other story was about his first day In high school. Only a master storyteller such as Shepherd could stretch two stories into two hours. How does he do it? By digressing. Shepherd will take little side trips on top of little side trips but he always manages to come back and tie up all the loose ends. For instance somewhere in his high school story Shepherd, wearing a very casual outfit including suspenders a and sneakers, commented on sex manuals which he thinks are worthless. Sex is something to be learned on the battlefield or the backseat of a Pontiac. "Can you imagine King Farouk watching Dr. Ruth," comes an image from Shepherd's active and very visual mind. Then he builds on the idea. "Dr. Ruth talking about sex is like a Cabbage patch doll telling you about the economy. "Where did she get her field training?" Then it's off to some other subject. But make no mistake about it - Shepherd is not doing stand-up comedy with one one-liner after another. Shepherd weaves a fabric of Images that seem so familiar that you'd swear you have lived his stories. His humor is also a learning experience. When you come away from listen ing to Shepherd you feel as if you knew a bit more about the lnterworkings of men and women and of people and society. And If Shepherd is a storyteller, he is also a performer - an actor. Richard Pryor has nothing on Shepherd when It comes to creating visual images with his voice and body. Shepherd educated the audience about the cocktail party stance and walk. He also created a classroom for us complete with teacher-working-at-blackboard and a half dozen students. At times he came close to working in the territory of the mime. Just how good a performer he is became obvious at the end of the concert when Shepherd had the houselights come on so he could take questions from the audience. There was no doubt in my mind that the real Jean Shepherd was different from the Jean Shepherd he creates when telling his fictional stories. Tile Jean Shepherd that answered the questions was more abrupt and not prone to indulge anyone with a question or a comment he felt was out of line. Shepherd also freely admits and, in fact, wants it known that be is a performer creating a role. Anyway, whoever the real Jean Shepherd is, he is, for sure, one fine concert entertainer. I had tears of laughter rolling down my cheeks and I wasn't the only one. I laughed more last night than I have in all the movie comedies I've seen in the last two years. Seeing this man was a rare treat Indeed, I consider myself lucky to have been In the theater last night.