These Clever Groundlings Provide Gavel-to-Gavel Laughs

In “Groundlings vs. the State of California,” the comedy troupe builds a strong case, and the verdict is nonstop laughter. This new production includes hilarious improvs and embarrassment for audience members brave enough to volunteer to go center stage at the Groundling Theatre.

With the driving beat provided by musical director Teddy Zambetti (who composed the overture) and band members Willie Etra and Probyn Gregory, director Deanna Oliver opens the show with an infomercial. Jordan Black’s “Card Game” pointedly reminds the audience that Los Angeles once hosted the “crime of the century” that was won by playing the race card--now conveniently available for sale.

This latest bill leads us on a whirling tour of everyday incidents stretched to zany contortions and cases of revenge and pettiness, including Karen Maruyama’s “New Shoes,” in which a salesman (Steven Pierce) is driven temporarily insane by a peculiar customer (Maruyama). In Kevin Ruf’s “Morning Danish,” a Club Med counselor (Amy Von Freymann) gets back at a boorish vacationer (Ruf).

The goofy “Cowboy Justice” shows that the ways of the West aren’t dead as a goodly cowpoke (Ruf) comes to the aid of two damsels in distress (Rachael Harris and Von Freymann). In Jeremy Rowley’s “Post Game,” a news commentator (Pierce) tries to get one coherent answer from a basketball star (Rowley).

All of the improvs feed on audience suggestions, with the second half made up entirely of improvs. In one, Jeremy Rowley takes on the persona of a former boyfriend of an audience member who has just revealed a woeful tale of love. The tragedy involved two teenagers and mayonnaise malaise--he couldn’t date a girl who ate mayonnaise. Rowley becomes the boyfriend, now a sleazy lounge singer, who offers an apology, singing “I Can’t Stop Loving You.”

In “Abstinence”--the only skit that might raise an objection, Von Freymann is a 33-year-old virgin who gets sexually aroused while counseling a dating audience couple on chastity. Better is Black as a talk show host interviewing Al Gore (Ruf). Black fills in certain questions with words taken from audience questionnaires picked randomly from a fishbowl.

In their closing statement, the Groundlings go for an impromptu musical about . . . whatever the audience is clever enough to consider.

BE THERE

“Groundlings vs. the State of California,” the Groundling Theatre, 7307 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood. Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Runs indefinitely. $18.50. (323) 934-9700. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes.