The latest collection of sketches by the Groundlings is fast-paced and furiously funny. Sharply directed by Ted Michaels, no skit goes on too long, a frequent problem with other comedy troupes and a recurrent complaint about Saturday Night Live. In the evening’s first sketch, “Mistaken Identity,” gender roles and expectations get skewered by writer-performer Annie Sertich and performers Stephanie Courtney, Tim Brennen, Mitch Silpa and Michaela Watkins. Equally amusing is Watkins’ “I’m Alright,” a skit about a drunken cousin who won’t relinquish the microphone at a wedding. Edi Patterson’s “Campbell’s” offers a hilarious spoof of nonactors who can’t stick to a script. Director Michaels oversees several brief improv segments throughout the evening, most of which incorporate audience suggestions, and in one bit, Courtney and Ariane Price were hilarious as a pair of polygamist standup comics. Hidden under a series of cheap wigs, Silpa is uproariously funny in all of his sketches, and particularly in “Extra Extra” (which he co-wrote with Watkins), a bit about inexperienced actors trying to master the “spit take.” Music between the skits is courtesy of Willie Etra, Howard Greene and Larry Treadwell.
Fridays, Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 p.m. Starts: May 2. Continues through July 19, 2008

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