‘Anything Can Happen’ : Alley Oops, Mice, Live Humans on Stage and other comedy groups take their cues from the audience

Itching for a good laugh?

Comedy-improv groups are popular all year round. But summer nights, especially, lend themselves to long cool drinks, dark clubs, and stage pieces that run the gamut from pleasantly silly to unabashedly lunatic.

And unlike stand-up comedy, where the interaction between performer and audience generally is in response to what’s presented, improv groups depend heavily on audience input and participation to fuel their creativity--and shape their material.

The following is a sampler of local improvisation groups, including what audiences can expect from them in terms of subject matter, format, point of view and cost.

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Alley Oops: The six-member troupe (all of whom are members or students at Actors Alley) kicks off the summer with “Vacation Oops,” a follow-up to last year’s successful “Vaguely Vegas.” Director and group member Steve Kavner describes the program as 75% improv, 25% set pieces. “Everything will be tied in to the vacation theme; we’ll figure out ways to make it have to do with it.”

Beginning July 1, plays Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. at Actors Alley, 4334 Van Nuys Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 986-2278. $7.50

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Angels With Dirty Faces: Formerly Midnight Madness (at the old Company of Angels Theatre), the eight-member group resurfaced in April with an all-improv format. “Now people can come every week and see something new,” said group member Molly Brandenburg, who dubs much of the work “absurd.” Accompanied by musician Randy Ruff, the Angels tackle topical, social and relationship themes, often in song.

Plays Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. at Company of Angels, 2106 Hyperion Ave., Silver Lake, (213) 666-6789. $5.

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Bargain Basement: Just 2 months old, the nine-member troupe is made up of both stand-up comics and improvisers--”a unique hybrid,” said director and group member Marc Hershon. “You want to give people what they want,” he said, referring to their material, “but audiences vary from Monday to Monday. Sometimes they want it dirty, sometimes clean. Generally, we try to keep things above the belt.”

Plays Mondays at 8 p.m. at the Improvisation, basement entrance, 321 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, (213) 394-8664. $6.50. Food and drinks served.

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ComedySportz: Two teams of four “act-letes” compete in a series of improv games. “We’ve got a coin toss, a referee, prop boy, peanuts and a ballpark organist,” said director James Bailey. “We sing the national anthem and play on Astroturf. We even have a little blimp that flies overhead.” Audiences judge which team is the most entertaining, receiving brown bag fouls for rude and lewd suggestions.

Plays Fridays and Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. and Sundays at 7:30 p.m. at the West Coast Ensemble, 6240 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, (213) 871-1052. $8.

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Groundlings: The 15-year-old company (composed of a 27-member main group and 14-member ingenue Sunday Company) performs with a small band and offers about 75% set sketches, 25% improv. “The improvs make a show personal,” noted outgoing artistic director Tom Maxwell. “If we take a suggestion and do an improv on it, that’s a unique piece. It never happens before or after.” As for philosophical bent, “we have no agenda,” he said. “We’re not a political group, we’re an actors’ group. We start with characters, not ideas.”

“The Groundlings’ Big Spin” plays Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 8 and 10 p.m. “And on Sunday, He Laughed” plays Sundays at 7:30 p.m. at The Groundling Theatre, 7307 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, (213) 934-9700. $12.50-$15; $9.50.

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Live Humans on Stage: “We do 80% sketches, 20% improv,” said producer and group member Jim Henriksen. “When you do improv, you kind of turn control of the show over to the audience--which is pretty risky.” Two current improvs are Blind Date and Emotional Blocks. In the latter, the stage is divided into various emotions; as performers enter designated squares, they must become that emotion. Scenes, he added, are often topical. “They’re funny, but they tend to have pathos. And there’s a human edge, as opposed to slick jokes.”

Plays Saturdays at 8 p.m. at the Third Stage, 2811 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank (818) 842-4755. $7.

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Mice,Gio’s Cafe: “We do a different type of improv,” group member Mike Chain announced. “The format is based on my background, my idea of comedy. When we improvise a scene, it should look as if it’s written. So I’ll ask an audience, ‘Who would you like to be calling--an obstetrician, a dreidel salesman?’--and we do a scene right there, on the fly.” The seven-member group doesn’t use blackouts: “We go on till the audience applauds us off. And none of us are fat or funny-looking; we’re all leading men and women.”

Plays Thursdays at 9 p.m. at Gio’s Cafe, 7574 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, (213) 876-1120. Free.

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Milknose: A 50-50 split of sketches and improv constitute the format of this 4-month-old, four-member team. “We’re loose,” said group member Kevin Marquette. “Anything can happen. Although we try to be topical as much as possible, we’re not very politically oriented. We’re just out to have a good time.”

Plays Fridays at 10:30 p.m. at the Rose Theatre, 318 Lincoln Blvd., Venice, (213) 649-4702. $5.

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Second City: “Commenting on the society we live in today is the core of what we do,” co-owner Andrew Alexander said. The 15-year-old group, which originated in Chicago, opened its local branch in February. The seven-person cast relies on a collection of directed sketches--of which two (on the homeless and AIDS) are deadly serious. Only one piece is an improv. “Most of our scenes come from concerns the audience has thrown at us,” Alexander said. “For A Good Time, Call...(213) 451-0621” plays Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 and 10:30 p.m. and Sundays at 7:30 p.m. Additional improv sessions of 30 to 40 minutes are held free after the regular shows on weeknights and after the late show on weekends. Second City Theatre, 214 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica. $12.95-$13.95. Food and drinks served.

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L.A. Connection: The 12-year-old company, which has a rotating collection of in-house groups, also is host on “Mad Movies,” comedy dubbings of old movies that are televised monthly on the Nickelodeon cable channel. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30, 9 and 10 p.m. at the L.A. Connection Comedy Theater, 13442 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 784-1868. $8-$10.

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TheaterSportz: A predecessor to ComedySportz, two teams square off against each other, armed solely with audience suggestions. Plays Mondays at 8 p.m. at Theatre/Theater, 1715 N. Cahuenga Blvd., Hollywood, (213) 871-0210. $5.

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Funny You Should Ask: Comedy-improv group, plays Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. at the Melrose Theatre, 733 N. Seward St., Hollywood, (213) 465-1885. $10 in advance, $12 at the door.

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Off the Wall: Comedy-improv group, plays Mondays at 8:30 p.m. at the Improvisation, 8162 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, (213) 651-2583. $6.50, plus a two-drink minimum and 15% gratuity.