Just Making It Up as They Go Along--Successfully : Improv: Stand-up’s humbler cousin is getting some attention, thanks in part to a cable showcase. Participants like the ‘rush’ of ‘walking a tightrope.’

On the stage of a comedy club, a three-headed psychiatrist is being asked what men and women can do to communicate more effectively. Each head quickly spits out a single word until a sentence is completed: “Give-each-other-plenty-of-hard-candy.” The unusual doctor’s impromptu advice is greeted with a wave of laughter.

The talking heads belong to three of the members of Wrought Irony, an improvisational comedy group that’s been holding forth at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood every Sunday night for almost four years. Each week the performers take to the stage without any idea of what they’ll be doing on it, relying on crowd suggestions to guide and shape their comedic endeavors.

“It’s a rush,” says group director Mike Colasuonno. “You’re walking a tightrope, and it’s a very exhilarating challenge. Can you make something funny out of nothing?”

Compared to the brash street smarts of stand-up comedy, improv often comes across as something of a humble, flighty cousin. But while the improv and sketch comedy groups of the L.A. area make do with a low profile in the entertainment industry, the work they produce is considered within the improv world to be some of the finest in the country. The success of the cable TV improv showcase “Whose Line Is It, Anyway?” on Comedy Central has begun to stir some industry interest in the scene. But most local players say they participate in improv and sketch comedy primarily for the sheer joy of making stuff up as they go.

“You get hooked on it,” Colasuonno explains with a shrug. The improv veteran has a respectable day job as a writer for “The Tonight Show,” but he continues to find the time to keep his freewheeling comedy group active. “It’s hard to give up once it’s in your blood.”

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Actress Jennifer Joyce was hooked into the improv scene a few years back when she happened upon a performance by Los Angeles’ best-known comedy troupe, the Groundlings.

“Before I saw the show, I didn’t really know how to pinpoint what I wanted to do as an actress. But while I was watching the performance my heart started pounding because I was seeing exactly the kind of thing I’d always wanted to be a part of.”

The Groundlings have been mixing polished comedy sketches with improvisational scenes for almost 20 years. Many successful comedy careers have been launched from the Groundling stage, including those of “Saturday Night Live’s” Julia Sweeney, Phil Hartman and Jon Lovitz. “Late Night” host Conan O’Brien also once romped as a Groundling.

“When I came to L.A. in 1985, I happened to see an improv show called ‘Instaplay,’ ” O’Brien recalls. “It was put on by Bill Steinkellner, who later executive-produced ‘Cheers.’ The group presented a musical called ‘Beverly Hills Ninja’ based on audience suggestions. It was one of the best uses of improvisation I’d ever seen, and I wanted to be a part of the improv scene. I got into the Groundlings program right away.”

While working his way up through Groundling classes and supporting himself as a comedy writer, O’Brien was also involved with smaller improv groups.

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Los Angeles carries the reputation of being a tough town for theater work, and it’s even tougher for improvisers to get widespread attention. An outpost of Chicago’s famed Second City theater wasn’t able to support itself here in the late ‘80s, and when the recent earthquake damaged Santa Monica’s Upfront theater beyond repair, improv groups such as the Transformers and the Alumni Players were left without a home. (The Alumni have taken up residence for the time being at the Improv on Melrose Avenue, and plan to re-open at a new venue in Santa Monica by May 1.) Despite the obstacles, local groups continue to get by relying on volunteer or fee-paying performers and a strong but small core of customers.

“The audience support is great,” says Dan O’Connor, who works as a member of Wrought Irony. “Nobody is going to make a fortune working in improv, but it’s satisfying to see people come back again and again.”

O’Connor is also the artistic director of LA TheatreSports, a group that takes the game elements of improv to wild extremes.

On Saturday nights, Theatre-Sports presents “Triple Play,” a more dramatically oriented improv performance, and a recent guest performer was Mike McShane of the British program “Whose Line Is It, Anyway?” The show’s producers spotted McShane in San Francisco, where he was working with the improv group Faultline. He’s currently in England taping another season’s episodes of the show, and then plans to move to Los Angeles, where he’ll continue to improvise while pursuing his acting career.

“I love the quickness and cleverness of improv, and the fact that the audience participates,” he says. “I love the give and take between the players and the audience.”

Although stand-up and improv performers both seek to entertain, they have very different relationships with their respective audiences. Joyce brought one of her Groundling creations to a stand-up stage with mixed success. “I came up with a hooker character and did a bit with her on the stage at the Comedy Store. I got laughs, but everybody thought I was a real prostitute. I got cornered afterward by a male dancer who said, ‘Hey, I know where you’re coming from.’ ”

Kent Skov, who founded the 17-year-old LA Connection in Sherman Oaks, sees a future full of big possibilities for improv and says that the large number of groups based in Los Angeles guarantees that the scene will stay healthy.

“There’s all this talk about interactive entertainment right now, and one of the most economical and enjoyable ways to experience an interactive show is to see some improv comedy. There are more groups now than ever, and more performers are interested in doing the work. The competition makes us all better. The players have more outlets, the audience has more choices, and every group has a reason to be doing the best work that they possibly can.”

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Sam Longoria of the Wild Side theater in North Hollywood agrees that improv groups shouldn’t be worried about stealing one another’s audiences. “I always thought my competition was the other theaters, but I’ve come to the conclusion that the real competition is TV and video. With so many choices at the flick of a remote, it’s hard to get people out of the house. But it’s a mistake for improv groups to aspire to the level of a sitcom. We’re in a theater, and we have to meet the challenge of offering a quality, very entertaining theater experience.”

Mike Chain’s improv group, Mice, has been offering free Saturday night shows of loony improv scenes for 14 years. He says that the spontaneous, off-the-wall humor in his shows is a great tonic after a tough week of work, but he also feels strongly that improv work shouldn’t be instantly disposable.

“Improvising can help you understand screenwriting, editing and storytelling. It’s important to get a crowd to laugh, but I feel you should be able to improv a scene that could go right into a movie or a TV show.”

At the Acme Comedy Theatre, director Mark Sweeney is in pursuit of high-brow silliness. “I started the group here to do intelligent, non-offensive, non-mean-spirited comedy. We don’t have to be intellectual, but intelligent is always nice.”

O’Brien still drops in to work with the Groundlings occasionally and says he’s still using the improv skills he developed with them as he pilots “Late Night.”

“There has to be improv in every monologue I do. Working five nights a week and doing maybe five jokes per monologue, I know some will misfire. That’s when I think back to Groundling days and try to make something out of nothing. I had a joke misfire recently, and I decided to make it up to the audience by giving them three pushups. They liked it and probably went home remembering the ad-libbed pushups instead of any of the scripted jokes. I got the laugh, kept my improv sharp and managed to work on my pecs at the same time.”