COMEDY : A Crazie Time for Sweeney

Getting together with an old friend shouldn’t have to be like this.

The last time Julia Sweeney and Cheri Kerr saw each other was in January, in Los Angeles at a benefit for Sweeney’s younger brother Michael who is suffering from lymphoma cancer and has no medical insurance. On Saturday, the women are getting together again, this time in Orange County, for the same reason.

Julia Sweeney, perhaps best known as the androgynous Pat on “Saturday Night Live,” and Kerr, founder and artistic director of the Orange County Crazies, met through the Groundlings, an improv troupe based in L.A. Kerr was an original Groundling back in the ‘70s, Sweeney an ‘80s alum. They crossed paths when Kerr went back in the ‘80s to chair the alumni committee.

Saturday’s benefit springs from a show that Sweeney canceled with the Crazies.

“She was going to guest host a show last summer, but she had to cancel because her brother fell ill,” Kerr recalled recently.

Until his illness, Michael, a 31-year-old who lives with his sister in Los Angeles but currently is hospitalized, ran the box office at the Groundlings theater.

“I’ve been taking care of him full time since August,” Julia said last week. “He was diagnosed in July. This has been a big horrific year. The whole family is down from Washington.”

Julia’s “spirit and energy are very admirable,” said Kerr. “I don’t know if I could do what she’s doing and do it so well.”

At the benefit, Sweeney will do her original “It’s Pat” skit and a routine with her wallflower Mea Culpa character. She’ll also do a few things with the Crazies cast.

Sweeney, who has two other brothers and a sister, broke into show business in 1986 when she wearied of the numbers game.

“I thought I wanted to be an accountant,” the Spokane native said. “I was good at it and had a good job, but I found myself upset every day and didn’t know why. I needed a change.”

She saw an ad for a Groundlings beginning improv class in 1986 and signed up. About a year later, she joined the cast. Outside the troupe, she landed roles as a secretary in “Gremlins II” and as a cook in TNT’s remake of “Dinner at Eight.” But to help with the bills, she still did spot duty as an accountant.

Her leap from the Groundlings to “Saturday Night Live” in 1990 came when producer Lorne Michaels dropped in to check out the Groundlings cast.

“I had a really good night that night,” Sweeney remembers. Her good fortune was not unprecedented. Other Groundling alums who latched onto “SNL,” which regularly scouts the troupe for talent, include Jon Lovitz, Laraine Newman and Phil Hartman.

Sweeney’s run with “SNL” lasted four years. She quit the show, which tapes fall through May, last year.

“I just felt I’d done enough,” she said. “It was helpful because of the exposure it gave me. Also, it was such a grueling work schedule, probably the experience of that magnitude was helpful.”

Because Pat looks nothing like Sweeney, the actress has managed to keep a portion of her privacy.

“I was only recognized when I talked,” she said, laughing. “That was a good thing!”

* What: Julia Sweeney with the Orange County Crazies in a benefit for Michael Sweeney.

* When: Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7:30 p.m.

* Where: Pacific Symphony Center, 115 E. Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana.

* Whereabouts: Take the Santa Ana (5) Freeway to 17th Street and head west. Take a left at North Main Street and a left onto Santa Ana Boulevard. The theater is on the left one block down, with free parking across the street.

* Wherewithal: $25.

* Where to call: (714) 550-9900. Reservations recommended.