THEATER REVIEW : A New Slant on Comedy Teams : ‘Mack & Jamie’s Two-Man One-Man Show’ is an unconventional blitzkrieg of dramatic sketches about two funnymen struggling for their big break.

You hardly ever see comedy duos anymore. And when you do, one of the partners is invariably a straight man. Not so with Mack Dryden and Jamie Alcroft, neither of whom seems comically complete without the other and neither of whom plays a no-nonsense straight guy for very long.

Extended through the end of May at the Ice House in downtown Pasadena, “Mack & Jamie’s Two-Man One-Man Show” is a far cry from conventional stand-up. Rather, the show is a blitzkrieg of dramatic sketches, all tied to a running story line, that are fresh, inventive and consistently funny.

Their production is framed around two no-name comics who have spent 14 years banging around the country together playing clubs, colleges and corporate gigs, all the while dreaming about a guest spot on a celebrated late-night TV talk show. That, it so happens, mirrors the knockabout, real-life tribulations of co-stars Dryden and Alcroft (or Mack and Jamie as they prefer to be called).

Their deftness with verbal and physical comedy, and silly musical interludes (such as their hilarious chipmunk-like parody of the BeeGees) propel the antics along in a patron-friendly atmosphere in the 150-seat venue.

Risque material, such as a running gag about a horny unicorn, is so frolicsome it’s innocent. And don’t look for political humor, because there is none.

While Mack and Jamie share the frequently boisterous material with their vocal accents and rubbery faces, they are totally dissimilar people. Mack is the worrier, the writer of the pair who must structure and script everything out before going on stage, while Jamie prefers to ad-lib and wing it.

That makes for a nice distinction, because physically Mack and Jamie are rather indistinguishable from each other. They’re not the odd-looking couple in the storied tradition of Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello--a fact that must put more creative pressure on them as a comedy team.

As themselves, they can turn in a flash into bundled up, disgruntled blue-collar comics freezing in their car with a broken heater on the way to a club date in Denver. At another moment they might be ripe fictional characters, such as a Louisiana rube in a baseball cap and a checkered shirt buttoned up at the collar, who’s just a shade brighter than Forrest Gump, pestering a scowling traveler at a bus stop in Baton Rouge.

The show’s writing is replete with nostalgic surprises (“Remember when safe sex meant all the car doors were locked?”). And periodically, sketches satirize institutional formats in a style that reminds you of Monty Python (such as a stuffy Englishman introducing the literary classics in the manner of the intro to “Masterpiece Theater”).

The show’s intimations of dramatic theater point to an afterlife on a live theatrical stage.

* “Mack & Jamie’s Two-Man One Man Show,” Ice House, 24 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena, Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends May 28. $7.50 with two-drink minimum. (818) 577-1894. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.