Inspired Goofiness in ‘Acme and the City’

Director M.D. Sweeney and his talented troupe give the Groundlings a run for their money in “Acme and the City,” a freewheeling evening of sketch comedy at the Acme Comedy Theatre.

Musical director Jonathan Green on keyboards and Christian Malmin on drums help set the pace for this upbeat outing, which starts off on a satisfyingly silly note with “Seal of Approval,” written by and featuring Jamie Kaler and Ed Marques. Marques, clad head to toe in shiny gray material, plays Guthrie, an over-the-hill sea lion burned out after 18,000 performances at a SeaWorld-style marine park. While Kaler flings fish bits (actually gummy candy) around the stage, the exhausted Guthrie can barely summon the energy to gobble the food off the stage floor, much less cavort in the pool or tootle “Happy Birthday” on his toy trumpet. A prolonged sight gag, this is nonetheless slapstick of a high order.

The whimsical Marques spearheads the goofiness throughout. In “No Strings Attached,” the most memorable sketch of the evening, Marques and Joanna Daniels play Olvera Street puppets who long to escape their tethers and strike out for greener pastures.

Another inspired bit of slapstick, “Cliffhanger” is Kaler’s side-splitting, ingeniously staged piece about a mountain-climbing expedition gone hilariously awry.

Chip Chinery has his innings as a well-meaning motivational speaker, circa 1953, whose “advanced” notions of political correctness are rudimentary, to say the least. Ellen Meskimen earns huge laughs as a woman whose alien encounter has rocked her world, much to the chagrin of her hapless husband (consistently funny Jeff Lewis).

Kristen Trucksess plays both a lovelorn young woman and a doddering senior with brio, while Bill Kessler’s wild-eyed George Carlin, a last-minute substitute on “Monday Night Football,” gives new meaning to the phrase “color commentary.”

*

“Acme and the City,” 135 N. La Brea Ave., L.A. Saturdays, 8 p.m. Indefinitely. $15. (323) 525-0202. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.