Groundlings Want to Make Mama Proud

Unlike most of the loopy titles of Groundlings comedy revues, “Groundlings, One More Time for Mama” actually refers to material that’s in the show. For the grand finale, new Groundling Daniele Gaither improvises a bluesy song based on an audience member’s recollection of advice from Mama.

Last Saturday, Gaither sang up a storm based on a woman’s memory that her mother warned her not to talk to boys. Gaither didn’t waver in her mental high-wire act, deftly tossing out unexpected rhymes and remaining in character throughout.

It was a great night for Gaither, who also appeared as a guinea pig in a sketch about a scientific experiment, as a woman who wants to return to her African roots by becoming a contestant on the next “Survivor,” and as a male prison inmate in “Attica!,” a takeoff on “West Side Story.”

All of those sketches hit their marks beautifully. Nat Faxon wrote the one about the experiment and appeared as a man who just couldn’t stop eating potato chips despite electrical shocks. Rachel Ramras co-wrote the “Survivor” sketch with Gaither and played an even dippier would-be contestant, with the charming nickname of “Sneakers.” Faxon and Ramras teamed up as writers of the opening sketch, in which a hostage situation morphed into a kind of block party.

Jordan Black, lean and limber, co-wrote “Attica!” with Steven Pierce and also served as half of a pair of dream therapists. His other half, played by Amy Von Freymann, acted out her hostility to her partner even as she analyzed audience members’ dreams.

Will Forte portrayed a boyfriend so adept at camouflage that not only his girlfriend’s father but also the girlfriend herself have trouble spotting him under their own noses. Then he played the mellifluous but decidedly batty judge in an amusingly Python-esque courtroom sketch.

From previous Groundlings shows, Jeremy Rowley continued his zany characterization of a weirdly high-pitched man in line, this time in the valet parking queue after a performance of “The Lion King.” This bit is hilarious, but it doesn’t change much from show to show. In another sketch, however, Rowley was almost as entertaining as the one United States guard who patrols the entire Canadian border.

Four minor flaws: Kevin Ruf’s sketch about an amorous French gynecologist needs a better punch line; Steven Pierce’s depiction of “Sexy Man” needs a better second half; Von Freymann’s “Geology Rocks!” relies too much on strained and literally sophomoric sexual innuendo (the characters are high school students); and an improv about a group of male cheerleaders appeared too choreographed and too far removed from the audience suggestions.

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* “Groundlings, One More Time for Mama,” Groundlings Theatre, 7307 Melrose Ave., L.A., Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 8 and 10 p.m. Indefinitely. $18.50. (323) 934-9700. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.