Groundlings Perfect Art of Quality Sketches

Going to the Groundlings is like getting in on the ground floor of the next generation of ascending sketch comedy talent. “Groundlings to Meet You, I’m Robert,” ably continues the tradition, under Deanna Oliver’s direction.

Jeremy Rowley gets the biggest laughs. His first self-tailored showcase is a character he has done in previous Groundlings shows: an impossibly eccentric, high-voiced man who causes trouble in queues, this time at a Department of Motor Vehicles office. If Rowley ever becomes a regular on late-night TV, let’s hope the producer realizes this is a great example of a character who’s screamingly funny in short doses but who should not be turned into the focus of a feature film.

Rowley tops himself with the pre-intermission finale, in which he’s a teenager who is devoted to his own brand of Latin dancing--and decides to demonstrate his newfound skills at his grandfather’s birthday party.

Jim Rash is very funny as the grandfather and also shines in his own sketches. He plays an office flunkie who tries to inject a little magic into humdrum routines and a man who is held captive by a killer duck.

Rachael Harris and Rash wrote and star in a superb opener about the robotic staff at a supermarket checkout counter. It’s a novelty in that it’s virtually wordless, though hardly silent. Harris also is featured in a pretty good solo about a sex-obsessed singing teacher; it could be called “The Vagina Monologue” if the title weren’t taken.

Cheers for Cheryl Hines as the very white star of a new TV series about a black teenager, for Holly Mandel as the enthusiastic dispenser of membership cards at a health club and as half (with equally amusing Jordan Black) of a couple of improvising preachers, and for Steven Pierce’s slow burns and his improvised stint as the Irish singer Robert.

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* “Groundlings to Meet You, I’m Robert,” Groundling Theatre, 7307 Melrose Ave. Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 8 and 10 p.m. Indefinitely. $18.50. (323) 934-9700. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.