Reasons to Say ‘Cheese’

ANAHEIM — Like the class clown who terrorizes the other kids with a barrage of naughty pranks, Stages’ “Classic Head Cheese” is bad-boy theater to the max--rowdy, ridiculous and nasty.

Compiled--if that’s the word for it--from Stages’ previous “Head Cheese” comedy skit shows, the two-part evening gleefully offends any prim and proper sensibility with a kind of underground comix approach and a total immersion in the idea that almost anything about sex is funny. (That may not be true, but director Brian Kojac’s show convinces you anyway.)

And it’s definitely the show to take friends who think that nothing in Orange County could be wilder than in L.A. to: The Hollywood-based Groundlings have never put on a show so deep into the id as this one.

When you see actor Francis Bacon as William Shakespeare carrying a humongous penis around the stage, or wild man Ken Jaedicke as recurring right-wing wacko militant Ol’ Mac stripping for an audition as a male exotic dancer (and flopping around his spare tire that’s just a little less ample than Chris Farley’s), you know all bets are off. This is post-college theater that’s almost effortlessly funny, wisecracking and unwilling to recognize any of the rules it’s breaking.

The production makes traditional local theater appear lifeless. The comic pulse through most of these 24 bits is that life is messy, sexy, absurd, sexy, cruel, sexy, scary and, oh yes, sexy.

The frenzied nonsense starts with the Boss From Hell (played by the aptly named Spider Madison) pummeling his underlings into submission. There’s a city couple (Todd Langwell and Jillary Gordon) sending their off guest (Betty Riggs) into their crime-filled neighborhood. Jon Gaw plays a booze-swigging Teddy Kennedy (a dead-on portrait that keeps popping up in the show). There’s more silliness with Shakespeare. Ol’ Mac and his witless, gun-toting sidekick, Lumpy (Rick Lawhorn), assassinate the entire “McLaughlin Group” lineup of pundits, led by an overacting Dave Amitin (funnier as writer than actor).

And that’s the first quarter of the evening.

While most of the over-before-you-blink skits employ just about every member of the company, some of the strongest are solo offerings, such as the Adam Clark-written bit with Gordon as a droopy Sally Struthers pleading to us to help “feed the rich” and Todd Langwell’s perfect bit of satire as a creepy, robotic spokesman defending indefensible corporate crimes.

Kojac’s forces might also consider hiring more female writers. The one here--Amanda DeMaio--contributes one of the smartest skits, about an indecisive romance novelist (Mo Arii) in the throes of rewrites.

Mostly, though, there’s a lot of fun gross-outs, such as Terry McNicol’s skit demonstrating the new “Pitlick Maneuver” to use on people choking. (You can imagine what comes next.) Party girls Arii, Patti Cumby, Tracy Perdue and Stephanie Bonas, turned off by guys in a pickup bar, break into “If I Only Were a Man” (to the tune of “If I Only Had a Brain”). There’s Artie Wong (Mitch Faris), penile implant specialist. There’s Amitin’s incestuous, blueblooded family, revealing the kind of smart, shocking comedy they used to do on “Saturday Night Live.”

Naturally, this edition of “Classic Head Cheese” ends with a lot of the cast romping in the sack and letting us know they’re having as much fun as we are. And that is the magic ingredient: Even when a dumb bit crashes and burns, the cast is too mirthful--and too busy getting ready for the next bit--for any of it to matter. If joy is infectious, then the Stages crowd has released a viral outbreak.

* “Classic Head Cheese,” Stages, 1188 N. Fountain Way, Anaheim. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m. Ends Feb. 1. $10. (714) 630-3059. Running time: 2 hours.

The ensemble: David Amitin, Mo Arii, Francis Bacon, Melanie Baker, Teresa Carrillo, Adam Clark, Patti Cumby, Mitch Faris, Tony Faris, Roger Freeman, Jon Gaw, Jillary Gordon, Joe Hamblen, Ken Jaedicke, Joy Langwell, Todd Langwell, Rick Lawhorn, Spider Madison, Tracy Perdue, Michael Quinn, Betty Riggs, Phillip White, Tiina Wiles, Martin Williams and Christopher Wright.

A Stages production of comedy skits written by David Amitin, John Campanella, Adam Clark, Amanda DeMaio, Barney Evans, Mitch Faris, Roger Freeman, Matt Johnson, Todd Langwell, Terry McNicol, Phillip White and Martin Williams. Director: Brian Kojac. Lights: Clark. Sound: Jon Gaw.