The Pajama Men Are Sketchy Fun

Their comedy show, "Versus vs. Versus," begins with Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez perched on chairs and running through an absurdist news report and commentary; just when you feel you've got your sketch comedy bearings, they veer off into a new, absurd bit, like the one about the chess-playing bat. Oddly enough, it took us about five minutes to realize that they are called the Pajama Men at least in part because they both wear pajamas (tops and bottoms, so it's almost formal) throughout the show. Or maybe those happy hour (5-8 p.m.) margaritas at Cha Cha are stronger than we thought.

"Versus vs. Versus," produced by Infinity Live, is hosted at the Annex Theatre (through December 20, tickets $12/$18), just kitty-corner to the Cha Cha, which is why we mention the margaritas--but there's also a bar at Annex, just so you know. It's cozy.

You don't need to drink to enjoy the Pajama Men, of course. We're just saying. They're a very funny duo and they have awards and have played at Dublin's Samuel Beckett Theatre, which if you're honest is more than most of you have done.

While it's an odd show--the Benny-Hill-fast-motion sequence of a killer jumping rope with someone's intestines comes to mind--the humor is distinctly, nerdily, warm-hearted. Part cut-up post-modern narrative and part improv sketch, "Versus vs. Versus" does turn out to tell a story, though you probably wouldn't complain if it didn't; Allen and Chavez have a preternatural grasp of sketch pacing: sometimes the ideas skim off into others via free association, sometimes they develop into "no-net" routines, like the love song serenade of the audience member. The hour flies by, the skids greased by the giddiness of improv.

Stretchy-faced Allen plays a horse, Igor-ish servant, tween-ish girl, sexually impulsive wife, and "the man down there." And a European-ish researcher of what's gross. Chavez produces a wide-eyed befuddlement as an everyday dad on the run, and twitchy romantic overtures from nerd-teen-in-love Dan, who gives his survival knife to crushes. After seven years of working together, the two happily needle each other over slips of the tongue; if at times they're having more fun with that than the audience, they're never less than generous with their good-natured goofiness.