> When writer/actor/director John Boyle has a problem he will "sit down and write. It's the best way for me to deal with stuff." And so his current writing was inspired by being "screwed over by a dot-com last year." Since Boyle's literary genre of choice is satirical sketch comedy, he went for the absurd elements involved in finding and losing jobs.

"Then I showed a friend what I'd written," Boyle recalls. "And he had just been laid off. And then it turns out that another friend had lost five jobs in three years.

"And look at the news. General Motors fires 20,000 people. Then -- this is the galling part -- they offer 'employee discounts' to the general public, to anyone who's willing to buy a new GM car."

Gall is a reliable source of comedy. Last year, he got comic inspiration from the absurdities of U.S. elections. He was part of Jet City Improv's "Election Show 2004." After its local run, the production won slots in Chicago and Miami improv festivals.

As for the wretchedness of employment and unemployment, Boyle has turned it into comic compost for "Laid Off," a linked sequence of 18 sketches that opens tonight at the Northwest Actors Studio.

"There's so much sucky stuff that you can turn into comedy," he says, "the resumes, the interviews, then, if you get the job, the office politics, the trusted supervisors that turn on you, the need to guard your turf. ..."

Boyle's "Laid Off" cast is made up of himself and two fellow Jet City veterans, Ryan Miller and Matt Owens. "When you work with improv actors, you can count on them to contribute to the script," Boyle says. "Once rehearsals start, the material grows and bends. You add stuff and you take stuff out."

The "Laid Off" action focuses on the tribulations of Train of Thought Airways, an enterprise that deals with managerial incompetence -- such as a $15 billion shortfall -- by laying off workers and giving top executives handsome bonuses.

The "struggling working class" at TTA includes a character, played by Owens, with the catchy name Nostradamus. "He wears wizard robes to work," Boyle says. Also in the cast list is a character named Tom Cruise. All the actors play multiple roles. Their assignments include playing women.

"Matt plays this hot woman, a drunken sorority girl type," Boyle says. "She does PR. She's good at managing hostile reporters. She'll says things like, 'Ooo, you're cute. You have such big arms. Wow! I bet you go to the gym a lot.' The reporters find that distracting.

"I play Nostradamus' girlfriend Susan."

With sudden shifts of character, aren't costumes a problem? "You find two different schools of thought about sketch-comedy scenery and props and costumes," Boyle says. "East of Chicago, the approach is minimalist. You tell the audience who you are, what you are, where you are and leave the details to their imaginations. West of Chicago, the productions tend to be busier when it comes to the physical elements in staging. Train of Thought takes the Eastern approach. That way, costumes and scenery aren't a problem."