A sketch where a guy drugs a woman and then has his way with her doesn't sound like it would be, or should be, a laugh riot. But in the hands of local talents Dana Goodman and Julia Wolov, the above skit, and others like it, make up a hilarious and more than merely shocking stage show, "The Dana & Julia Show."



"We've just kind of found our niche," Goodman says.



The niche that the two women have found is a type of raw humor that is at times sexually charged and at other times gross-out. Their work has drawn attention from the entertainment industry and from local audiences -- Goodman and Wolov do sold-out shows each weekend at ImprovOlympic, where the duo has been performing for the last several months.



No doubt there are those who believe the premise of the sketch mentioned above is an offensive one. But in looking at what the women who created it have placed just below its surface,, the sketch is not about taking advantage of someone but a lampoon of the perceptions of the male as a virile being.



After the man (played by Goodman) has knocked out the woman (Wolov), "he" goes through a series of ridiculous poses and gestures that make him look more like a moron than a sex symbol. It's one of the funniest of several sketches the women perform during almost an hour, the majority of them profane, a few just plain silly, but all of them free of simple, easy laughs initiated merely for shock value.



"Our sense of humor is on the raw side. That's just where we go," explains Wolov, who, like Goodman, is 29.



"I think [our humor is] surrounded by kind of a more intellectual base. We're not just saying [something profane], but there's a scene around it, and a relationship between two people."



Adds Goodman: "That's one of the problems I think people had when I and Julia first started working together six years ago . . . we'd go on stage and say `vagina' for no reason. And we just really honed it, and do develop it around a scene."



Wolov, a native of Philadelphia, came to Chicago six years ago from New York, where she had been studying theater with some former Second City performers. She landed at ImprovOlympic, where she saw Goodman, who grew up in Skokie, from across the room, laughing at the same things Wolov was.



It was that shared sensibility that helped them to form a fast friendship.



"I think we're on the same wavelength," Wolov says. "I think that if we grew up together and we were in junior high together, we would have been kicked out of school."



Their first show together was 1998's "An Ode to Judy Blume" at the Annoyance Theatre. They have also worked separately and together at Second City, Zanies and Coyle's Tippling House.



The two were a hit last year at the industry-attended Chicago Comedy Festival, which landed them a flood of offers and management representation. Last summer they began "The Dana & Julia Show" at ImprovOlympic.



Last week, the women appeared at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo., playing to capacity crowds. Goodman and Wolov have quit their waitressing jobs and are hoping that the Aspen performances eventually land them some type of televised sketch comedy show. Their plans also include doing what they love best -- performing live together for as long as possible. They'll be doing that in Chicago at least through the end of March, when they may be heading to Los Angeles.