“I happen to think that the age we find ourselves now is pretty epic in terms of comic material,” says Right Between the Ears cast member Roberta Solomon.

“But we’ve never had a problem making fun of whoever is in office and whatever administration is bumbling through things. We had a field day with Bill Clinton. During the Ronald Reagan era, we weren’t sure how we were ever going to top that when Reagan wasn’t in office anymore. We haven’t had any problem. There is always so much out there that is worthy of comment.”

The political and social materials that inspire the Lawrence-based comedy troupe have remained consistent since the group’s formation in 1982. Yet its entire way of operating will change this weekend.

This Saturday’s performance at Liberty Hall marks the first time in 20 years Right Between the Ears will be going it solo without Kansas Public Radio as its production partner and sponsor.

But just as Prince left Warner Bros., Will Ferrell left “Saturday Night Live” and Roger Clemens left the Boston Red Sox – all individuals who departed from the very entity that fostered their careers and brought them into the limelight – Right Between the Ears members see this as a major career opportunity.

Right Between the Ears cast members, clockwise from left, Teri Wilder, David Greusel, John Jessup, Kip Niven, Rick Tamblyn, Roberta Solomon and Andi Meyer gear up for the comedy troupe's annual holiday show. This Saturday's event will mark the first time in 20 years that RBTE is performing without Kansas Public Radio as its production partner and sponsor.

“Living in the university world has been wonderful, but as we’ve set our sights on taking the show to the next level we were asking for resources that KPR didn’t have or wasn’t able to provide,” Solomon says. “I don’t think there’s any other outcome for this but that we will be weekly and national and on the cover of People magazine.”

“What’s positive about the change outweighs what’s negative about it,” says Darrell Brogdon, producer and principal writer of RBTE. “For the first time we will completely own everything that we create.”

That means this upcoming performance will solely be a production of RBTE, and won’t receive any equipment or staffing from KPR. However, KPR will continue to broadcast the program (though not live) in a new format. Beginning in January, the comedy act will launch a weekly show that is a mix of new sketches and archival material from its two-decade history.

“We had a 20-year relationship, and it focused on a very small portion of our audience,” says Janet Campbell, general manager of KPR. “It was quite a time-consuming production. We attempted to find a private underwriter for a couple years, and it failed. So I felt it was time to focus the outreach resources on other portions of our audience – for example, classical music lovers.”

Brogdon, Solomon and the other seven cast members have found their independence from KPR has opened up new ways to expand their scope. Coinciding with the January launch, Sirius Satellite will run the series on their Raw Dog Channel. The show also will enjoy exposure nationwide via a new network called the Public Radio Exchange – a Web-based distribution system out of Cambridge, Mass.

Solomon says the revamped setup has led to some second-guessing.

“Can we fill the theater every three weeks? Can we handle the pressure of a beefed-up writing and production schedule? Can we pull this off without going postal and winding up in the loony bin? I’m very optimistic, because the show is so damn great.”

Orchestra of voices

Right Between the Ears’ annual holiday performance continues in the tradition of topical comedy.

“It’s pretty much driven by the headlines,” Brogdon says.

Subjects include bird flu, political indictments and terrorists. There also will be a Scottish holiday cooking segment with a drunken, deranged host. And there’s a new episode of “The Antonio Banderas Show” with special guest Jessica Simpson.

Solomon describes, “Antonio tells Jessica he wanted to audition for the role of ‘Desi’ in the movie ‘De Dooks of Hahzaird.’ He’s deflated when Jessica informs him that Daisy was a woman’s role … that she got.”

Founder Brogdon – who never performs onstage with the company – says versatility is the key to RBTE’s success.

“It’s really an orchestra of voices,” he says. “Each of them can do their own thing, whether that’s celebrity impressions, political impressions, accents, goofy characters or just great straight-person announcer types.”

Solomon, a cast member since 1990, agrees.

“We’re all very versatile – you have to be,” she says. “You have to be able to do 15 or 20 different things because you never know when you’ll be asked to be a dog or an alien, or an alien dog.”

Defining moment

Originally called The Imagination Workshop, the group decided to change its name several years ago to Right Between the Ears as a way to instantly brand itself as a comedy team. (“I have no regrets,” Brogdon says of the new moniker. “Although it’s amazing how often people still tell me they prefer the old name.”)

When assessing the past decades of live performances, Brogdon recalls one moment in particular that he views as a turning point.

• Listen to complete Right Between the Ears broadcasts
• Right Between the Ears Web site

“I remember the first time we got what we thought was a really sustained, show-stopping laugh,” he says.

The crew was performing at the old Lawrence Arts Center in the mid-1980s. Ronald Reagan was president, and wife Nancy was making headlines for her obsession with astrology. At the same time, the president was preparing to meet with Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

“We combined the two things into a single sketch,” Brogdon recounts. “There was a moment when Nancy was prepping the president about his upcoming meeting, and it was all governed by the position of the stars, and his moon was in the house of Sagittarius or whatever. In the middle of all this the vice president called and Reagan said, ‘I can’t talk now because I have to go moon some guy named Gorbachev.’ There was a long laugh. Then the follow-up was ‘… in the House of Pancakes.’

“It was at that moment I thought, ‘We might be on to something here. Maybe we can do something with this other than just horse around at the Arts Center every couple of months.'”