The 54-Hour Improvisation

If you’re the sort of person who just can’t get enough improv, your seemingly bottomless appetite is about to be filled with The 54-Hour Improvisation, which promises to be an ordeal for performers and audiences alike. Beginning on Friday, with rotating shifts of actors, bright and cheery young thespians will turn snarly and old before your very eyes. Those who are still awake on Sunday at midnight can celebrate at Unexpected Productions’ following 25th-anniversary party, which will feature past alumni, special guests, and eulogies for those who perished in the preceding 54 hours. (Kidding! Or not.) Maybe this event will settle some longstanding questions about comedy, like: What’s funny at 7:00 a.m. before you drink coffee? (My guess: nothing.) As to the best time to attend: I’d suggest 4:00 a.m. Saturday morning, when the crowd is drunk or asleep, and the actors are staggering about while jacked up on No-Doz and Adderall, hallucinating audience suggestions, clinging to one other like dance marathoners, cursing whatever relative or dorm-room buddy first said, “You’re hilarious! You should do that onstage!” Now that’s comedy. Market Theater, 1428 Post Alley, 325-6500, www.unexpectedproductions.org. $14–$18. 6 p.m. Fri., June 13-midnight Sun., June 15. JOHN LONGENBAUGH
Fri., June 13, 6 p.m., 2008