Beginning at 10 p.m., Dirty South Improv and UNC's Chapel Hill Players, better known as CHiPs, will present a 24-hour improv comedy marathon called 24 Live! The event benefits the Inter-Faith Council, a local organization that works to fight poverty and homelessness in the Chapel Hill and Carrboro area.
The show is the brainchild of producer Zach Ward, a 1999 UNC graduate who helped found CHiPs, the primary improv troupe at UNC. Now working as an improv actor in Chicago, Ward found inspiration for 24 Live! in a similar improv marathon he saw last spring.
Seven core performers from Chicago and UNC will make up the backbone of the performance, but other actors from Toronto and North Carolina will jump in throughout the night to support them.
"The goal of the core is to make it though the 24 hours," Ward said.
He said that only two actors completed that task at the show he saw last year but that he's optimistic for this younger group and new event, which is partially sponsored by Red Bull energy drink.
The public should not limit themselves as to what hour they arrive at the show, Ward emphasized.
"If people can't come at 10 p.m. on Friday, they can come at 2 a.m.," he said. "(For) 24 hours there is a show going on, whether for 400 people or four."
After paying the $10 admission, audience members will receive a bracelet allowing them access to the show.
"People can come and go as they please," Ward explained, although he does hope to see a few people armed with water bottles and granola bars, ready to stick it out the whole night.
