A dangerous journey into the mind of an improvisational actor
9:45 p.m.-Pretty much everyone's hanging out in Chum's, counting down the last minutes until we get started. Pillows, pajamas and an egg-crate mattress are lying all over the room. We're all psyched, the freshmen seem a bit nervous. I just bought eight Rock Star energy drinks, and I'm saving them for 5 a.m. Here goes.11:04 p.m.-There's a pretty good crowd for one hour in. They're enthusiastic, and totally clueless as to what's coming to them. But come to think of it, it's improv, so we are too. Anything can happen at any time! We've raised at least 100 dollars so far, go us! To Be Announced just started, and it looks like it'll be a good hour.
1:06 a.m.-We just finished Bad Grammer hour. Neat-o. I had to pretend not to have an abdomen. Didn't go over too well, but I got to make a great pun: "I can't stomach this." Ahhhh. The group had a lot of fun, we rock. Deniz Cordell '07 just showed up, he's going to accompany our musical hour. This seems very promising.
3:00 a.m.-Daylight savings just happened. My watch and I are confused. I shouldn't have chugged that Full Throttle. I'm too energetic for only four hours into this. That's gonna come back to haunt me later.
5:33 a.m.-Halfway through "slumber party hour," I realized that there weren't more than nine people here not in one of the groups, and there weren't more than 15 people still awake. But this spin-the-bottle-slash-improv-challenge thing we're doing works only because my eyes are half open. That, and I just pretended to be a T. Rex being humped by my cybernetic dog best friend, played by a very convincing Ken Goff '06.
7:29 a.m.-I was starting to fall asleep, but the light from the rising sun beamed in through the windows onto my face. But on the upside, the view of the Boston skyline was pretty neat.
9:47 a.m.-I woke up to the sounds of people singing. By the time I realized what was going on, they were done with the singing. I'm sure it was hilarious. My neck hurts, I slept funny. I'm still functionally asleep, and now I have to go perform for Sophomore hour. Ugh.
11:07 a.m.-I didn't realize what was going on until 20 minutes ago. Figures. Someone brought doughnuts. I'm going to hit that up now.
12:59 p.m.-After walking over to Usdan to grab food around 11:30 a.m., I realized that we all smell pretty bad. More than a few people came up to me and noted how zombie-esque I looked. At least I'm not eating brains. just Usdan food (zing!).
1:40 p.m.-I love improv-ers. The inevitable dance party just broke out. The highlight? Raphi Rosenblatt's '06 solo to "Since U Been Gone."
3:02 p.m.-Two-thirds of the way through, and everyone (who's here) is still going strong. We just dubbed over The Sandlot. ahh, memories. Up next: Power Hour. I'm not too sure how good drunken improv will be, but the attempt should be funny enough.
3:44 p.m.-Ben Kuss '07: "I once dated Bob Dylan, but then I got drunk as shit!" Power Hour worked out after all.
5:02 p.m.-Girls' Hour started out with the promise that it would be the worst hour of improv during the entire marathon. Score.
6:16 p.m.-About five hours left, and Guy's Hour is alive and kicking. So far, it's the equivalent of a hunting trip or bowling night. You know, awesome male bonding stuff. If I didn't have all this caffeine coursing through my veins right now, I'd be functionally dead. But to tell the truth, I think I could use the rest.
7:00 p.m.-Only four hours left. Things are starting to get alive again. If only every piece of trash were replaced by an audience member, we'd have a packed house. But I don't know if anyone would come; the stench is probably scaring some people away. I mean, I'm bad enough, but with 20 other stinkies, well, it's not so fragrant.
7:04 p.m.-Uhhh. there's an interpretive dance about 9/11 going on right now. This is definitely the darker side of improv. I feel like a very bad person for laughing.
8:42 p.m.-Musical Hour part two had lots of statutory rape, mud and litigations. It's definitely at the point where no one has any idea what's happening. Thank God Josh Gondelman '07 is so good at improv-singing and rhyming.
10:01 p.m.-Only one hour left, and all I want to do is sleep. Beautiful, beautiful sleep. But alas, I must fulfill my responsibilities as a judge for Theater Sports, and by god, I'm too tired to realize that it's at the point where I don't have to pay attention and it'll still be fatigued humor. But good, I'm sure. I hope.
11:03 p.m.-24 hours down, 24 hours awesome! Oh man, we did it again, raising over $450 for Oxfam International. Some people couldn't make it all the way through, but plenty of us stayed in Chum's for virtually the entire time. Once again, the power of laughter vanquished the forces of evil, or something. I don't know, I'm tired. But we ended with another awesome dance party.
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