Tonight in Salomon 001, Starla and Sons, a Brown long-form improvisational comedy group, will kick off the College Hill Long-Form Improv Festival, a 24-hour marathon of comedy.
Aside from Starla and Sons, the festival will feature 10 long-form improv troupes, including Brown groups IMPROVidence and 13.5 Inches. Four teams from other colleges - one each from Yale and Columbia and two from Boston University - and four professional groups - Providence troupes Improv Jones, Dos Personas and Unexpected Company as well as Improv Boston - will also perform.
Starla and Sons will open the festival with an hourlong performance at 9 p.m. They will also be the festival's closing act, performing at 8 p.m. Saturday after 23 sleepless hours.
"These 24-hour festivals are just hilarious all the time," said Will Guzzardi '09, the group's founder. "People are tired and delirious. It's a great experience as an audience and participant, and it will be a lot of fun for all who are involved."
Guzzardi decided to start Starla and Sons in fall 2006, hoping to introduce the Brown community to the longer skits and diverse style of long-form comedy.
Long-form differs from short-form not only in the length of the skits presented but also in substance.
"Long-form can still be funny, whimsical and silly, but it's also about ideas and relationships," Guzzardi said. "It's deeper in a way."
Guzzardi hopes the festival will have a permanent effect both on Brown's improv community and improv nationwide.
"A big point of the festival is putting Brown on the map and Providence on the map, in terms of a place where improv happens," Guzzardi said. "We are hoping to establish this as something that people look forward to - not just at Brown or in Providence, but around the area and the country."
The festival will feature a different performance every hour. Viewers will pay $1 to enter the festival and will receive a hand-stamp, allowing them to come and go freely during the 24 hours.
There will also be a variety of events throughout the festival in between performances, including a free donut-and-coffee breakfast at 10 a.m. on Saturday and two $50 raffles - one at 9 a.m. on Saturday for those who stay the initial 12 hours and another at the end of the festival for those who stay the entire second half.
"I really hope people will think to themselves, 'Man, it's 3 o'clock in the morning; I bet there is some crazy sh*t going on,'" Guzzardi said. "That's what I really hope. That people get excited about the sheer craziness of the project."
