The 10th Annual Del Close Marathon is this upcoming weekend. What is that you ask? (Well, very few are asking that since 93.3% of my readers are NYC improvisors.) It's a long-form improv festival. 134.25 hours of improv (if I did my math right) over three days on 5 stages. Over 150 teams from across the country. Improv around the clock. Now it would be impossible to see all of it short of using a time machine. Still, if you have nothing to do this weekend, a $25 dollar pass gets you into access to 93% of the shows (some shows cost an extra $10 per and reservations... all of those shows are worth it). That's more made up comedy than the brain can handle in one weekend.There will be great improv and bad improv. There will be insane stuff like a stage of ten Bill Cosbys. Stuff will blow you minds, stuff that will make you ears bleed, and stuff you will just sleep through.
I'm excited because I've never done the DCM full out. My first year of improv I didn't quite understand what it was and didn't go at all. Last year, I didn't plan well and didn't go for the long haul. But this year I am prepared. Catching up on sleep, hydrating well (there's a lot of drinking). I'm prepared to watch improv until it stops being funny and then becomes funny again for totally different reasons.
This is also the first year that I am performing in it.
Thank You, Robot is at the UCB Stage (307 West 26th St. New York, NY) at 8 AM (yes, the morning) on Saturday. Veal is at the Urban Stage (259 West 30th St., New York, NY) at 11:15 AM (late morning), also on Saturday. Sadly, you cannot buy tickets for individual shows. But if you want to spend a very weird Saturday morning, come see TYR at 8 AM and see a bunch of shows through the afternoon (catching Veal in there). If you make it through to 2 PM, you have just seen 6 hours of shows for $25, which is less that 7¢ a minute. And you will get to see me make up songs while totally brain melted. Tempting, ain't it?
(TYR also has a show at The Broadway Comedy Club – 318 W 53rd St – on Monday, August 11th. Wardrobe Army is hosting and the world-class Fat Penguin is playing too. $6 plus 2 drink min (yeah, I hate the two drink min too... sorry)).
