Last weekend Desperate Measures, Wesleyan’s short-form improv comedy troupe, hosted their annual 24-hour show in the Nics Lounge. For an entire day, they attempted to keep their audience entertained by spontaneously making up skits. Intrigued by this seemingly impossible task, I attended for a combined total of about five hours—three on Friday night and two on Saturday. Although their audience was sparse at times (it only consisted of three people at one point), Desperate Measures kept on performing, and managed to deliver an entertaining spectacle.
So why would these five brave souls—Carolyn Cohen ’12, Jana Heaton ’14, Ariel Lesnick ’14, Mark Popinchalk ’13 and Jakob Schaeffer, GRAD – embark on such a Herculean endeavor?
“The show was a Desperate Measures tradition long before we were in the group,” said Cohen, a three-year veteran.
“It’s part tradition and part stubbornness. We’re the only group on campus that does it,” Popinchalk added.
“We’re the only group on campus without brains,” Lesnick replied.
I arrived at the very beginning of the marathon, when the players were still jumping and yelling at the sizeable audience before them. Most of the group members concede that the first hour was one of their best, but their favorite was the final 60 minutes.
“The last hour is so beautiful,” Cohen said.
But not all of the best memories come from the performance itself—the troupe had some interesting visitors in the middle of the night. A stick was thrown at their window, and two people mooned them.
“The funniest part about people mooning us was that the next day people were pressing their faces up against the same spot where the butt-prints were to say hi to us,” Popinchalk said.
Additionally, there was the challenge of simply staying awake. Cohen fell asleep standing on her feet at one point, although she caught herself with her “really strong ab muscles.” Popinchalk made sure he didn’t sit down for long periods of time, Heaton drank four cups of coffee and Lesnick, who was keeping kosher for Passover, just powered through with gushers, chocolate milk, and “Jake’s facial hair.” Facial hair aside, Schaeffer doesn’t know how he stayed awake. What probably helped was the energetic dance the troupe did together every hour on the hour to celebrate being 60 minutes closer to the end of the show.
But as hard as staying awake for 24 hours is, it’s even harder when you have to constantly make jokes and interact with four other people the entire time. While Lesnick has “no comment” on how the troupe managed to get along, Cohen said that, “it’s a common occurrence for tensions to arise.”
“[It’s like] being stuck in a bunker,” Schaeffer said.
Although the troupe did the majority of the show themselves, they did have some special guests. At one point, a DM (though not yet Wesleyan) alumna Arie Levine ’11 rejoined the troupe for an hour. “We touched tongues,” Cohen said of the reunion. At 2 a.m., New Teen Force joined the show, followed by Lunchbox Sketch Comedy at 3 a.m. Members from Vocal Debauchery and Gag Reflex also occasionally joined the show. Cohen said she enjoyed the challenge of working with the guest perfromers, all of whom have very different performance styles.
I was certainly laughing for all five hours I was there. Even at noon the next morning, after 14 hours of performing, the troupe delivered. I was almost in tears when Schaeffer improvised “Cardinal Ordinances” on the spot. “Number one: Lay an egg and save it for later. Number two: build a nest and Number three: Go Wes! Fight fight fight!” yelled Schaeffer, still maintaining at least the semblance of being energetic.
But even if energy waned and tempers got short, Desperate Measures not only put on a great, I might even go as far to say epic, show but also did it for 24-hours straight. How many people can say that they actually kept on doing a task without sleep for an entire day? Popinchalk, Cohen, Lesnick, Heaton and Schaeffer sure can. Heaton’s parting words on the show: “I’m really tired.”
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