The 24-Hour Sketch Brawl

Turn of the Century Paris

How much funny can you crank out in one day? Enough to fill a half-hour sketch show? How about enough to fill out a sketch show that's hilarious enough to beat out seven other sketch shows?

In the city that's never at a loss for creativity-crunching competitions – Spam cook-offs, racing wiener dogs, drunk filmmaking, air sex – comes a new one, pitting eight teams of comedic masterminds against one another to see who can create the funniest live sketch comedy show in just 24 hours. The ColdTowne Theater gang, ever on the search for more inventive and perverse ways to present comedy, developed the 24-Hour Sketch Brawl to test the mettle of local wisenheimers, and 10 teams have risen to the bait. The challenge will go down like this: On Friday, Oct. 1, following the debut of ColdTowne's own new sketch show, Mainstage Sketch Lab 3.0 (featuring Chris Baldenhofer of Northshore Local, Elizabeth Brammer of Boy Toy, Teresa Kubos of Sarah 7, Erica Lies of Venn Diaphragm, Bryan Roberts of Ghetto Sketch Warlock, and Justin York of ColdTowne), the competing Sketch Brawl teams will meet to receive specific guidelines and suggestions for their shows to ensure they aren't using any previously written material. They then have 24 hours to conceive, write, and rehearse their shows before they're performed for the public on the ColdTowne stage. (Well, technically they have just 21.5 hours, since they get their instructions at 9:30pm Friday, and the first groups perform at 7pm Saturday, but really, what's 150 minutes in a contest like this? You either bring the funny or you don't.)

Celebrity judges – among them the Chronicle's own Wayne Alan Brenner and quite possibly a puppet (!) – will determine the brawl's winner, which will receive a monthlong run at ColdTowne. The schedule for the shows follows. Proceeds will benefit the fund to find ColdTowne a new and larger theatre.

Your Terrific Neighbors

7pm: Metropolitan Collection (featuring the singularly named Nicole, James, Amy, Mark, and Gene) and P! Company (Andy Petruzzo and Kyle Sweeney)

8pm: 4-Hole Punch (comediennes Maggie Maye, Martha Kelly, Kerri Lendo, and Lashonda Lester) and My Real Dad (improv mainstays Rachel Madorsky and Dave Buckman, with Larry, Rachel's 70-year-old divorce lawyer dad who has never performed comedy for an audience)

9pm: Playa Dynasty (survivors of the improv group No Chaser) and PoopIna-Pants (Meredith Newell, Amy York, and Sam Malcolm)

10pm: Your Terrific Neighbors (Curtis Luciani, Joel Osborne, and Courtney Hopkin) and Turn of the Century Paris (Matt Derman, Ed Reed, Chaz Formichella, Steve Donovan, Kate Bojanek, and Danny Catlow)

11pm: Crocodile Tears (Hugo Vargas Zesati, Deano Jones, and Mike Sullivan) and Star-boat! (Chris Allen, Jeff Britt, Peter Rogers, and Ashley Lowe)

For tickets, visit coldtownetheater.frontgatetickets.com.