Nina Metz

If you didn't exhaust your appetite for improv during last week's Chicago Improv Festival, here's your chance. For 24 hours straight, beginning Monday at 10:30pm, Second City presents their first improv marathon--the brainchild of Second City e.t.c. cast member Andy Cobb. Call it comedy inspired by conscience; after reading an article about funding problems at the Uptown-based homeless shelter R.E.S.T. (Residents for Effective Shelter), Cobb decided to put his talents to use and raise some money for the cause. He's enlisted seven other improv performers for an experience he describes as the "Fear Factor" of improv. "I myself am scared," admits Cobb, "I've never improvised for more than forty-five minutes." Promising an entirely unrehearsed, fully-improvised performance ("After about two hours, everyone's bag of tricks will be empty," ensuring some truly original moments during the remaining twenty-two hours), Cobb will be joined on stage by fellow Second City e.t.c. cast members T.J. Jagodowski (who initially suggested the marathon idea during a backstage darts game) and Keegan Michael Key, as well Second City alums Ed Furman, Craig Cackowksi, Lisa Brooke and Mick Napier, a Second City director and founder of Annoyance Theatre. All cast members will be on stage for the entire time (except for the occasional food and bathroom breaks), so you can stop in, literally, at any time. One hundred percent of the proceeds (tickets are $10) will be donated to R.E.S.T..

"Until We R.E.S.T." runs from 10:30pm April 15 to 10:30pm April 16 at Second City, 1608 North Wells, (312)642-8189.

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