26 Hour Snow Day Improv Marathon at Go Comedy! Shares Laughs to Support Charities Jan 18-19
(Terry Lakins, Jan 12, 2025)
Ferndale, MI – Comedy and Charity come together at Snow Day 18, a local event that brings laughs while raising money to battle cancer. Also known as the Snow Day 26 Hour Improv Marathon, this two-day event on January 18 & 19 has different blocks of improv comedy running through both days. It’s about 40 different groups running through about 20-minute sets on average through 26 hours. This is the event’s 18th year running, hence the name (though starting on January 18th was unintentional).
Co-founder and event producer Pete Jacokes feels that comedy can is a great time during a cold Michigan winter, especially during trying times. With improv specifically, he feels inspired to create these incredible scenes from absolutely nothing.
“Humor levitates all moods, and winter is usually a dark time, but you can come to a warm place, laugh for a few minutes and forget about your worries.” Jacokes said. “With improv comedy you’re doing it with a group, you’re not by yourself on stage and you’re building something with people.”
Unlike traditional stand up, the improv comedians usually perform in a group and the audience participates with suggestions. The improv comedians take those suggestions to create a scene from nothing and try to roll with it. This type of comedy gives a unique connection where the audience is a part of the show instead of a passive viewer. Jacokes describes it as a unique experience for the audience. While it’s appealing because it’s usually funny, the extra element of it being made up on the spot adds something more.
The results can vary, but unlike a traditional practiced stand-up set, the show works no matter which way it goes. If the scene falls flat the audience is still on your side because they were in on it from the beginning. If things go sideways, but the improvs comedians manage to turn it around, the audience cheers because they saw the moment of redemption in real time. As Jacokes puts it, sometimes a scene can go so well, whether it went off without a hitch or an incredible save gets made, that some audience members will question if it was planned out (despite being there from the beginning as it all came together).
While there are many different sets that happen throughout the two days, there is one staple among them that never changes from year to year. The 24 Hours Player Club, the final event of Snow Day, consists of any comedian who has stayed in the entire building awake for the entire 26-hour runtime. These people get to do the final set, which includes Jacokes and his co-founder Bob Weick, who are there for the entire long haul of that 26 hours. Jacokes said this set is always sloppy because everyone on stage is trying to hold it all together and usually failing to do so.
“It’s very funny because the audience is in on the joke that they are insane and losing their mind due to sleep deprivation.” Jacokes said. “It’s not a great set, but it’s entertaining.”
Snow Day didn’t always start off as a charity event. Originally it was a small event during the holidays that Jacokes and Wieck put on with other improv comedians and friends to come together for fun. Back then, it was a simple two-and-a-half-hour event with about four to six groups. A few years in it was expanded to an Improv marathon. This was done to honor their late friend Tim Hayden, a fellow improv comedian who lost his battle to kidney cancer, at the suggestion of his little sister, Nancy Hayden. This idea merged with their original Snow Day event, though it wasn’t a charity event at first, just a fun time to get people to come together. The charity event came later as the reality of cancer hit close to home for Jacokes and his friends, which pushed them to do something about it.
The proceeds from Snow Day get split evenly between three charities. The first charity, Gilda’s Club Metro Detroit, is a support community for those impacted by cancer, either directly or as a loved one. The second charity, The Tim Hayden Memorial College Fund, was created to honor their deceased friend, and to fund a scholarship for a graduating student at Waterford Kettering High School for their pursuit of theater in college.
The third charity is the Diana George Jacokes Endowment Fund, was created to honor Jacoke’s late mother, who lost her battle to cancer. This charity funds the support of young women who attend Mercy High School. Though Jacokes remembers the experience of his mom being sick and, in the hospital, the laughter that filled her hospital room is what he remembers the most. The mood was lightened up by humor and stories being shared, which made everything less scary moving forward. Jacokes understood dealing with things from a place of humor is always much more helpful and that is why he continues to find ways to spread laughter through his improv.
The fundraiser itself has an annual goal of 10,000, though they normally raise somewhere in the realm of 8,000 to 9000. They have never achieved this goal, but they always make a good effort to do so. Either way, Jacokes is just happy to be able to keep the event going and had this to say about it: “I’m always surprised and grateful for what we bring in. To be able to fund two scholarships and to help fund Gilda’s club is what’s more important.”
The Snow Day Improv Marathon will be happening at the at Go Comedy! Improv Theater at 261 East 9 Mile Road in Ferndale, Michigan. Events will be happening throughout January 18 & 19.
