LINCOLN PARK — Each member of the experimental sketch comedy group Hijinks has a plan for how to prepare for this weekend's 12-hour marathon show.
Some members of the five-person group are exercising. Others are refusing to think of what is sure to be a grueling, sweaty, horse-inducing and gross adventure.
Mike Klasek had his first-ever stress nightmare a few weeks back thinking Hijinks Fest was the next morning.
The full name of the spectacle is Hijinks Fest: We're All Gonna Die.
"Every time I think about it, I get nervous," said Jude Tedmori. "Every time I think about it a knot in my stomach comes up."
Others are just trying to figure out a way how not to lose their voice.
"There's a lot of screaming," said Klasek, 26, of Uptown.
The one-of-a-kind experimental comedy show kicks off the group's residency at the new iO Theater.
"This is like an endurance test for us, but also for you," said 25-year-old Alex Hanpeter.
The longest show in which any member of Hijinks has performed so far has been about an hour.
"Always after the shows we are genuinely exhausted," said Jude Tedmori, a 24-year-old Wrigleyville resident. "They are not like easy shows for us to do by any means."
From noon until midnight Saturday, the five members of Hijinks will perform each of the 12 shows that they have conducted over the past year at the Public House Theatre and one debut.
These shows range from a real-life boxing match, a recreation of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" a game show where the losing team drank the host's urine on stage and a traveling performance on a party trolley.
In the past Hijinks has performed one elaborate and boundary-pushing show a month.
The chance to see all of those shows in a row this weekend will never happen again.
"We want to put up something that sounds so crazy or insane that it can only kind of sustain itself once," Klasek said.
A limited number of $25 VIP tickets to the fest include admission to the "All The World's A Trolley" portion of the night, while general admission to the festival is $15 online or $20 day of.
Attendees can come and go as they wish and there will be a 15-minute break between each show.
In another previous performance, a comedy contest show, Hijinks tried to recreate the bet from "She's All That," where a jock tries to turn a nerdy girl into prom queen.
In this instance four members of Hijinks trained Columbia College comedy students for a month to compete against Clayton Margeson, who had been doing comedy for 13 years.
The contest was judged by actual reviewers including the Tribune's comedy columnist Jason Heidemann.
Margeson lost and had to drink his own urine.
"We wanted to legitimately not lose so we had to set the stakes super real and super gross," Klasek said.
There will be an event space with a festival-like atmosphere with a bar, art and other booths while the crew cleans the stage and prepares between shows.
After Hijinks Fest, the group will continue to perform a one-hour show once a month at iO.
If all goes according to plan, the day/night will be one for the ages.
"We are big on having moments that you will always remember," Tedmori said. "Like the pee drinking thing. Anyone who was there will never forget that moment happened."
Tickets are available at hinjinksfest.com.
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