D1 Improv’s Play Dough show pulled a packed crowd to the Admissions Building Wednesday night in order to help Dance Marathon raise $25,000 in one day. As the audience wondered what the Improv team could have up their sleeve, they began to pass around menus describing what was in store for the rest of the night.

Audience member donates money to Dance Marathon in order to get D1 improv to wear diapers on their head during their show.

And what was on the menu?

The Improv team wearing diapers for the entirety of the show, and a reenactment of the second coming of Abraham Lincoln, just to name a couple.

“I wax my leg for $14,” D1 Improv team member Brandon Bassler said the day before the show. “I’m most excited for the menu items. We’ve never done something like this before and it’s completely outrageous. I think the audience’s reaction will be priceless.”

The basic premise of the night was that there were menu items that people could purchase in order to have the improv team members complete certain tasks. The menu items ranged in price from a quarter to $100, and all of the money raised would be donated to Dance Marathon in order to help complete their $25k in One Day effort.

Dance Marathon set Jan. 25 as the date to raise $25,000 in 24 hours. An anonymous donor informed Dance Marathon that if they successfully completed the task, that he or she would match the donation, resulting in a donation of $50,000 to Seattle Children’s Hospital and cancer research.

The show began with one of their usual games, in which they ask the audience for word suggestions and then do a skit based off of the words. However, after the skit, they opened up the floor for audience members to buy menu items.

Brandon from D1 improv waxes his leg for a donation to Dance Marathon.

One of the first items to go was number 17, forcing Brandon Bassler, Delia Finney, Jillian Foote, Sam Hobson, Preston Long, Lily Newell, Maddie Piper and Annet Rangel to wear diapers for the rest of the show. “Adult diapers are really expensive,” they said as they tried to put newborn diapers on. Junior Annet Rangel managed to get one on, but the rest resorted to putting them on their heads.

Another menu item to go was Bassler having to wax his leg. He pulled up one leg of his jeans as his teammates began to get the waxing strip ready. In a matter of seconds, Bassler had a perfect rectangle in the middle of his calf, which naturally caused the crowd to erupt into cheers.

After that, the team began to play a game called Nightmare, in which an audience member recants their whole day, and then D1 recreates it as if everything went wrong—making the day into a living nightmare.

“It was so funny to see the twist on it, and to see how everything could have gone wrong, because honestly it was a pretty good day,” said first-year Frances Divinagracia, whose day was depicted in the skit.

Some of the other menu items purchased were Rangel eating a bowl of cereal in less than two minutes, which she completed in less than 30 seconds. Hobson recorded a man’s voicemail message for him, and the entire team got to reenact the resurrection of Abraham Lincoln.

The highest selling items were $40 each, in which sophomore Emma Cooney purchased the D1 team making her dinner for Valentine’s Day. The other item went to highest purchaser of the night, second-year Chad Rosevear, in which he paid $40 for the entire team to show up at the house party of his choosing.

“D1 came up with all of the incentives on their own,” said Rosevear, who is also the Dancer Experience Chair for Dance Marathon. “When I saw that they had a table set up for donations, it made me so happy. The day was already so powerful, and seeing campus clubs come out like that to support us was amazing.”

By the end of the night, D1 raised a total of $520.33 for Dance Marathon. In total, Dance Marathon raised $36,251.25 plus the donor’s matching donation of $25,000, resulting in $61,251.25 being donated to Seattle Children’s Hospital.

D1 improv after raising $520.33 at their Dance Marathon fundraiser show.

And they aren’t done either. Dance Marathon will hold their annual 16-hour Dance Marathon on Feb. 18, where they will attempt to raise $125,000 for the kids, in conjunction with Seattle U’s 125th anniversary.

D1 Improv has multiple shows coming up throughout the year, including being involved at the Dance Marathon in February. So if you missed this one, keep your eyes peeled for their next show announcement.

Anna may be reached at
[email protected]