It’s an annual tradition for Chapel Hill’s DSI Comedy Theater, and it begins on Saturday night:

At 8:30 p.m., eight improv comedians will take the DSI stage and begin performing – and they won’t stop for 24 straight hours.

It’s the eleventh annual 24LIVE Comedy Marathon, which has been raising money for local charities since it first launched in 2003. The eight “core” performers – joined throughout by a steady stream of other Triangle-area performers – are longtime comics from several of DSI’s top teams, some of them veterans of marathons past.

For more info on 24LIVE and ticket information, visit DSIComedy.com.

This year’s 24LIVE will be raising money for the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina. Ten dollars buys a wristband that’ll get you in anytime during the marathon – so you can stay for the full 24 hours (some do!) or come and go as you please.

(And yes, they’ll be performing at 4 in the morning too. “We want this to be a comedy slumber party,” says DSI’s Ashley Melzer.)

Part of this year’s 24LIVE coincides with Festifall on Franklin Street, which runs from noon to 6:00 on Sunday afternoon. DSI is located at 462 West Franklin Street, right in the midst of the festival – so you may see some of the core performers on the street as well. And in the theater itself, DSI will be devoting that six-hour block to family-friendly comedy, so families at Festifall can stop by the theater too.

Zach Ward and Ashley Melzer of the DSI Comedy Theater joined Aaron Keck on WCHL this week.