The Thrilling Adventure Hour

Backstage at a performance of The Thrilling Adventure Hour is a bit like a circus. On a boat. That's on fire. There is the cacophony coming through the velvet curtain from the stage at Largo at the Coronet, a charmingly old-school 280-seat theater on La Cienega, as the four-piece Andy Paley Orchestra rehearses. There are guest stars -- such as Parenthood's Jason Ritter, Southland's Ben McKenzie and Key & Peele's Keegan Michael Key -- rereading their lines with the desperate studiousness of medical students on cadaver day. The show's creators, TV writers Ben Acker and Ben Blacker (Supernatural), have the thousand-yard stare that comes with writing and producing a live show once a month for the past eight years. And the director, TV writer-producer Aaron Ginsburg -- who tugs sharply on the vest of his three-piece suit like a naval officer who wants to look sharp before combat -- mock pleads to a reporter, "Just make us look cool."