Toronto-based stand-up comic Nile Seguin was one of the most anticipated acts coming into this year's Rogue Festival -- and he doesn't disappoint in a warm and witty set titled "Fear of a Brown Planet." Half-Rwandan and half French-Canadian, the amiable Seguin is in an advantageous position to poke fun at race and hybridity. ("I'm the Tiger Woods kind of black," he cracks.) But is he black "enough"? Maybe for a theater festival, say, but how about the Apollo Theater?

Hollywood and the entertainment industry are prime offenders when it comes to racial double standards, and Seguin unleashes a crisp routine that points up the sometimes wacky ways that society tries to deal with those who are "brown." Ranging from over-the-top provocative (he acts out a sitcom alluding to his Rwandan heritage titled "I Dream of Genie-cide" to caustically political (Condi Rice fans should check their Bush/Cheney buttons at the door), Seguin has a personable style and a conversational knack for treating the most hot-button topics with an easy-going grace. Brown, black, white or somewhere in between: There's something for everyone. This is definitely one of the Rogue's hot tickets.

Additional performances: 10 p.m. March 4, Starline (833 E. Fern); 4 p.m. March 5, Starline; 8:30 p.m. March 10, Dianna's Dance Studio (726 N. Fulton); 8:30 p.m. March 11, Starline. Info: www.nileseguin.com

Get a taste of Shakespeare and another kind of Hamlet after the break.

The best part of "The 24-Hour Shakespeare Experiment" is the concept: A group of actors, writers and directors get together 24 hours before curtain and create three short plays. It's a pretty funny (and challenging) premise. The actual execution by members of the Woodward Shakespeare Festival is more on the wobbly side, but they get points for stretching.

The first vignette, "Shakespeare in Yoga -- or -- Downward Facing Cur," is a zippy, sketch-comedy-style outing that forces together Juliet (Linnea George), Beatrice (Kristin Crase) and Lady Macbeth (Celeste Johnson). All of these Shakespearean leading ladies have their issues, from Juliet's slow recovery from her drug-induced coma to Lady Macbeth's court order requiring her to take yoga for "anger management." Writers Jessi Hafer and Charles West give their characters some witty repartee (Juliet announces she could do the "corpse pose" yoga position for days), but director Heather Parish needs to sharpen the ending.

The second vignette, "Choose Your Own Tragedy," lands with more of a thud, never really taking shape dramatically. Writers William Boyce and Christien Sweeney get bogged down in a hard-to-penetrate premise involving (and this is just a guess) three muses (played by Olivia Kanz, Cindy Freeland and Chaim Harrell). Director Daniel Moore can"t make the concept really gel.

And the third vignette, "What Fools These (Fresno) Mortals Be," returns the company to the comic realm, with an charming little routine inspired by "The Taming of the Shrew." In a sort of fractured Shakespeare fairy tale, Puck from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (played by Tabitha Graybill) conspires to link Katherine (Amy Jaye), a shrewish insurance exec, with Pete (Ted Esquivel), who's in desperate need of health insurance. Turns out that Katherine is Canadian and needs to marry a U.S. citizen. Will love (or a reasonable deductible) conquer all? Angela and Michael Beevers whipped out a fun script, and Patrick Tromborg directs with finesse.

Additonal performances: 10 p.m. March 10, Starline (833 E. Fern), 4 p.m. March 11. Tickets: $7. Info: www.woodwardshakespeare.org

Epic Theatre's "Supernova in Hamlet" is a promising beginning for this new Fresno theater company. Staged at the Severance Building (1401 N. Wishon), the former home of the Fresno Ballet, this short play by Kristina Leach has an interesting premise: Two couples, each on the verge of change, share the same Big Bear cabin in different periods of time. Lynn (Stephanie French) and Will (Adam Meredith) are having an affair -- and she wants him to leave his partner. Emily (Lori Gambero) and Derek (Luis Ramentas) have settled into a comfortable routine, but she wants something more.

Director Janine Christl deftly weaves the two couples' stories into the same small space. While the two couples never interact, they do bounce off each other in terms of theme and energy, and it's intriguing to watch. French and Meredith are more successful in terms of encapsulating their relationship and conflict than Gambero and Ramentas, who tend to get a little lost in the play's more abstract intellectual concepts. The danger in dealing with such an odd structure -- in which characters have to leave conversations hanging so the others can advance their own storyline -- is letting the pace flag. Christl needs to sharpen not only the prologue, in which Gambero and Ramentas seem uncomfortable as they pantomime their entry into the cabin, but also the play's climax. Overall, however, it's a challenging and provocative show with some hints of powerful acting -- and a sign of promising things to come.

Additional performances: 7 p.m. March 5, 10 p.m. March 10, 5 p.m. March 11, all at Severance. Tickets: $7. Info: www.myspace.com/epictheatre