Timmy Wood, left, and Brian Nichols of the Darewolves.: Dave Rossman
What you won't see if you make a date with the Darewolves: a parody of the Old Spice man, ridiculously over-the-top sets or costumes, an Eskimo.

What you will see: some of Houston most talented young minds doing sketch comedy and doing it old-school.

The show is sort of a homecoming for show producers and Houston natives Timmy Wood and Brian Nichols. Wood has spent the past year in New York, honing his comedic skills at the Upright Citizens Brigade training center, while Nichols has been doing the same with Second City center in Los Angeles.

The Darewolves comprises many of the young comics Wood and Nichols worked alongside at Houston's ComedySportz, a 20-year-old improv troupe that performs in its own theater.

Wood and Nichols are going for a daring but timeless comedy show, much in the same vein as Monty Python, Kids in the Hall and Mr. Show.

"Our goal is to present comedy that will hold up for 10 years," Wood says. Or, Nichols puts it, there won't be any "expired milk" on the skit menu.

The shows will be taped for video, but the Darewolves are more excited about the energy exchange that come with working in front of a live audience than future YouTube fame. It's the audience that has gotten lost in the crush of comedy available online, Wood and Nichols say.

The Darewolves
Two shows -- 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Friday, Aug. 20 -- with host DJ Paisley Pilgrim at Midtown Art Center. Admission: $10.