Amy, Paul and Stephen Get Wiggy

"Wigfield" -- onstage this weekend at George Washington University's Marvin Center -- brandishes the cruel-to-be-hilarious edginess its creators honed in earlier collaborations, including Comedy Central's cult oddity "Strangers With Candy." In their latest bizarro extravaganza, a touring show adapted from the book of the same name, the three actors play an array of the more colorful (and frequently off-color) residents of Wigfield, a grungy blip of a roadside town whose leading industry is lap dancing.

Their creative partnership began more than a decade ago in the renowned Second City improv troupe. "We toured together for a couple of years and just became aware that our sensibilities were the same," recalls Dinello on a recent conference call. "We were making each other laugh when everyone else in the van was scowling," adds Colbert.

Sedaris sums it up thusly: "We laugh at what you cry about."

The book was a bit of a departure for the comedians, who thrive on the spontaneity of live performance. Still, they say they tried to stick with what they knew. "We wrote the way we've written everything, really -- which is we get in a room together and we improvise for each other," says Colbert.

Rather than assigning specific characters to specific performers, "We sort of decide on a voice and then we just improvise in that voice," says Dinello. "As we improvise, the voice will evolve because we realize what the hook, or what the game of the character, generally is," Colbert adds. Sedaris then frets that it all sounds too easy: "Oh, we sit in a room and we laugh and then we put it on paper because we thought it was funny. But it's like we exhaust an idea for something."

Sedaris readily admits that Colbert and Dinello took the lead when it came time to wrangle the collaboratively developed characters into a book with actual structure and narrative. "After it's written and published, then I'll come up with an idea. When it's too late."

Fortunately, now that "Wigfield" has come to life onstage, there's no such thing as "too late.""There's no problem changing things 20 minutes before we go onstage."

"Twenty minutes?" scoffs Colbert. "I literally, backstage, will turn to Paul and go, 'You know, first show last night this bit didn't work. Got any ideas? Hurry up, my cue line is coming up'."