Urban Yeti Improv returns to the Mat-Su to deliver another dose of laughter

PALMER- The Anchorage based comedians at Urban Yeti Improv are taking some of their friends from Scared Scriptless to hammer away at the Mat-Su Valley’s funny bone this Thursday at the Glenn Massey Theater. With a mind on mental health, this event is free of charge thanks to financial support from the Mat-Su Health Foundation and the continuous efforts of the Mat-Su College’s ‘Journey’ program, a new series of activities designed to improve the overall wellbeing of their students. This ‘Journey’ event was inspired in part by the old adage, “laughter is the best medicine.”

“The journey program is pretty incredible. It’s great to see a college finding innovative ways to reach their students and looking out for their health,” said John Hanus, Artistic director and fellow actor for Urban Yeti Improv.

Hanus and his wife, Mallory founded Urban Yeti about 4 years ago. The pair will act on the spot with a handful of their friends from the oldest improv group in Anchorage, Scared Scriptless. He said that like last year, he anticipates a high energy show. This free production will feature a lot of “short form” comedy that calls for a lot of interaction from the audience. Each show is different. Each audience will have their own energy to feed off of.

“The art is risk/reward. The reward is the audience engaging,” Hanus said.

They will play games like ‘Half Life,’ where a pair of actors act out a 2 minutes scene, then another pair does the same scene in half the time. The two teams keep reenacting the scene over and over, cutting the time in half each time, boiling the major parts of the story down to one sentence in a few seconds.

“You see friends, you make friends, you share that experience."

Urban Yeti has performed all of the state and the lower 48 within many theaters. Hanus said that the Glenn Massay was on his top list of theaters to come to. He is thankful to return to a community that may have little exposure to the improv comedy but makes up for it with genuine enthusiasm to see something new.

“The community is naturally curious and supportive of creativity.”

For more information visit: www.urbanyetiimprov.com.