A quick-wit dose of humility and bag of tricks define the bright-eyed students of SNAFU, a long-form improv group bringing no-holds-barred comedy to the Forty Acres. Celebrating a decade on campus, SNAFU features a troupe composed of future doctors to budding screenwriters, all of whom share a love for laughing.

Performing every other Friday evening beginning Jan. 20 before a live audience in Burdine 116, the interactive show brings unexpected scenes and characters to life.

While members use techniques to rapidly create characters and understand their relationships and environments, Sylvia Hansen, a radio-television-film senior, said success lies in becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable.

“(SNAFU is) just stepping into nothingness and then making it pop,” Hansen said. “When we step out and decide that we’re not going to pull from our regular bag of tricks anymore, everything gets a whole lot funnier and a whole lot better.”

After joining SNAFU last year and participating in the UTLA program, where she interned and wrote coverage on scripts at Mosaic Media Group, she grew a love for the management and representation side of the industry. Now working with Good Heroin, a stand-up comedy show, the former theatre major said she’s hooked on the business.

“Good Heroin sends me submissions they received, and then I watch them and tell them if they were worth watching or not,” Hansen said. “It’s funny because I’m like, ‘If only these LA comedians knew that I’m just a little girl in Texas.’ It’s a little bit of impostor syndrome, but I really enjoy it. I want to help people create things, and I love when those things are funny.”

During her time in Los Angeles, Hansen said she received help and guidance from SNAFU and Gigglepants alumni who now work as writers and producers.

Fellow SNAFU member Alec Mansky said he also hopes to enter the industry, sticking behind the camera as a comedy writer. However, he said he’ll never stop doing improv.

“COVID really gave me clarity and explained my sense of why I wanted to do (improv),” Mansky said. “Everything felt really confusing during the pandemic, and improv is straightforward for me … You either laugh or you don’t. I like a certain kind of attention, just for the sake of entertaining others. I always like to joke.”

While the path to the entertainment industry came more naturally for Hansen and Mansky, sophomore member Hannah Mendoza took a less calculated approach to her comedic journey. The former mathematics major said she enjoyed the more artistic side of math, though her classes did not provide her with a creative outlet, making SNAFU the highlight of her week. Now, she begins this semester as an radio-television-film major, feeling a sense of belonging.

“When I saw that I got into RTF, I was in complete disbelief,” Mendoza said. “This has openly been my dream for the last couple months but secretly my dream since my senior year of high school. The collaborative space (of RTF) is something that I’ve always enjoyed. … You collaboratively build something beautiful, and it’s that sort of environment in SNAFU. I want to apply that to my everyday life.”