The 12th Annual “SteelStacks Improv Comedy Festival” features 18 performances Jan. 24 and Jan. 25.

Addyson Young, director of the festival, appeared at SteelStacks with the improv team Synced Up in Jan. 11, 2024.

In an interview at the ArtsQuest Visitors’ Center, Young says that there are 15 to 20 improv groups in the Lehigh Valley and 10 will perform at the festival.

Synced Up has been together for seven years with the same members. The various Valley improv teams often share and interchange members. “It’s like a Venn diagram,” says Young, “with many overlapping circles.

“A lot of the groups come out of the classes given at SteelStacks. People can audition from the classes to be on one of our house teams.”

Upcoming classes are Improv 101, 201, and 301, Sketch Comedy Writing 101, and Intro to Standup. Headline acts from the festival will give workshops.

The Jan. 24 headliner is “Stand Up and Clown,” a one-man show by “Clown Boss” Chad Damani. Damani will bring others on stage to have them “abandon their intellect, embrace their foolishness and follow their dumbest impulses.”

Jan. 25 will feature Improvised Jane Austen from Chicago, an all-female ensemble that uses Austen’s world to create unscripted performances.

“We have been told that the improv scene here is much better than New York City. Here you can perform on stage after a short time, while there you might wait years just to play in the basement of a bar,” says Young.

Last year, Cindy Marsh opened the Good Human Improv Company in Easton, which features improv classes along with stress relief and corporate training.

Improv is roughly divided into two formats: long form and short form. Marsh says, “Long form involves making up a play on the spot, while short form uses quick improv, with bits like game shows.”

Long form often takes audience suggestions at the beginning of a show and uses them throughout a performance, while short form might call on the audience throughout the evening to prompt fast-paced bits.

Synced Up’s sketches, which get many laughs, are fast-paced and seamless, even though the material is made up on the spot.

It would seem more than a bit frightening to perform them, but Erica Sylvester says, “We all have each other’s backs. If something is off, as a team member we can rescue them and move along.”

“There are improv shows nearly every weekend at SteelStacks, with about 25 to 55 people per show,” says Young. There are many forms of comedy there. Upcoming events include standup, traditional and improvised, film commentary in the style of “Mystery Science Theater,” a “Golden Girls” spoof drag show based on the popular TV sitcom, and a speed-dating event.

Young says that the ArtsQuest Cultural Center, to be built at the site of the Banana Factory in Southside Bethlehem, will include a black box theater where comedy will be performed.

There is a monthly improv jam at Bethlehem’s Godfrey Daniels, hosted by Synced Up member Tami Cantilina. She has an ArtsQuest feature called “Dear Diary,” using embarrassing moments based on middle and high school memoirs.

12th annual “SteelStacks Improv Comedy Festival,” 4:30 p.m. - 10:40 p.m. Jan. 24; 2:45 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. Jan. 25, Fowler Blast Furnace Room, ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks, 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem. Schedule: https://www.steelstacks.org/festivals/improvfest/ . Tickets: 610-332-3300, www.steelstacks.org