This week on Yes But Why, I talk to Maximilian Hansen, improv performer and teacher from Uppsala, Sweden.

Maximilian Hansen is the founder and artistic director of Mind Melt. He has performed and taught improv in, among others: England, Ghana, India, Ireland, Kenya, Slovenia, Germany and the United States. Max is a curious and physical improv performer. As a teacher/coach, he creates a positive atmosphere that encourages the participants to push their limits while having a good time.

Max’s company, Mind Melt is an improv community based out of Uppsala, Sweden that provides in person and online workshops and ImproJams to participants from Sweden, France, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Australia and more! Tasked with assignments from assisting the National Heritage Board to representing improvisational theater at TEDx, Mind Melt has been excited to spread improv to beginners and advanced students alike!

Outside of Mind Melt, Max has previously developed course curricula for other improv groups; and he has been involved in starting an international improvisation theater festival. Max is also a member of Ohana, a European project that brings together 50 of Europe's improvisers to exchange experiences and discuss the world of improvisational theater.

In our conversation, Max and I get philosophical right away. We discuss the fact that both of us have very bad memories and we muse on how that affects us as storytellers and improvisers.

We talk about making the decision to be an artist over and over, redoubling our efforts when opportunities slip away. Max tells me about his trip to Philadelphia in 2014 and how that led him to the discovery of improv festivals and the larger international improv scene.

Max tells me about the vibrant artistic community in Uppsala and all the great performers working there right now. We chat about Mind Melt and how their classes add to the current landscape of improv in Uppsala. We discuss Max’s efforts to build community during the pandemic.

Support Maximilian Hansen by taking online courses with Mind Melt! And by keeping an eye out for any Mind Met online jams! Also, you should definitely invite him to your international improv festivals as soon as they start happening again!

**Special thanks to contributors of the new intro: Amanda Buckley, Ivy Meehan, Laxmi Priya, Gael Doorneweerd Perry, Laura Doorneweerd Perry, Ivy Le, Vishok Verma, Jess Napthine-Hodgkinson, and Neil Curran. **

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(production notes: recorded via ZOOM on 12/9/2021…posted on 1/3/2022)