Operation Heal*arious Comedy Show

Operation Heal*arious has “traveled the country to try to find the funniest military spouses and military veterans,” says Ashley Gutermuth, Tango Alpha Lima podcast host and Air Force spouse, to “show everybody just how funny the military community is.” The San Antonio show, hosted by American Legion Alamo Post 2, was a regional round of the Best Medicine Brigade’s comedy competition. We filmed it for this three-minute event video.

Ashley feels Operation Heal*arious has shown “how they can take their negative experiences and turn them into something positive.” Otherwise, “it’s just something bad that happened to you.” Chris Grullon, an Air Force veteran, was in Manhattan when the towers went down and did an open mic two weeks later, without realizing it was a way to cope. It went really badly, he says, and it took about 20 years to get back on stage.

Comedy helped Kim Wadsworth, an Air Force veteran, through a hard time. “I hope that I can make somebody feel as good as comedy made me feel at the time that I needed it most.” When we filmed, the coast-to-coast tour was only halfway through, Ashley says, and picking a winner is hard “because everybody is so good.”

The Be the One program comes up too; Ashley calls it “so integral to Operation Heal*arious.” For Kim, the primary thing is this: “you’re not alone. Just reach out.”