“Identity is pretty flexible,” says the man standing behind the lectern. The program says his name is Mike Bonanno, and it is becoming increasingly evident that some of the information in the program is not quite correct.

“There are names on our passports and I.D.s, names that were made up just a generation ago, for reasons much scarier than what we deal with.”

The man speaking as Mr. Bonanno is one half of "The Yes Men," and he is currently answering a question from the audience at UCLA’s Royce Hall. The duo – famous, or infamous, for posing as corporate spokesmen and issuing apologies or plans for reparations to victims of corporate or government malfeasance –  has drawn a crowd of 600 on Thursday evening.

The two have been working together for 12 years under assumed names of all sorts (the “name” of Mr. Bonnano’s partner is Andy Bichlbaum), most frequently ones that are completely made up, and appended with corporate titles – Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, say, or Assistant to the President and CEO., U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

“We give journalists a funny joke excuse to cover important issues,” explains Bonanno, and this part is true.

Their most sensational moment involved Bichlbaum, bug-eyed and gaunt as Dow Chemical Spokesman Jude Finisterra, announcing on BBC News that Dow would accept full responsibility for the Bhopal chemical plant explosion in 1984, and compensate victims to the tune of $12 billion. The company’s stock dropped by $3 billion within minutes of the announcement. The story was immediately picked up by Reuters and spread like wildfire through the press, followed by an equally widespread trial of retractions and corrections.

Tonight, they are teaching us how to do the same thing.

We start small. The presentation starts with a screen onstage displaying the text of a bill passed by Congress in 2006, barring foreign aid for any US ally operating to destabilize the Democratic Republic of Congo (the Congo is lousy with minerals we need to make our cell phones work.) 

The US is breaking its own law, and "The Yes Men" want us to report it. They help us by displaying the phone numbers for the US attorney general, the White House Switchboard, and the UCLA Police. They’ve made us laugh, but they’ve also called B.S. on inaction. Their contention is that anything is enough, and its remarkably empowering.

Soon Bonanno is zigzagging throughout the auditorium with a mic while Bichlbaum records issues, one by one, offered by the audience as near and dear to their hearts. Yes, traffic makes an appearance (in this UCLA-centered case, as the 405), but so does arts funding in public schools, prison privatization, access to clean water, and undocumented students in higher education. In no time at all, the list is 20 lines deep, and a sense of community, in all its various cares, passions, and fears, has grown around the room.

Then "The Yes Men" turn to us. They ask what we are waiting for, point out that 600 audience members divided by 20 issues is 30 people available for each issue alone, ask us to turn to our neighbors in the seats, pick an issue, trade emails, and meet up in 10 days to talk more.

The show is over. Half of the audience leaves, and half stays. 300 people who have never met huddle in small groups to talk about how to make change in their community, and at least one more journalist has an excuse to write about important issues. That’s something.

The Yes Men have a Yes Lab - learn more here.

Reach contributor Rebecca Kinskey here.