This page is about last year's festival. For information about the 2013 Melbourne Fringe Festival, click here!
The Improv Conspiracy performs "The Harold", a 30-minute non-stop piece of improvised comedy based on a single audience suggestion. The smart, wild and jazz-like Harold format has a huge cult following in cities such as Chicago, NYC and LA. Now it's Melbourne's turn to have its collective mind blown, thanks to director Adam Kangas and a large cast of Melbourne's most talented improvisers. See 12 very different shows at The Croft Institute!
Founded in October 2011, The Improv Conspiracy is Australia's only longform improvisation company focusing on classic show formats devised and made popular in Chicago, Illinois -- widely regarded as the improv capital of the world.
This year The Improv Conspiracy is focusing on "The Harold", a format which has gained popularity throughout the United States at such famous institutions as The Second City, iO (formerly Improv Olympic), and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, while remaining largely unknown to European and Australian audiences.
In a typical Harold performance, a team of between six and eight improvisers take the stage and receive a single suggestion as input from the audience. The improvisers then create a 30-minute improvised piece based on the suggestion, with no breaks or further input from the audience.
Themes and concepts inspired by the suggestion are explored through comedic scenes, physical group activities involving the entire cast, personal truthful monologues, and even the occasional completely improvised song. These aspects blend together seamlessly in a magical blast of controlled chaos designed to delight audiences.
Each of the twelve shows at The Croft Institute will feature two Harold performances with different casts. That's 24 extremely different Harolds over the course of the festival. No two are the same!
Simply put, this is a show featuring smart people doing dumb things in a very smart way - fast, challenging and bound to impress!
When?
Wednesday - Saturday
26-29 September, 3-6 and 10-13 October
8pm
Check our show schedule page.
Where?
The Croft Institute
21 Croft Alley
Melbourne
This is a hidden laneway bar, and perhaps one of the most difficult to find in all of Melbourne. If making your first visit to the Croft, we advise you to consult a map and give yourself plenty of time to find the venue before the show.
Tickets
$15 Full
$10 Concession
$10 Groups of 4+
Click here to purchase on the Melbourne Fringe Festival website.
Reviews
From Katherine Phelps:
Kangas has done an excellent job of training up his improv troops. Some members of each team had only been doing improv since June of this year, but you would never know it. [...]The Harold provide an evening of both well-grounded and lighter-than-air performance that is exciting to watch.
From the Festival Nerd Blog:
Since this one is obviously going to be entirely new every night, I’m hoping to go back a few times. Definitely recommended if you like improv, or comedy in any form. It’s loads of fun.