The Improv Conspiracy

Origins and Founding (2011-2012)

Adam Kangas launched the first private Harold-format training session in September 2011, drawing on experience with Melbourne's existing improv community including companies such as The Baby Seals and The Big HOO-HAA!. The first public Harold performance followed in February 2012, alongside the launch of monthly shows, which mark the company's formal founding date.

Early Venues (2012-2015)

The company's early shows were held at the Dan O'Connell Hotel in Carlton. A Melbourne Fringe production at the Croft Institute followed in September 2012, and the company debuted at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in April 2013 with a sold-out season. In August 2014 the company made its first international performance in Austin, Texas.

Dedicated Theatre (2015)

In March 2015, The Improv Conspiracy opened its own training centre and theatre at 1/19 Meyers Place in the Melbourne CBD. From January 2016 all shows consolidated at the dedicated venue, which hosts performances Thursday through Sunday.

Senior Team

Early senior team members alongside Kangas included Broni Lisle and Laura Buskes.

The Improv Conspiracy is Melbourne's home for Chicago-style long-form improv, built on the Harold format from a 2012 founding and anchored by its own CBD theatre since 2015.

Harold Night is the company's weekly flagship, featuring three resident Harold teams, Runt, Beep Test, and Full Tilt, in rotating double bills; The Herald Sun awarded it four stars. Les Improvisé: An Improvised Musical is a recurring production in which the audience supplies a title and a cast drawn from The Improv Conspiracy, Impro Melbourne, and The Big HOO-HAA! improvises every song and line of dialogue. Tournament of Teams, now in its ninth annual edition, pits twelve Melbourne improv ensembles against each other over eight competitive nights with audience voting determining the winner. The Remix pairs guest storytellers with improvisers who sample and reimagine the real narratives on stage. Churn is the company's monthly ensemble sketch show. Red Hot Improv Jam is an open community session where participants perform alongside experienced ensemble members.

Adam Kangas founded The Improv Conspiracy in 2012, initially running private Harold-format training sessions before the company opened its dedicated theatre at Meyers Place in the Melbourne CBD in March 2015. Leadership including Kangas alongside Broni Lisle and Laura Buskes trained at the Upright Citizens Brigade, iO, The Annoyance Theatre, and The Second City, and built what the company describes as the largest Chicago-style Harold workshop program in the southern hemisphere. By the mid-2020s the theatre had hosted more than 6,277 hour-long performances and completed over 825 eight-week workshop courses, serving more than 22,000 audience and student participants since founding.

Long-serving ensemble members including Justin Porter, Hayley Tantau, Laura Josephine, Simon McCulloch, and Mario Hannah, all performing since 2013 or 2014, anchor the Harold Night programming. The company's pipeline in which performers complete public workshops and then audition for stage positions has produced a credited roster of more than 180 performers. Theory Bar, the company's ground-floor venue operating Wednesday through Sunday, has become a community gathering point for Melbourne's broader comedy ecosystem independent of show schedules.