The Free Association

The Free Association, or The FA, is a London-based improvised comedy theatre and school. It was founded in 2015 and operates two comedy venues and training centres in London. They are currently the largest provider of improvisation training in the UK.[1]

The FA teach, produce and host live improvisational comedy from "The Free Association Theatre" in East London, on the border of Haggerston and Islington[2], and "The FA's Comedy Room" in Camden in North London[3].

In October 2018, The Free Association announced a partnership with Boom Chicago, a creative group, based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, that writes and performs sketch and improvisational comedy at the Rozentheater. The partnership brings together Boom’s 25 years of improv history and the FA’s six-level curriculum with the aim to become Amsterdam’s premier location for improvisation training[4].

Philosophy

As the UK's equivalent[5] to American improv theatres UCB, IO and The Second City, the FA has brought the American-style of improvised comedy to the United Kingdom and adapted it for a British audience.[6]

Playing with a flexible style between the "hard premise" of New York's UCB and the "organic" improv of Chicago's IO. The FA's main focus is the "game of the scene" and the "straight-man" - using these to create grounded comedic scenes.

FA house teams

The following are teams that play regularly at The Free Association, either at weekends or on the weekly Harold Night show. They comprise graduates of The Free Association training programme.[7]

Team Name Activity Type Members Performance
Sweet FA 2015 - Current Weekend Team Graham Dickson, Michael Orton-Toliver, Katia Kvinge, Briony Redman, Naomi Petersen, Liz Kingsman, Jim Archer, Rhys Collier The Detour
The Wilsons 2015 - Current Weekend Team Sophia Broido, Chris Gau, Shamus Maxwell, Mariam Haque, Katharine Bennett-Fox, Ian T Day, Shaun Lowthian, Jonathan Broke Freeform, Flash Scenes Opening
The Cartel 2015 - Current Weekend Team Alex Holland, Amanda Farley, Freya Slipper, Jez Scharf, Lola-Rose Maxwell, David Elms, Charlie Kemp, Kayleigh Llewellyn Freeform
The 838 2016 - 2018 Retired Harold Team Tom Levinge, Simon Lukacs, Freddie Sandilands, Ivan Gonzalez, Shivani Thussu, Clare Plested, Alison Thea-Skot, Nathalie Antonia The Harold
My Brother José 2016 - 2018 Retired Harold Team Lorna Shaw, Scott Oswald, Tamar Broadbent, Alex Morris, Clare Couchman, Nick Everritt, Kerry Gilbert, Steve Violich The Harold
Feast 2017 - 2019 Retired Harold Team Amanda Stauffer, Becci Ride, Kat Bond, Max Dickins, Matthew Cosgrove, Patrick Dishman, Sophie Dickson, Theo McCabe The Harold
Super Discount Party Store 2017 - Current House Team Amy Annette, Clemence Billoud, Victoria Barry, Mathew Gundel, Ruairi McInerney, Nick Brown, Simon Feilder, Sasha Brown Tacocat
Night Bus 2018 - Current House Team Freddie Sandilands, Lorna Shaw, Alex Morris, Shivani Thussu, Scott Oswald, Flora Anderson, Nicholas Everritt, Bryony Byrne Tacocat
The Millicent Tendrils Experience 2018 - Current Harold Team Emma Pritchard, Lottie Field, Ambika Mod, Florence Mercer, Ishan Ganjoor, Luke Healy, Dom Ashton, Dan Kelly The Harold
The Fortitude 2018 - 2020 Retired Harold Team Nick Adamson, Simon Fazey, Rob Sladden, Deep Lidder, Liz Gutterbock, Jenny Donoghue, Kathryn Higgins, Victoria Beardwood The Harold
Long Weekend 2018 - 2020 Retired Harold Team Jay Bennett, Nick Elleray, Doug Crossley, Will Rowland, Liz Elms, Anna Carden, Dan Subin, Olivia Florence The Harold
Supreme Leader 2019 - Current Harold Team Alex Bradbury, Kathryn Higgins, Nick Adamson, Flora Donald, Waleed Akhtar, Anna Carden, Victoria Beardwood, Craig Methven The Harold
Dream Phone 2019 - Current Harold Team Kiran Benawra, Tom Levinge, Hayley McGee, George Collecott, Jenny Donoghue, Tara Boland, Jack Barry, Phillip Kostelecky The Harold
I'm Filthy - Don't Touch Me 2019 - Current Harold Team Laura Riseborough, Matt Hutson, Sammy Hannah, Jay Bennett, Doug Crosley, Will Rowland, Zoe Dunn, Jamal Khandar The Harold

Other shows

The theatre also hosts ensemble shows performed by players from the House Teams. These include Jacuzii, The Ladies of FA County and Uncle Glen's Menagerie [8]. Guest residencies from other London-based acts such as Do Not Adjust Your Stage, The Petting Zoo and Sorry take place monthly [9] [10]. Jacuzii has played at The Pleasance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 2015 to 2018 [11][12][13].

The Free Association performed a live version of Drunk History (UK TV series) at Comedy Central LIVE, a three-day stand-up festival at Southampton’s Hoglands Park on 5, 6 and 7 October 2018[14], with special guests including, Joel Dommett (Skins, Live in Chelsea, Impractical Jokers UK, I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!), Nish Kumar (The Mash Report, Newsjack) and Iain Stirling (CBBC, narrator ITV2 reality series Love Island).

Guest monologists

The Free Association's headline Saturday Night show Jacuzii, and other 'special guest' nights welcome a guest monologist (frequently a celebrity) who uses a suggestion from the audience to inspire a truthful, personal monologue. The improvisers then use the monologue as inspiration for a series of scenes, which in turn inspire a response from the monologist.

The Free Association has performed with the following guest monologists and performers: Ralf Little, Nish Kumar, Oliver Chris, Tom Rosenthal, Phil Wang, Rachel Parris, Cariad Lloyd, Mae Martin, Steen Raskopoulos, Brett Goldstein, Rose Matafeo, Sindhu Vee, Matt Jones, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Neil Casey and Jason Mantzoukas.

Training programme

The FA training programme takes place over 6 levels and focuses on learning "The Harold", a form created by Del Close. The training is attended by performers, comedians, and individuals looking for extra confidence and a community.[15]

The Free Association provides improvisation training for businesses, focusing on communication and collaboration[1] through "FA at Work".[16]

Additional work

The Free Association's Michael Orton-Toliver and Chris Gau created the part-improvised "retro-scripted" comedy[17] mockumentary Borderline for Channel 5 in 2016. The show features a number of Free Association-trained performers[18] and was produced by The Royle Family's Ralf Little and directed by Breaking Bad's Matt Jones. Performers Ian Thomas Day, Chris Gau and Shaun Lowthian created the improvised character comedy podcast Fact Up in 2015, featuring guest performers from the theatre and actors, comedians and improvisers from outside The Free Association[19][20]. Now running to over 150 episodes, the podcast featured on BBC Radio 4 Extra's Podcast Radio Hour in 2018, recommended by comedian Cariad Lloyd[21].

Kayleigh Llewyllyn won two awards at the BAFTA Cymru Awards and was named as one of BAFTA's Breakthrough Brits in 2019[22].

References
  1. "The Rise Of Improvised Comedy By Sarah Powell". Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  2. "Google Maps". Google Maps. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  3. "Google Maps". Google Maps. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  4. "BOOM CHICAGO ACADEMY". Boom Chicago. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  5. "The Free Association: JACUZZI". Fest Magazine. 7 August 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
  6. "London's Newest Craze is Improv Comedy, Apparently". Broadly. 1 January 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  7. "The Players". The Free Association | Improv Class | Improvisation Classes | Improv Comedy | London. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  8. "FA Shows". The Free Association | Improv Class | Improvisation Classes | Improv Comedy | London. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  9. "FA Shows". The Free Association | Improv Class | Improvisation Classes | Improv Comedy | London. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  10. "Do Not Adjust Your Stage". Do Not Adjust Your Stage | London. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  11. "The Free Association Jacuzii". The List. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  12. "The Free Association Jacuzii". Fest Magazine. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  13. "The Free Association Jacuzii". British Comedy Guide. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
  14. "Everything You Need To Know About Comedy Central Live". Comedy Central. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  15. Sargent, Emily (27 July 2017). "Take one introvert with stage fright and put her in front of an audience . . ". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  16. "Bring Improv Skills Into Your Business | FA Improv". The FA at Work. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  17. Borderline (TV Series 2016– ), retrieved 17 May 2018
  18. Borderline, David Avery, Jackie Clune, David Elms, retrieved 17 May 2018CS1 maint: others (link)
  19. Verdier, Hannah (18 August 2017). "Hear Here: Hot sex tips, ambition monsters and why life has never been so good – podcasts of the week". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  20. "Fact Up Podcast on Soap". SOAP. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  21. "BBC Radio 4 Extra Podcast Radio Hour". BBC Radio. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  22. BAFTA Breakthrough Brits 2019, retrieved 19 November 2019
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