The Free Association, or The FA, is a

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

-based improvised comedy

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

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. The FA teach, produce and host live

improvisational comedy Improvisational theatre, often called improvisation or improv, is the form of theatre, often comedy, in which most or all of what is performed is unplanned or unscripted: created spontaneously by the performers. In its purest form, the dialogue, a ...

from "The Free Association Theatre" in East London, on the border of

Haggerston Haggerston is a locale in East London, England, centred approximately on Great Cambridge Street (now renamed Queensbridge Road). It is within the London Borough of Hackney and is considered to be a part of London's East End. It is about 3.1 miles ...

and Islington, and "The FA's Comedy Room" in Camden in

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nor ...

. In October 2018, The Free Association announced a partnership with

Boom Chicago Boom Chicago is an international creative group, based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, that writes and performs sketch and improvisational comedy at their theater on the Rozengracht.Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, The

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

, 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.

Philosophy

As the UK's equivalent to American improv theatres UCB, IO and

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre o ...

, the FA has brought the American-style of improvised comedy to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and adapted it for a British audience. 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.

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. Guest residencies from other London-based acts such as Do Not Adjust Your Stage, The Petting Zoo and Sorry take place monthly. Jacuzii has played at

The Pleasance The Pleasance is a theatre, bar, sports and recreation complex in Edinburgh, Scotland, situated on a street of the same name. It is owned by the University of Edinburgh, and for nine months of the year it serves the Edinburgh University Stud ...

at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from 2015 to 2018. The Free Association performed a live version of Drunk History (UK TV series) at

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...

LIVE, a three-day stand-up festival at Southampton’s Hoglands Park on 5, 6 and 7 October 2018, with special guests including,

Joel Dommett Joel Patrick Dommett (born 8 June 1985) is an English actor, author, comedian, and television presenter. He is known for his television roles in '' Live in Chelsea'', ''Impractical Jokers UK'', '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!,'' ''Joel ...

('' Skins'', '' Live in Chelsea'', '' Impractical Jokers UK'', '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!''),

Nish Kumar Nishant Kumar (born 1985) is a British stand-up comedian and television presenter. He became known as the host of satirical comedy ''The Mash Report'', now known as ''Late Night Mash''. He has also presented BBC Radio 4 Extra's topical comedy ...

(''

The Mash Report ''Late Night Mash'' is a British satirical comedy broadcast on Dave, as a continuation of ''The Mash Report'' on BBC Two. It is hosted by Rachel Parris, formerly by Nish Kumar, and features an array of comedians satirising the week's news. Fi ...

'', '' Newsjack'') and Iain Stirling (''

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...

'', 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 Ralf Alastair John Little (born 8 February 1980) is an English actor, writer, presenter, narrator and former semi-professional footballer, working mainly in television comedy. He played Antony Royle in ''The Royle Family'' and Jonny Keogh in ...

Oliver Chris Oliver Graham Chris (born 2 November 1978) is an English actor. He has appeared in television series, TV films and on the stage. His work has included theatrical productions in London's West End and Broadway in New York City. Early life Chris w ...

, Tom Rosenthal,

Phil Wang Philip Nathaniel Wang Sin Goi (born 22 January 1990) is a British-Malaysian stand-up comedian and comedy writer who is a member of the sketch comedy group Daphne, and co-creator of their BBC Radio 4 series, '' Daphne Sounds Expensive''. He cu ...

Rachel Parris Rachel Sarah Parris (born 27 May 1984) is an English comedian, musician, actress and presenter. She hosts the satirical news show '' Late Night Mash'' (formerly ''The Mash Report''). Early life Parris attended Loughborough High School. She hold ...

, Cariad Lloyd,

Mae Martin Mae Martin (born 2 May 1987) is a Canadian-born comedian, actor, and screenwriter based in England. They wrote and starred in the Netflix comedy series ''Feel Good'' and won two Canadian Comedy Awards as part of the comedy troupe The Young an ...

, Steen Raskopoulos,

Brett Goldstein Brett Goldstein (born 17 July 1980) is a British actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for writing and starring as Roy Kent in the Apple TV+ sports comedy series ''Ted Lasso'' (2020–present), for which he received the Primetime Emmy ...

Rose Matafeo Rose Catherine Lettitia Matafeo (; born 25 February 1992) is a New Zealand comedian, actress, and TV presenter. She was a writer and performer on the New Zealand late-night comedy sketch show '' Funny Girls''. In 2018, she won the Edinburgh Come ...

, Sindhu Vee, Matt Jones,

Kirby Howell-Baptiste Kirby Howell-Baptiste (born 7 February 1987) is a British actress. She has appeared as a series regular on ''Downward Dog'' (2017), '' Killing Eve'' (2018), '' Why Women Kill'' (2019), and '' The Sandman'' (2022). Her television appearances also ...

Neil Casey Neil Casey (born July 28, 1981) is an American actor, writer, and comedian. He served as a writer on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2012 to 2013 and '' Inside Amy Schumer'' in 2014, receiving Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Writi ...

and

Jason Mantzoukas Jason Mantzoukas (, el, Ιάσων Μαντζούκας; born December 18, 1972) is an American actor, comedian, writer and podcaster. He is best known for his recurring role as Rafi in the FX comedy series ''The League'', and as one of the th ...

Training programme

The FA training programme takes place over 6 levels and focuses on learning " The Harold", a form created by

Del Close Del Close (March 9, 1934 – March 4, 1999) was an American actor, writer, and teacher who coached many of the best-known comedians and comic actors of the late twentieth century. In addition to an acting career in television and film, he was ...

. The training is attended by performers, comedians, and individuals looking for extra confidence and a community. The Free Association provides improvisation training for businesses, focusing on communication and collaboration through "FA at Work".

Additional work

The Free Association's Michael Orton-Toliver and Chris Gau created the part-improvised "retro-scripted" comedy

mockumentary A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...

Borderline for Channel 5 in 2016. The show features a number of Free Association-trained performers and was produced by

The Royle Family ''The Royle Family'' is a British sitcom produced by Granada Television for the BBC, which ran for three series from 1998 to 2000, and specials from 2006 to 2012. It centres on the lives of a television-fixated Manchester family, the Royles, com ...

and directed by Breaking Bad's Matt Jones. Performers Ian Thomas Day, Chris Gau and Shaun Lowthian created the improvised

character comedy Character comedy is a genre in which a comedian performs as a character they have created. List of character comedians Notable character comedians include: * Tim Allen – Plays a handyman in '' Home Improvement'' and his stand-up routines *Row ...

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

Fact Up in 2015. 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. Kayleigh Llewellyn created In My Skin, winning Best Television Drama at the 2019 BAFTA Cymru Awards. She was also named as one of BAFTA's Breakthrough Brits in 2019. Performer Ambika Mod appeared in a leading role in HBO and

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...