the gang at their first official show under the Crush name

Crush Improv hit the stage for the first time in the Fall of 2007 at Club SAW. Since then, the gang has performed in front to packed houses at The Mercury Lounge, GoGo’s, the Black Sheep Inn and The Gladstone Theatre. They produced a number of collaborative shows such as the hit Improv Awareness series and the Friday Skypetacular, where, for the first time ever, improvisers performed via videoconference as one troupe from two different cities with two different live audiences. In 2009, Crush partnered with the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama to provide training in performance improvisation.

Crush plays Wakefest at the Black Sheep Inn

Cari Leslie:

Cari Leslie has been an active member of the improv community in Canada since 2002. Most recently, her improv skills are being displayed as the host of TV Ontario’s A World of Wonders where Cari travels from continent to continent telling it like it is. Cari was the recipient of the Canadian Improv Games’ Johnson Heart Award in 2007, has played the Next Act and Combustion Festivals in Toronto and has worked at Improv Camp in British Columbia.

Big group game at Improv Awareness - Gladstone Theatre

Dave Lindsay:

Improvising since 1997, Dave is most often seen on stage of the National Arts Centre hosting the Canadian Improv Games’ Ottawa Regional Tournament. You may have also seen Dave on stage as a guest at A Night at the Bytown and at the Ism(e) cabaret shows at Club SAW.

Riverview Community Corn Roast gig

AL Connors:

AL is Ottawa and Montreal Regional Director of the Canadian Improv Games. He has taught improv coast to coast (and in 2009 to Australia) and performed at the, Toronto’s Cumbustion Festival, The Vancouver International Improv Fest and the Nanjing Euro-American Clown Carnival in China. AL is also a Rideau Award nominated professional actor and director with Ottawa’s premiere Shakespearean misfits, a Company of Fools.

Improv Awareness 3 at Yuk Yuk's

Des Connors:

Young, impressionable, and bad at sports, Des quickly learned that improv was the best place to be smart and creative without having to write things down. Des is an associate director for the CIG, has worked at the notorious Improv Camp, and has done a smattering of stage work. She is also a Student Respiratory Therapist and is the voice of an online game character named ‘Pink Cougar’.

Hosting Improv Awareness X-Canada Edition at Mercury Lounge

Brad MacNeil

An Ottawa native, Brad was a staple of Vancouver’s improv scene at the turn of the 21st Century, performing with Urban Improv, Instant Theatre and Rock Paper Scissors. He’s a grad of Studio 58 Theatre program and has performed with Scarlet’s Dinner Theatre and A Company of Fools here in Ottawa. He’s even improvised his way to Afghanistan to perform for the Canadian Troops.