About the Company

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 with a core cast of Brad MacNeil, AL Connors, Des Connors, Cari Leslie and David Lindsay. 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.  A present, the core cast consists of AL Connors, Brad MacNeil and Cari Leslie.

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 improv festivals in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.  In 2011 she was nominated for Emerging Artist at the Prix Rideau Awards in Ottawa for her work with A Company of Fools in Shakepseare’s Danish play and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Big group game at Improv Awareness - Gladstone Theatre

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

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.