Hooligan is an independent improv comedy group, based in Los Angeles, CA. There will be a surprise element to their presentation at Small Space Fest and we are looking forward to watching them perform live!

About Hooligan: Although some members of the group have changed, Hooligan was originally formed by iO West as a Harold team at the beginning of 2012. A little over a year ago, we started hosting our own night of improv, “Crushing It with Hooligan.” This has allowed us the freedom to experiment with forms other than the Harold including Pretty Flower and La Ronde. We have stretched the limits of different openings and created our own openings. Two of our favorites include “Confessional” in which one Hooligan member starts with a true-life confession and the team heightens the story to a fictional place, and “Notes Bagotes” in which we asked an audience member to read from the notes app on their phone and use that as inspiration for scenes. One of our favorite things about hosting our own night of improv is that we get to cultivate a night of comedy that we would enjoy. We like to interact with audience members and create a relaxed environment where someone getting up to use the bathroom might be incorporated into the show. Recently, we’ve performed in shows that weren’t intended for improv comedy, including the Tree House music show. It’s been fun to bring improv to people who haven’t seen it before and think about how it can be performed in new ways. We think it would be a lot of fun to come up with a unique way to perform in your festival.

What Makes Hooligan Unique: Even though Hooligan has been a team for over 4 years, we still rehearse regularly. A typical rehearsal, is about 40% scene work, 40% nerd work, in which we talk about what made something funny and what would have made it more funny, and 20% bit work where we riff about something our coach said, have a contest on who will be the last to notice that everyone else has taken their shoes off, or tease one of our teammates, usually Colin (see #sushingit).

Who is Hooligan: Colin Contreary, Debbie Friedman, Greg Gallant, Sky King, David Mauerer, Kirk Mason, Gina Nicewonger, and Jessica Uhler (coached by James Mastraieni).