For almost fifteen years, The Improv Conspiracy Theatre has been Melbourne's home of improvised theatre and sketch comedy. We've trained thousands of people, given hundreds of artists a creative home, and helped launch careers in television, theatre and film across Australia and around the world. Every week, people walk through our doors looking for something different - confidence, friendship, creativity, somewhere they belong - and many discover far more than they expected.

Posters from our one of our first shows (2012) and from our most recent (2026)

Like many independent arts organisations, COVID-19 fundamentally changed our financial reality.

Before the pandemic, we had never faced major financial difficulties. But when government business support ended during Melbourne's slow post-pandemic recovery - before audiences had fully returned - we suddenly found ourselves trying to support our full-time theatre's payroll and rent obligations with only a fraction of our previous income.

Writers and office staff hard at work producing one of our many shows.

During 2023 and 2024 we lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. To keep the theatre alive, we relied on high-interest unsecured loans and ATO payment plans rather than cutting back the programs and opportunities our community depended on. We didn't make a public appeal. Instead, we kept producing shows, kept teaching classes, kept applying for grants and kept looking for ways to solve the problem ourselves. Office staff voluntarily took on unpaid overtime. Our founder stopped taking a salary from the theatre, took a second full-time job, and redirected half of that income back into keeping the organisation alive.

Those sacrifices worked.

We've repaid an extraordinary amount of debt. Our community has rebuilt and is flourishing. Workshop enrolments are at or exceeding record highs. Audiences are growing, even in time slots we previously thought were untenable. If we were starting today without the weight of historic debt, our month-to-month finances would be fantastic.

That means ordinary setbacks become genuine crises.

A few months ago, a major storm caused a literal sinkhole to open outside our theatre in Meyers Place. Access to the venue was disrupted, events had to be cancelled or rescheduled, and a nearby electrical substation failure damaged essential audio equipment. For an organisation with no reserves, even disruptions like these feel like existential threats. 

The stakes extend far beyond our balance sheet.

Every year, The Improv Conspiracy presents hundreds of comedy performances, teaches thousands of students, provides opportunities for emerging artists, hosts one of Australia's largest improv festivals, and creates paid work for performers, directors, teachers, front-of-house staff and bartenders. Through our scholarship programs and community initiatives, we work to make comedy more accessible to people who might otherwise never find it.

If we disappear, those opportunities disappear too. The next generation of performers loses a place to learn and experiment. Independent artists lose a stage. Thousands of future students lose the chance to discover the confidence, creativity and friendships that so many people in our community have found here.

So, after years of carrying this burden ourselves, we've reached the point where we need to ask for help.

We're not asking the community to build something new, or to invest while we're in free-fall. We're asking you to help protect something that already exists and is already showing strong signs of recovery. Let's get the job done.

Where your donation goes.

Your donation will create the financial buffer we've never been able to rebuild after COVID. It will help us absorb unexpected setbacks without putting the organisation at risk. Any funds beyond that will accelerate debt reduction, reducing interest costs so more of every future dollar can be invested back into artists, audiences and our community. As our financial position strengthens, we'll finally be able to make long-overdue repairs and improvements to the theatre itself.

It costs about $2,000 a day to keep three venues open and staffed - roughly $93 for every hour those doors stay open. Rent and payroll alone come to about $55,000 a month.