FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
We have three amazing nights of shows that are jam-packed full of improv excellence. Whether you're looking for local talent, high-energy headliners, made-up musicals or mesmerizing mentalism, we've got you covered.
Doors to our studio open at 6pm each night of the festival,
so you have plenty of time to grab a drink or snack and hang out before your show.
This year there are five fun-filled shows for you to choose from
(click the show title for full details):
THURSDAY SHOW: Festival Kickoff
6:30 pm doors, 7 pm show
Featuring:
Do you prefer Josh or Joshua? (Ottawa)
Flying Panda Theme Park (Ottawa)
Reindeer Tornado (TO)
The Scenario (TO)
Indoor Recess (Ottawa)
*siblings* (Ottawa)
mom.boy.dad (Montreal)
Peaking Duck (TO)
Belt Musical Improv (Ottawa)
FRIDAY EARLY SHOW: Friday Primetime
6:30 pm doors, 7 pm show
Featuring:
Gwyneth (Montreal)
Boy Stinko (Ottawa)
Embezzelment (Vancouver)
Headliner:
The Festival Headliner Mashup:
Stacey Smith (Amsterdam) &
Paloma Nuñez, Kris Siddiqi and Kevin Whalen (Toronto)
FRIDAY LATE SHOW: Friday Finale
8:40 pm doors, 9 pm show
Featuring:
Questionable Decision (Montreal)
Babe Rave (TO)
Power of the Mind (Ottawa)
Headliner:
Stacejam:
Stacey Smith's Solo Improvised Musical
SATURDAY EARLY SHOW: Saturday Primetime
6:30 pm doors, 7 pm show
Featuring:
Twong & Agnes (Kitchener/Ottawa)
Wassup? (Montreal)
Pandemic! @ the Disco (US)
Headliner:
Festival Armando:
Festival & Local Favourites join the Headliners:
Stacey Smith, Paloma Nuñez, Kris Siddiqi, and Kevin Whalen
SATURDAY LATE SHOW: Saturday Grand Finale
8:40 pm doors, 9 pm show
Featuring:
The Improv Embassy All-Stars (Ottawa)
RATS! Another Musical? (TO)
Headliner:
The Toronto Headliners:
Paloma Nuñez, Kris Siddiqi, and Kevin Whalen
Last year‘s festival was a full house, so grab your tickets soon before they’re gone!
The festival opening night kicks off with high-energy crowd-pleasing performances!
Our opening night is jam packed full of dynamic improv acts. Ottawa favourites perform alongside some incredible troupes visiting from Montreal and Toronto. If you want to see a variety of hilarious, energetic acts, come watch this jam packed night of hilarity. This show is the most improv for your buck and won't disappoint.
Highlights include improvised hip hop, an improvised musical and some of your favourite energetic Ottawa duos.
Do you prefer Josh or Joshua? (Ottawa)
@joshimayo, @joshua_degagne
Do you prefer Josh or Joshua? is a clown-ish improv duo with a focus on fluid, physical fun and audience play. In this high-energy act, your names are their names, your whims are their whims, your fun is their fun!
Flying Panda Theme Park (Ottawa)
Jon, Jess, and Saket bring you an exciting mono-scene that builds a rich, living world right before your eyes!
It’s playful, a bit unpredictable, and rooted in real relationships the whole way through.
Reindeer Tornado (Toronto)
Are you ready to experience improv on the T-Scale? The table below highlights the International
Tornado Intensity Scale:
T0-T3 - Weak Tornado
T4-T7 - Strong Tornado
T8-T11 - Violent Tornado
T?? - REINDEER TORNADO
The Scenario (Toronto)
The Scenario brings a high-energy hip-hop improv experience built live from your suggestions.
Watch as beats drop and stories unfold through fast-paced montage, freestyle rap, and sharp comedic instincts.
Every show is fully interactive—your ideas fuel the flow, your reactions shape the ride. Expect bold characters, unexpected twists, and lyrical moments that hit hard and leave you laughing. Whether it’s a hype chorus, a slick verse, or a full-on improvised musical moment, this crew turns the stage into a living cypher. Come ready to nod your head, clap your hands, and witness spontaneous bars crafted in real time. No script. No safety net. Just raw improv, rhythm, and crowd-fueled creativity.
THURSDAY: FESTIVAL KICKOFF
FRIDAY: PRIMETIME SHOW
This show highlights hilarious acts from across the country from Montreal to Vancouver, with Ottawa and Toronto in between.
The Primetime show culminates with a Headliner Mashup set from this year's Improv Festival headliners: Stacy Smith (Amsterdam) and Paloma Nuñez, Kris Siddiqi and Kevin Whalen (Toronto).
You will not want to miss this improv mega-ensemble!
Gwyneth (Montreal)
@annabelleagnew, @christopherxlucas
Gwyneth is an uproarious duo with a long history of cocktails and e-mails. Younger men love them; all other audiences are ambivalent. They sketch emotive narratives with a streak of the absurd, alternating between engaging and clumsy antics that’ll leave you gooped, gagged, and g’awestruck (we couldn’t think of a third G).
Boy Stinko (Ottawa)
No games, No gimmicks. Playtime is over, caballero. Boy Stinko is going to do some good old-fashioned deep dish Ottawa-style long form improv.
Imaginary scenarios conjured before your very eyes. Their commitment to theatrical embodiment will leave spectators wondering "what devilry is this?" Who's and Where's will be established. Scenes will be swept. One suggestion solicited. All offers accepted. That's the Boy Stinko guarantee.s & more.
Embezzlement (Vancouver)
Embezzlement delivers bold, character-driven improv built around longer, richer scenes.
Expect a series of 8–10 minute pieces that feel like mini plays, packed with big characters and fearless choices.
With a strong narrative backbone, each scene builds momentum as the stakes rise and the laughs land hard, driving towards a nice little payoff in the end.
What’s even more impressive than comedy made up right on the spot? Comedy that's got some show showpersonship.
This show has got mentalism, music stylings and a whole lotta showbiz charm.
Direct from Amsterdam, the show culminates with a solo improvised musical from festival headliner: Stacey Smith.
Questionable Decision (Montreal)
Our performance is strapping you in for a wild ride through long, dramatic storylines, where techniques from both Narrative and Pretty Flower will be blended together to create a non linear story-line that jumps form both past and present. The tale we will share with you will be compelling, fun, and immersed in a rich world that will inform the events that unfold in surprising, funny and dramatic ways.
Join us as we take layered characters with relatable wants and needs through this wild ride, as we add heavy doses of game-of-the-scene based humor.
Babe Rave (Toronto)
The premise of Babe Rave asks: what if a Chicago-style Harold — with all its structure, thematic weaving, and callbacks — was performed with the energy of a house party at midnight? Rooted in the Chicago longform tradition, we perform ensemble-driven openings, grounded scenes and relationships, escalating group games, and satisfying thematic convergence. At the same time, we’re ready to pump the gas on a scene at a moment’s notice.
Audiences can expect big characters, chaotic-but-grounded scene work, emotional connections, and group games where the smallest detail can heighten into something gloriously absurd. There’s charm and intention in the mess!
Power of the Mind (Ottawa)
@Awaycgoes, @woodythefield
We are a unique duo act that combines magic, character work and improv.
We keep the audience on the edge of their seat with a magic trick at the top of the show which morphs into our get. We then weave our inspirational "get" into the remainder of our improv set with brief interruptions back to our mentalist characters. In short -
Prepare to experience the depths of the collective unconscious as the Power of the Mind unleash their second sight. Be amazed by the mental ballet that unfolds as they weave together comedy, mentalism and improvisation before your very eyes.
Arts Court Theatre
May 29
9:00pm
-10:45pm
FRIDAY: FINALE SHOW
SATURDAY: PRIMETIME SHOW
The Primetime Show features a grounded duo, some light audience interaction from our friends from Montreal and a Pandemic Disco musical extravaganza.
Rounding out the night is our improv powerhouse party show: The Festival Armando where the festival headliners join some of Ottawa's best improvisors and festival favourites.
A once in a festival ensemble that's not to be missed.
Twong & Agnes (Kitchener/Ottawa)
@anguswmacd, @tuonginurpic
Twong & Agnes create a grounded scene with grounded characters that quickly spiral into absurdity.
Wassup? (Montreal)
Wassup? is a Montreal monthly built on one simple question: what's on your mind?
Our ensemble of experienced improvisers pulls stories straight from the crowd, finds the weird or surprisingly specific detail hiding inside, and runs with it as far as it'll go.
Ottawa, come tell us Wassup?
Pandemic! @ the Disco (Omaha, Nebraska)
@patdimprov @robbidybobbin
Award-winning musical improv troupe, Pandemic! @ the Disco out of Omaha, NE, performs a form called The Hero’s Journey in which one half of the duo plays a hero created from audience suggestions as well as providing the musical accompaniment on the keyboard.
Meanwhile, the other performer plays EVERY OTHER CHARACTER in the story!
Three-time winner of the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Award for Outstanding Comedic Ensemble (2020, 2021, 2024), they have performed on stages across the United States. Critics on Yelp rave: “One star- this clearly wasn’t improvised.”
SATURDAY: GRAND FINALE SHOW
We invited some cool people to town to showcase improv we don’t often get to see! Paloma Nuñez, Kevin Whalen and Kris Siddiqi are superstars of the Canadian improv scene.
The festival finale showcases these Canadian improv superstars before they return back to Toronto.
The Improv Embassy All-Stars bring you unpredictable and fast-paced improv!
The team is made up of the teaching staff and board members of The Improv Embassy. Together, they have several decades of combined improv experience and members have performed in festivals across Canada, the US and abroad.
It's time to flip the switch as these improv teachers shake off their lesson plans and take the stage, walking the walk they've been talking in class!
Will they follow their own teaching rules? Or will this set be more "do what we say, not what we do!"
Come find out!
RATS! Another Musical? (Toronto)
East Side Story is a high-energy, fully improvised musical inspired by classic rivalries like Jets vs. Sharks, Montagues vs. Capulets and Blackberries vs. iPhones.Two warring factions (of the audience’s choosing) ignite the stage with song, dance and jazzy combat.
Star-crossed lovers fight to keep love alive amidst this ancient feud.
Tonight, tonight, we make it up tonight! 🎶
