Tag: Mahtay Café

Improv Niagara presents Off the Shelf

May 30 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm EDT

Unique and delightful improv comedy inspired by local author Karrie Haynes’ novel: “Lucid.”

Join Improv Niagara for an evening of live improv comedy inspired by local literature!

Niagara-based author Karrie Haynes will read an exerpt from her new novel “Lucid.” Inspired by this passage, the Improv Niagara cast will take you on a journey into the magical world of Lucid; live, improvised & unfolding right before your eyes.

An exciting combination of local literature and live theatre.

One night only at Mahtay Café!

For more inforamation about Karrie Haynes & Lucid, check out: @lucid.karriehaynes

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Improv Niagara

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Mahtay Café & Lounge

241 Saint Paul Street
St. Catharines, ON L2R 3M7 Canada + Google Map
905-685-4040
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Spaceprov: Improv in Space

April 25 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm EDT

An improv comedy show that’s Artemis II good to be true!

Inspired by NASA’s recent trip to the moon, Improv Niagara are stretching the limits of earthly improv and we need you to take us out into the atmosphere!

Live improv comedy, inpsired by your suggestions, featuring a hilarious cast of improv performers including a visiting troupe all the way from Oakville Ontario: The Highway Bandits.

Don’t miss this lovely evening of laughter and out of this world fun!

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Improv Niagara

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Mahtay Café & Lounge

241 Saint Paul Street
St. Catharines, ON L2R 3M7 Canada + Google Map
905-685-4040
View Venue Website

Improv Niagara’s Pot o’ Laughs ft. The Phlegmies.

March 28 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm EDT

As many laughs as there are clovers in Ireland, right here in downtown St. Catharines! Live. Improv. Comedy!

March brings with it the luck of the Irish, and we feel SO LUCKY to welome this extraordinary comedy troupe all the way from Guelph. It’s the The Phlegmies!

Join Improv Niagara & the Phlegmies as we share our particular styles of improv comedy; hilarious scenes, stories and games made-up completely on the spot!

Forget gold, we’re filling the pot with laughs and fun on Saturday March 28th, 2026 at 8:00 PM live at Mahtay Café, in the heart of downtown St. Catharines.

Featuring:
Dan Dingwall
Dina Senior
Brie Watson &

MORE!

& an epic performance from our visitors: THE PHLEGMIES!

Get your tickets TODAY before the luck runs out. 🍀

Register on Eventbrite

Improv Niagara

View Organizer Website

Mahtay Café & Lounge

241 Saint Paul Street
St. Catharines, ON L2R 3M7 Canada + Google Map
905-685-4040
View Venue Website
Get your tickets here!

ZEBRAPROV 2026

January 31 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm EST

Join us in celebration of National Zebra Day as we let this noble striped beast inform our scenes and games.

Celebrate National Zebra Day with this wonderful cast of improvisers, each’s style as unique as the striped pattern on each of these noble horse/donkey-type beasts. Saturday, January 31st 2026 at 8:00 PM only at Mahtay Café , in the heart of downtown St. Catharines.

Featuring:
Dan Dingwall
Dave Hietalahti
Sean Howard
Dina Senior
Kate Urquhart &
Brie Watson

Get your tickets TODAY before they’re extinct. UNLIKE the zebra!

Register on Eventbrite

Mahtay Café & Lounge

241 Saint Paul Street
St. Catharines, ON L2R 3M7 Canada + Google Map
905-685-4040
View Venue Website

Improv Niagara

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nice cans: a comedy show for a nice cause

December 27, 2025 @ 12:30 am – 9:30 pm EST

Live improv comedy to help our community.

Improv Niagara presents NICE CANS! A comedy show turned fundraiser / food drive to help our local food bank feed people in need.

This show is in that sweet spot between Christmas and New Years, so come on out in your comfies, grab a tasty drink or treat from Mahtay Café’s bar or bakery and let’s spend a bit of time this holiday season having some laughs.

Featuring:

Brie Watson

Dan Dingwall

Deanna Herbert

Dina Senior

Heather Eyman &

Jamie Roboz

Tickets cost $15 or show up with some canned goods or non-perishable food items, and let’s have some holiday cheer!

Register on Eventbrite

Mahtay Café & Lounge

241 Saint Paul Street
St. Catharines, ON L2R 3M7 Canada + Google Map
905-685-4040
View Venue Website

Improv Niagara

View Organizer Website

Movember Rain

November 29, 2025 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm EST

Live improv comedy for a good cause.

Live, lonform improv comedy in the heart of St Catharines.

Featuring:

Jo Anne Tacorda (Big Chick Energy)

Aaron Boyd

Simon Calaycay

Dan Dingwall

Dina Senior

Brie Watson

This month, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Movember Foundation. Wear your moustaches proud! (Or bring a fake one, if you’d like.)

Register on Eventbrite

Mahtay Café & Lounge

241 Saint Paul Street
St. Catharines, ON L2R 3M7 Canada + Google Map
905-685-4040
View Venue Website

Improv Niagara

View Organizer Website

Improv Niagara goes Back to School

September 27, 2025 @ 8:00 pm – 9:30 pm EDT

It’s Back to School time at Improv Niagara!

Take a seat and have some laughs. Improv Niagara brings you hilarious comedy created on the spot, inspired by your suggestions.

Improv 1812 promises to make you laugh AND learn. (WHAT?) Let them take you back to a hugely important time in Niagara’ s history, but like… through improv!

The Substitute Teachers know when the teacher’s away the cats will play! So, sit back, relax, put down your books and get ready for some laughs.

Brock, Niagara College & University of Niagara Falls students get $5 off regular admission!

Register on Eventbrite

Mahtay Café & Lounge

241 Saint Paul Street
St. Catharines, ON L2R 3M7 Canada + Google Map
905-685-4040
View Venue Website

Improv Fallout End of Year Bash

June 10 @ 4:14 am

It’s time! Finally. Celebrate the holidays! Enjoy friends, drinks and live comedy. And rejoice. Spend time with your pals at Improv Niagara!

So, come on out! Have fun. It’s the “Improv Fallout End of Year Bash!”

Don’t miss out.

Register on Eventbrite

Mahtay Café & Lounge

241 Saint Paul Street
St. Catharines, ON L2R 3M7 Canada + Google Map
905-685-4040
View Venue Website

Improv Niagara

View Organizer Website

Birthday, Improv, Shows

Cheers to Two Years & The Best is Yet to Come!

admin

On this, the date that would have been Improv Fallout's 2nd Anniversary Show, rest assured there's nothing we wish we could be doing more than performing improv for you, dressed to the nines, on stage at our St. Catharines home of two years, Mahtay Café.

Instead, as I type this, I’m wearing yoga pants I haven’t warn in two years because over the past few weeks I’ve worn all my better yoga pants, and they’re now all in the wash and these are all I have left.

The point is, we can’t be on stage right now. We’ve made the responsible choice of staying home for the sake of keeping our community safe. Also, we tried to break into Mahtay this morning and Chris fought us all off with only his bare hands. It was quite a sight to behold.

Instead, we offer you this – the written word. A post from each of Improv Niagara’s performers, who are holding you in our thoughts during this time of collective uncertainty.

We miss you, but think about how ballin’ the party will be when we all get to be together again. – Brie

We’ve had some good times these past two years. Fun fact: It is Improv Fallout’s 2nd anniversary, but Improv Niagara has been going on a little longer, closer to three years.

Back when we weren’t called Improv Niagara yet, it was a very different show. I clumped together a few friends in Niagara who I knew could do improv, and Brie brought her Toronto “What If?” improv show. We packed the house at a tiny venue in Thorold called “Think Space.” It was so successful I recruited a few more people and we did a full run of monthly shows this way in the summer from June to August at Warehouse in St. Catharines.

But now here we are.

Here are a few highlights that come to my mind since last year:

  • Our intimate Q&A session with Colin Mochrie
  • Winning Fallout in January
  • Many hilarious rehearsals where I nearly pee my pants and my ribs hurt from laughing so much
  • Hosting our first big corporate teaching gig (over 250 people!)

And, I could name more! The list goes on and on!

Thanks so much for another year of great memories. As soon as we are able, we will resume our Fallout Anniversary show and we can all cheers together to another great year, and more to come!

I can’t believe it’s been 2 years. I remember auditioning and being super nervous to just throw myself into a scene. Then, after getting a taste of that live adrenaline, in front of a huge group of people, I couldn’t get enough!

We now have so many committed fans who come out every month to play and support our troupe; we’ve become a big extended family at Mahtay Café!

I am proud to be an original IN member and so thankful for our regulars and our hard working troupe. We take funny very seriously and wouldn’t be as funny without our laugh track of an audience supporting us every month.

I have been so thankful for Improv Niagara and Mahtay Cafe over the past two years. In some ways it seems as though there is no way that we have been going for two years now and in other ways it feels so natural it seems as though we have been doing this forever. Mahtay and the patrons have been so kind and giving to us; it has been a joy to be involved in Improv Fallout. It is easily the highlight of my month and am looking forward to all that is to come.

There have been so many amazing memories, but there are two that come to mind naturally. I know everyone is thinking it, but the first one is that I was the FIRST EVER IMPROV FALLOUT CHAMPION!!!! I really set the bar for the group. So even now, as an audience marvels at the talent before them, I really feel that I am in their mind as well. You’re welcome.
 
Memory number two is when my extended family from Michigan came to see our show. Parents, cousins, and aunts. They absolutely loved it. They wanted to talk to everyone after the show and even asked to come up on stage to take pictures with all of the performers. When you invite people to a show (particularly family), there can be some anxiety about whether they will like it. That never crossed my mind and apparently didn’t cross theirs either. I was proud of our group and of the fans that get so into it that it becomes a big fun party every month.
 
Thank you everyone. Whether you have been to one show or all of them. We love you. We are so thankful that we can do what we love for such kind, wonderful people. Thank you Mahtay Cafe for giving this opportunity and cheers to many more crazy Fallout Nights.

I’m definitely missing  performing for our wonderful crowds, even though I’m still wondering if they’re laughing with me or at me…

Whatever it is, it’s special and it and warms the cockles of my wee meaty heart.

Know that I’m laughing back at you and that I just scared this poor lady in line in front of me as I’m writing this.

I wasn’t with the troupe for its first year, so I had a lot of catching up to do in terms of getting warmed up to the cast and the audience.

I’m shy and guarded in the beginning so it took me a while to get there, but I remember my tipping point for letting my guard down to the audience was in an extra show back in September. The format called for each of us performing to embody a character throughout the whole set. That was my third show with Improv Niagara, so I thought it’s now or never to get as silly as I really am in rehearsal. I chose to become a pigeon man — my arms as its wings, my feet its talons. At one point in the show, I was flailing my “talons” in the air, and my “wings” went everywhere, because that’s how pigeon people fight “snakes that are coming out of the ground”. I’m thankful to the audience because after that, I never had to worry about committing to a character and looking like a fool on stage.

Wow, two years! I’ve been so incredibly lucky to witness the birth and experience the growth of this Niagara-based improv troupe.

I remember humble beginnings, auditioning in a small after-school classroom in Fonthill to now, monthly sold out shows in St. Catharines’ Mahtay Café.

I remember attending each show with, beverage in hand and a busy month in the rear view mirror. Then, months later, being a part of the show and looking forward to every second of stage time.

I remember rehearsing and discussing technique, referring to improv masters such as Colin Mochrie. Then, weeks later having the opportunity to discuss technique with Colin Mochrie!

I have two years of amazing memories with Improv Niagara and am looking forward to many many more!

Thanks to our improv team and organizers and all of you amazing audience members. I can confidently say; cheers to two years and the best is yet to come! 

Being part of the IN ensemble for this past year has been so wonderful – it’s given me the chance to play with some incredible folks and laugh a ton alongside them.

Following university improv, I wasn’t sure what my future in performance looked like, but when the IN members welcomed me whole-heartedly into the group, I was at ease because I knew I would be able to perform with super-talented people who were also so so kind.

I’m so thankful to call this cast my friends, and am so looking forward to performing even more silly scenes with these pals!

Who would have thought we’d be here? Two years ago, when Improv Niagara started, the idea of getting to perform every single month was such a dream to me, and one that I never thought I’d see.

Now, not only do I get to perform improv on stage in front of an audience all the tram, but I get to it all with a group of people who never fail to make me smile.

My time in Improv Niagara has given me confidence in myself as well as allowing me to put my confidence in a team that I know will always have my back.

In February 2018, I was living in a basement in Merritton, raising my sweet little child, working as a breakfast server and going about the simplicity of life. My child was about 2.5 years old and for a while, I’d been craving to put myself back out there, get some acting work, feed the creative soul, etc.

I wasn’t entirely convinced when I first saw a post for an improv audition if improv comedy was something I wanted to dip my toes in; not because I wasn’t interested, but because I wasn’t sure I’d be any good. It frightened me. I had some training, but it just seemed like the most bizarre thing that an improv group was being formed here- in Niagara!

It definitely peaked my curiosity. I read more and discovered that actually, these people were the real deal; trained professionals and instructors from Second City, experience at Bad Dog, studied at Humber. Could this be? That I wouldn’t have to drive to Toronto to take classes? That I wouldn’t have to spend gas money and arrange child care to just play and have fun with some local comedians?

I arranged to audition. When I got there, the vibe was so inviting, so friendly, and just felt cool.

Over the next few weeks I kept attending some rehearsals and making new friends, until eventually it became very clear that our group was forming not just a solid improv troupe, but a really strong family!

Improv Niagara turned into more that I could have possibly imagined and entered my life at the most opportune time. We love performing our monthly show at Mahtay, and we love seeing all of our fans and audience members old and new. We will continue to get up on the stage and infuse you with buckets of laughs.

Thank you for the support!

Two years have gone by so quickly. I guess the saying ‘time flies when you’re having fun,’ holds true. I look forward to every show. 

As a full time artist, it brings me joy to see the Niagara community fully support Improv Niagara and our creative endeavours. 
 
Whether through attending shows regularly, sharing our content, or opening up new opportunities for us to share laughter with your business, family or team members – it’s a gratifying experience. 
 
I look forward to seeing what our third, fourth and fifth seasons of Fallout will bring. 

Hello everyone!

I can’t believe it’s already been two years! From being invited to an Improv Niagara workshop, which then lead to an audition, and then lights up – stage performances! What a remarkable little journey this has been for me so far.

We’ve rehearsed in our very own space, which we called home for a while! We also practiced in basements. We performed improv in the park, and also in
some groovy Toronto locations. Birthday celebrations, and also shows in the street. (Yes, I mean the actual street.) It’s clear there’s nowhere this group won’t go to perform, and no venue too big or too small.

I’ve been lucky enough this past couple years to say I’m a part of it.

Thank you to everyone who has come out to our shows! You are the reason we do this. We do our best to bring some fun and entertainment your way. So thank, you thank, you thank you.

Adios!

Thank you, Niagara. Please stay safe.

Events, NEWS

Emerging Erica

admin

We’d like to send SO MANY congratulations to Improv Niagara cast-mate Erica Sherwood for two major back-to-back artistic accomplishments.

Firstly, she’s been nominated for the Emerging Artist Awards in the City of St. Catharines Arts Awards and her cast-mates at IN couldn’t be more proud of her!

Secondly, this evening at Mahtay Café & Lounge, alongside fellow artist Lauren Regier, Sherwood premiered her gallery exhibit “What She Sees: Visual Arts of Erica Sherwood.” Her pieces will remain on the gallery walls at Mahtay until mid-March, and we highly encourage everyone to check ’em out. Maybe you’ll be inspired to take one home! 

Once again, huge congratulations Erica! We’re so proud and always in awe of your creative talents!

Erica with her piece "fuzzy bee." This, and other of her works will remain on display at Mahtay Café & Lounge in St. Catharines until mid-March.