Niagara's Home for Improv Comedy
One part karaoke. One part improv. Join us for a wildly fun evening of music and laughter!
You sing a song. That song then becomes inspiration for a completely improvised comedy scene by the funny folks at Improv Niagara.
Back and forth all evening with karaoke host-with-the-most Yogi Vandermey setting up the tunes.
Belt out your favourite tunes and belly-laugh all night long. It’s IMPROV KARAOKE!
Let’s try this again. It’s the RESCHEDULED Improv Niagara Pride show!
“Ha! Gayyyyyyy!” is an improv comedy show featuring some of Niagara’s own gay, queer, trans, and/or non-binary talent.
Friends! Allies! Lend us your ears and rears! Join us in rewriting homophobic/transphobic narratives that cloud our everyday. Together we’ll create hilarious moments from the absurd realities we live.
Get ready for an evening filled with hilarious improvised comedy that will have you laughing until your sides hurt. Our talented performers will take your suggestions and turn them into side-splitting scenes right before your eyes. Don’t miss out on this unforgettable night of entertainment!
And the best part? YOU get to decide who takes home the victorious Improv Niagara trophy, Rufus!! Will Simon Calaycay hang onto their title or will they be DETHRONED? Have YOUR say in this histerical night of live comedy in the heart of downtown St. Catharines.
Join us for Improv Niagara’s Improv Jam Night. Come give improv a try!
Open to all levels of experience! We warmly welcome individuals at any stage of their journey. Whether you are just starting out or have years of experience under your belt, this jam is for you. Embrace the excitement of learning to be more spontaenous. Every level of experience brings unique perspectives and valuable contributions. Come join the fun and unlock your creativity.
YES. There will be air conditioning.
Tips: Dress comfortably (we’ll be moving around quite a bit) & bring a bottle of water.
REMINDER! Don’t forget to bring your indoor shoes.
Before attending, please read our Anti-Harrassment and Anti-Discrimination Policy.
You’re invited to Improv Niagara’s Improv 2 Student Showcase – our students have been learning improv comedy skills and are excited to perform and delight you with hilarious scenes and games, just like on Whose Line is it Anyway? But right here, in St. Catharines!
Show your support & come LOL with this amazing crew!
A delightful evening of improv comedy to tickle your funny bone.
Welcome to **3rd Sunday Improv** happening at Mahtay Café & Lounge! Get ready for a night full of laughter and creativity as local improv performers take the stage. Join us on **Sun May 19 2024** at **7:00 PM** for a fun-filled evening of spontaneous hilarity. Don’t miss out on the chance to witness the magic of live improv comedy in person.
With headliners: Simon Calaycay (Improv Niagara), Chantal Lim (Ancient Dying Chinese Dialect) & Jo Anne Tacorda (Big Chick Energy).
We can’t wait to see you there!
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.
We’re happy to announce, in a time where happy announcements are few and far between, the welcoming of Aaron Boyd to our cast!
Being the new guy, I figured we could all get to know Aaron a little better. I asked the cast to put together a few questions for our new pal. Read on:
Q – Which/What archetype of “child” were you growing up? The cool, bad boy? The studious, quiet one?
This one was very specific, heading deep into Aaron’s backstory.
Aa – I was the nervous quiet kid, looking for approval, but never knowing how to get it. I was always picked last for teams, probably with good reason.
Q – What comedy movie best reflects your style of humour?
OK, now we’re getting on track. Comedy. Relevant. Here we go:
Aa – Airplane.
Honourable mentions: Shaun of the Dead, Sightseers.
Q – Do you have any interesting phobias?
OK great gang. Back to the weirdly personal stuff.
Aa – Arachibutyrophobia. (Fear of Peanut Butter) Probably due to my allergy. (Take note, fans. No Reeses for Aaron!) Also heights without safety equipment. I struggle to climb a ladder, but I have bungee jumped, enjoy air travel, and have done the CN Tower Skywalk!
Q – Can you tell us a little bit about your experience performing comedy?
Finally, the good stuff. (Although it is super good to know about the peanut butter!)
Aa – When I was a kid I wanted to be the funny one, but was too shy to go for it. As David Letterman used to say, “I wasn’t the class clown, but I wrote for him.”
After taking Drama class in High School I finally got the guts up to try some stand-up in my youth groups’s talent shows. The audience seemed to enjoy the jokes I “borrowed” from Robin Williams, but it was my Ronald Reagan impression that really killed.
At University I met a great group of guys, and after creating a sketch comedy show based on Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time”, we formed Cavalcade of Whimsy and produced several Summerworks and Fringe Festival shows.
We all participated in the writing, and I directed and stage managed. For the next (too many) years, I was a non-practicing comedian, with my performances limited to keeping my staff entertained during sales meetings, and the occasional karaoke night, until my friend Kate suggested we attend an Improv Niagara workshop. I caught the comedy bug once again, and look forward to playing with this awesome group of performers.
Q – Any weird piercings?
OK. This has gone too far. Thanks for reading folks. And don’t miss your chance to see Aaron in socially-distanced action at our “Laughs & Lattes” show Saturday, October 17th at the Queen Bean 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:
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.
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.
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!