Hot Thespian Action is a sketch comedy troupe based out of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. They have been nominated three times for "Best Sketch Troupe" at the Canadian Comedy Awards. [1] The group consists of Shannon Guile, Jacqueline Loewen, Garth Merkeley, Ryan Miller, and Jane Testar. They appear yearly at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival, the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, and many other sketch comedy festivals across North America.
Hot Thespian Action began in 2006 in a special studies class in Advanced Mime and Improv at the University of Winnipeg under the tutelage of Rick Skene. The troupe has appeared multiple times at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival to great acclaim. [2] They have appeared twice in the televised galas at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, first in "The All-Star Super Good Variety Special" in 2011 hosted by Andrea Martin and then in the "Save the World Telethon" in 2012 as Alan Thicke's singing and dancing sidekicks.
The troupe is currently working with Emmy and Golden Globe winning producer Kim Todd on a sitcom pilot.
HTA has also performed at Toronto SketchFest, SketchFest Seattle, Chicago SketchFest, San Francisco SketchFest, Vancouver Sketch Comedy Festival, Saskatoon Fringe Festival, the Edmonton Fringe Festival, and the Canadian Comedy Awards.
Last Call Cleveland is a sketch comedy troupe from Cleveland, Ohio featuring comedian and writer Mike Polk. They perform a mix of live and pre-recorded comedy.
The Improverts is a improvisational comedy troupe from the Edinburgh University Theatre Company, which primarily performs at the Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh. They perform weekly during Edinburgh University's term time and every night during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Ron Sparks is a Canadian comedian, actor, writer and producer. He was born in Chatham-Kent, Ontario and lives in Toronto, Ontario. He is best known as an alternative comedian and frequent guest on CBC Radio's The Debaters, and on TV as a regular and favourite juror on MuchMusic's highest-rated show, Video on Trial, also starring as The Judge in the Stars on Trial Christmas special and various other VOT spin-offs.
The Frantics is a Canadian comedy troupe consisting of Paul Chato, Rick Green, Dan Redican and Peter Wildman.
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Pappy's is a British three-man comedy act, composed of comedians Ben Clark, Matthew Crosby and Tom Parry. The sketch troupe previously performed shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but now mostly talk on podcasts about balconies and spaghetti. They regularly produce podcasts under the Pappy's Flatshare heading, and created and starred in the BBC Three sitcom Badults.
A comedy festival is a celebration of comedy with many shows, venues, comedy performers and is held over a specific block of time. Normally, each festival has a diverse range of comedy themes and genres.
The B-Girlz are a Canadian drag comedy trio, based in Toronto, Ontario. The troupe's core members are Michael Boyuk, who performs as Kora Harcourt and Mark Peacock, who performs as Barbara Quigley (Barbie-Q); while the third member has varied at different times, with performers including Robert Windisman as Conchita Castillio and Shawn Hitchins as Ivana.
David Humphrey Rivers Ker is a British actor, writer and comedian, and member of the sketch comedy troupe The Penny Dreadfuls.
The Pajama Men are Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez, an American comedy duo of character comics from Albuquerque, New Mexico. They have won awards including the Barry Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2009, and Best Newcomer and Best of the Fest at The Sydney Comedy Festival in 2009.
Taz VanRassel is a Canadian Comedian and Actor primarily known for his work in Improv theatre. He was nominated as Best Male Improviser in Canada at The Canadian Comedy Awards from 2007-2015, is a founding member of The Sunday Service improv troupe, of Instant Theatre Company, 9-year member of the Vancouver TheatreSports League and is a member and co-creator of the sketch comedy group Titmouse! with Eisner Award-winning comic book writer/comedian Ian Boothby.
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Tom X. Chao is a comedic playwright, actor, and musician based in New York City whose works have been produced in the United States and Canada. Chao regularly stars in his own work, usually playing an unflattering autobiographical character named "Tom." During the 1990s, Chao was a member of New York City's Art Stars alternative performance scene, and The New York Times called him "a dryly funny downtown comedian," and Time Out New York labeled him a "hilariously angsty writer-performer." He is best known for his play Cats Can See the Devil, which appears in Plays and Playwrights 2004.
Harry Rintoul was a Canadian playwright and theatre director. He was best known for his 1990 play Brave Hearts, which was noted as one of the first significant gay-themed plays in Canadian theatre history to be written by a heterosexual writer, and one of the first ever to address gay themes in a rural setting outside of the traditional gay urban meccas of Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal.
Jamillah Ross is a Canadian comedian, actress, and singer-songwriter. She trained through Toronto's The Second City and has performed in improvisation troupes and on stage, television and film. She was in the cast of Show Stopping Number which won a Canadian Comedy Award (CCA) for best improvisational troupe.
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The Delightful Sausage are a comedy double act, created by Amy Gledhill and Christopher Cantrill. In 2019 they were nominated for 'Best Show' at the Edinburgh Fringe.