2025 Festival Acts

HINPROV Collective is a vibrant community of artists committed to fostering creativity and collaboration in the world of improvisation. Over the years, we have had the privilege of working with exceptional mentors and artists, drawing inspiration from their expertise to enrich our practice. Our house team consists of a diverse group of improvisers, performers, actors, and clowns, each bringing their unique perspectives and skills to the collective. Together, we cultivate an environment where artistic expression flourishes, allowing us to explore new ideas, challenge conventions, and create impactful performances that resonate with our audiences. Hinprov's house team has performed at Detroit Improv Fest (2024), Vancouver Improv Festival(2023), Guelph Comedy Fest(2024), Blockbuster Week(s), Mississauga Multilingual Fringe Festival (2023) and Pinch Cabaret (2024) and ImprovIsAsian Festival(Online, 2022).

Michael Bird has been performing and teaching improv since 2004. Getting his start with the UT Austin improv team, Bird has trained and performed in improv theaters all over the U.S. including iO, Annoyance, Second City, UCB, and many others. He started his solo improv show "Bird and Friends - Cosmic Unity" in March 2017 which he has since performed hundreds of times across the U.S. and world including India, the Philippines, Sweden, Turkey, and Canada. 

Brüce is a long form improv and occasional sketch troupe comprised of graduates of Bad Dog Theatre's Harold Studio program based in Toronto. 

Formed in 2024, Your Type is a Montreal-based Pretty Flower improv troupe. The team quickly became a mainstay of the city's improv scene, placing first in several local competitions, including Hotshots and Head2Head. Your Type took second place in the 2024 edition of Montreal Improv's Threepio, a three-month round robin featuring some of the city's best acts.

Created in 2024 for the Black And Funny Improv Festival (HUGE Theater R.I.P.), The Sibsons are a Silly World building (longform filling in a shortform crust) duo from Ottawa where we follow the fun more than the form to show off our Black Joy. 

The Ambassadors is a team made up of the teaching staff of The Improv Embassy. They have several decades of combined Improv experience and members have performed in festivals across Canada and the US. These instructors take to the stage to show students and new comers alike the power of improv fundamentals.

Philippe Marchand and Joël Paulin met in 2024 at a clown workshop and formed SHHH!, Ottawa's unique non-verbal improv duo. As francophones living in Ottawa with a shared appreciation for silent films, movement and music, they began an improv project that does away with speech altogether. What started as an experiment quickly evolved as audiences responded with overwhelming positivity. SHHH!’s raison d’être is to find humour and connection through improvised physical theatre and collective imagination.

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​SHHH! is excited to collaborate with violinist and improviser, Laura Nerenberg. Laura has performed extensively across the National Capital region and beyond, including a fully improvised solo violin concert series and has worked internationally as a musical improvisation specialist. Laura is also a playwright, having performed her Rideau award-nominated, autobiographical solo show Jewish-ish at the Ottawa and Victoria Fringe Festivals as well as in St. John’s, NL and Whitehorse, YK.

Staccayto Staccato (pronounced like "To-may-to To-mah-to") is a Toronto-based musical comedy troupe featuring performers from the schools and stages of Bad Dog Theatre, Comedy Bar, Second City, and more! Their high-energy blend of humour and music earned them the prestigious "Big Buzz" award at the Guelph Fringe Festival 2024 with their show “Make Up! The Musical”. Currently they are a Comedy Bar House Team, Bad Dog Theatre Residency recipient, and Featured team at the Assembly Improv.

Questionable Decisions met in an improv class about two years ago and have been playing together in one form or another ever since. They quickly became a close-knit group and began practicing every week. They currently produce a monthly show on the second Saturday of every month at Montreal Improv Theater, featuring both classic and experimental formats. QD has rocked the stage in venues all over Montreal and beyond, having performed in the 2024 Big Pond Improv Festival in Burlington, VT.

Chelsea and Woody are Ottawa improv veterans who have been performing improv for a combined two decades. They are frequent improv partners, performing together on Black Box Improv, LitProv, Belt Improv. They are both teachers at the Improv Embassy.

(Josh)ua DeGagné and Josh(ua) Mayo have been performing improv since 2019 and are staples of the Ottawa improv community. You’ve seen them together as part of Wayward Improvised Theatre’s Filmed Before a Live Studio Audience, an improvised sitcom with two sold-out regular season runs, and a special run at the 2024 Ottawa Fringe Festival. They’ve also been on other sold-out WIT runs, including workplace comedy Red Tape and real-life inspired Ottawa Secrets.

Little Miss Normal is the fastest rising improv troupe in the Toronto comedy scene since its inception in 2021. Its members consist of longtime professional comedians who have collected numerous accolades and credits over their careers for: television (What We Do in the Shadows, One More Time, Children Ruin Everything), sketch (JFL42), and the Second City Mainstage and Touring Company. They are known for combining their unique POV's and fast-paced style of improv, which is made possible by its members coming from a wide variety of backgrounds that reflect the diversity of Toronto.