TOSketchFestBlog

SHOT LIVE SPECIAL!

Be there live and add to the energy of the studio audience for TOsketchfest’s first Shot Live Comedy Special featuring Anesti Danelis, Gillian Bartolucci, and Shohana Sharmin. Be part of the fun live and in-person, or online with our Live Streaming presentation.

We’ve put together a lineup of some of Canada’s top solo sketch and musical comedy talent that you don’t want to miss. Watch from the front row, or from anywhere in the world.

SHOT LIVE SPECIAL
Tuesday, March 14 – 7pm

The Theatre Centre (Franco Boni Theatre)
**Limited seating** for the live, in-person performance. Get yours NOW!

Be there Live and in-person

Button: Buy Tickets

Be there online for our Live Stream

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Featured Artists

Photo of Shohana Sharmin

Shohana Sharmin

Shohana Sharmin is a Bangladeshi-born comedian, writer, and theatre artist. Shohana is a proud Muslim queer woman of colour, and is a current cast member of the Second City Toronto’s National Touring Company. She is a recipient of the 2020 Queer Emerging Artist Award at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Shohana is the creator and a cast member of the critically acclaimed award-winning dark sketch comedy revue Dead Parents Society. She presented her first solo show “Come Here Often?” (directed by Carly Heffernan) in October 2022. Her personal essays have been published by CBC First Person, The Vault magazine, Broadview magazine, and Living Hyphen magazine. She is also the creator and host of the podcast “Finders Grievers.” She is an alumna of the Bad Dog Comedy Theatre Featured Players, and of the Second City’s Improv and Longform Conservatories. Shohana has performed in comedy and theatre festivals across North America with her award-winning troupe Not Oasis (2017 The Toronto Fringe Patrons Pick, NOW Critic’s Pick). She wishes she could be more like her mother.

 

Photo of Gillian Bartolucci

Gillian Bartolucci

Gillian delivers a batch of tried and true skits with a couple of fresh new bits too! Hot monologues sent straight to your face at a talking speed that verges on panic inducing. She does it all and usually in one breath!

Gillian Bartolucci is a comedian, actor, and CSA-nominated writer. She has written for CBC’s This Hour Has 22 Minutes, showcased for JFL42 New Faces: Characters, and is currently an understudy of the Second City Toronto Main Stage Company. Her past solo revues have received critical acclaim including Best in Venue at the 2022 Hamilton Fringe Festival for Something Small, Something Sweet, and was nominated for Best Solo Performance by My Entertainment World for The Weight of It All.

 

Photo of Anesti Danelis

Anesti Danelis

Anesti Danelis is an award winning musical comedian whose work has been featured on VICE, People Magazine, AV Club, Daily Mail UK, Extra TV and other radio and TV shows across the globe. He has an hour-long musical comedy special streaming worldwide on Next Up Comedy, has performed on Global TV, and CBC as part of the Winnipeg Comedy Special (Season 18 now streaming CBC Gem), and has been heard on CBC radio’s Laugh Out Loud. His comedic videos consistantly go viral, raking in over 130 million views and over 370,000 followers online.

As a live act he tours his musical comedy concerts to festivals earning both audience and critical praise. His debut show was announced as a Top 8 Best Comedy Shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the Amused Moose Comedy Awards, and he has been nominated for Best Variety Act at the Canadian Comedy Awards, and has been awarded the sketchiest sketch troup in both 2020 and 2021 at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival. His recent third musical comedy concert experienced a smash debut at the Toronto Fringe, and a critically acclaimed run at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe.

 

Hosted by

Marc Hallworth

Marc Hallworth

Marc Hallworth has been described as “too poor for how happy he is.” Originally from Calgary, Marc moved to Toronto in 2009 and is a founding member of sketch troupe Vest of Friends (TOsketchfest – Best of the Fest, 2016). As a stand-up comedian, he has been featured as part of JFL42, NXNE, YYComedy, FunnyFest, the Brantford Comedy Festival, the Las Vegas 420 Cannibas Comedy Festival, the Comedy Country Festival, the Purge (where he opened for The Sklar Brothers), the Bollywood Monster Mashup (where he opened for Aparna Nancherla) and The Far From Here Comedy Festival (where he opened for Jackie Kashian). His debut album “Happy Pappy” coming out at the end of 2022, he is a rostered comedian with Yuk Yuk’s, was the second-place winner of the Flat Tire Comedy Competition, a semi-finalist in the Toronto Comedy Brawl and Prove You’re A Comic Competition, has appeared on SiriusXM Radio as part of “Canada Laughs,” and was chosen to host the Ontario Celebration Zone as part of the PanAm Games. With material that’s not out to offend, his few goofy ideas and personal anecdotes all culminate towards some real optimism!”