TOSketchFestBlog
Meet the Featured Acts: The Tita Collective Brings Tita Jokes to TOsketchfest 2026
Show: The Tita Collective presents Tita Jokes
When: Thursday, March 12, 8pm
Where: The Theatre Centre, Franco Boni Theatre
Runtime: 75 minutes
Best for: Fans of musical sketch comedy, family stories, and comedy with real heart
Tickets: HERE
Tita Collective is a Featured Act at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, and their return feels both celebratory and full circle. An award-winning all-Filipina ensemble based in Toronto, Tita Collective has built an international reputation for joyful, incisive, and emotionally resonant comedy that blends sketch, music, dance, and storytelling. Their work has earned major recognition across Canada, including multiple Just For Laughs awards, a Second City Outstanding Comedy Award, and repeated honours at the Montreal and Toronto Sketch Comedy Festivals and the Toronto Fringe Festival.
They bring Tita Jokes back to the TOsketchfest stage after years on tour, returning the show to the festival where it began. A musical sketch comedy love letter to Filipina elders, Tita Jokes explores heartache, resilience, and the many ways humour helps us survive and connect. Warm, funny, and layered, the show celebrates mothers, sisters, Lolas, and chosen family, offering a deeply personal experience that resonates far beyond the specifics of its stories.
“It’s sketch comedy with heart. You’ll laugh hard, and you might also recognize yourself along the way.” – Alia Rasul, Tita Collective
We asked the Tita Collective about their comedy, their process, and what audiences can expect from this show. Here’s what they had to say.
For readers meeting you for the first time: who are you, and how would you describe your comedy?
I’m Alia Rasul, one of the creators behind Tita Collective. We’re a Filipina-led sketch comedy group making work about identity, family, diaspora, and the chaos of being grown Millennial women with auntie responsibilities. Our comedy is character-driven, joyful, musical, and rooted in lived experience: we love big laughs, but we’re also interested in community storytelling and we may or may not be using this to recruit you for our new pyramid-ish scheme.
Tell us about the show you’re bringing to TOsketchfest. How did it come together?
This show came from years of conversations between Filipina artists about care, burnout, joy, expectations, and what it means to carry culture across generations. We started building sketches out of real moments, group chats, family dinners, inner child healing, karaoke, and shaped them into a fast-paced, high-energy ensemble show that feels both deeply personal and wildly silly.
What can audiences expect when they come to see this show?
Bold characters. Musical moments. Filipino Auntie chaos. Tender surprises. It’s sketch comedy with heart. You’ll laugh hard, and you might also recognize yourself along the way.
What makes this show different from your past work, or from other sketch shows audiences might have seen?
This work is material that we have performed and rewritten across Canada for over 9 years, but it hasn’t been home to Toronto in a while, so it’s mostly the same stuff but it’s seen some stuff. It has AGED. We hear everything is better when aged, so get excited!
Why is TOsketchfest a great fit for this show?
This is where we began! It’s home!
Who do you think will especially love this show?
Anyone who loves character comedy. Anyone who grew up in immigrant families. Anyone navigating identity, chosen family, or generational expectations. And honestly, anyone who wants something funny, heartfelt, and a little unhinged.
What excites you most about being a Featured Act at TOsketchfest this year?
It’s huge to bring Filipina-led work to this platform. Being a Featured Act feels collective, it’s visibility for artists who don’t always get centered in comedy spaces, and that matters.
If someone is on the fence, what would you say to convince them to buy a ticket?
Come for the laughs. Stay for the aunties. This show is loud, joyful, weird, and made with a lot of love. There might also be food, so there’s that!
Why This Is a Featured Show
Tita Collective was selected as a Featured Act because Tita Jokes exemplifies the power of sketch comedy to tell culturally specific stories with wide emotional reach. The programming committee was drawn to the ensemble’s confident blend of comedy, music, and movement, and to the way the show balances laugh-out-loud moments with genuine tenderness and insight. This is a work that is meticulously crafted, yet feels generous and open, inviting audiences into a shared experience rather than performing at them.
What sets Tita Jokes apart is how deeply it connects with audiences. The ensemble’s chemistry and confidence onstage create a sense of warmth and trust, allowing the comedy to hit harder and the quieter moments to resonate. Bringing Tita Jokes back to TOsketchfest celebrates a show that is widely loved, beautifully made, and a standout example of sketch comedy that stays with audiences long after the final moment.
Don’t miss your chance to see one of TOsketchfest’s standout acts.
This featured show has limited seating and is expected to sell quickly.
