Welcome to The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival which takes place on the traditional territory of the Anishnabeg, the Haudenosaunee, The Mississaugas of the Credit, the Chippewa, and the Wendat peoples. We are thankful for their stewardship and care for these lands, and for the opportunity we share to gather here in celebration of togetherness, empathy, connection and the joy of shared laughter.

We encourage our local and visiting audiences and artists to read and revisit The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls’s final report, and ON-SCREEN PROTOCOLS & PATHWAYS: A Media Production Guide to Working with First Nations, Métis and Inuit Communities, Cultures, Concepts and Stories.

About the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival

The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival (TOsketchfest) is Toronto’s longest running comedy festival. Born in West Queen West, it was created to celebrate Toronto’s storied, and continued excellence in the theatrical tradition of sketch comedy. TOsketchfest truly is Toronto’s comedy festival – of Toronto, by Toronto and for Toronto.

The “main event” is the annual Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival each March which features over 10 hilarious days of the best live, scripted comedy in North America and beyond. Founded in 2005 by a group of Toronto comedians the festival has since grown by leaps and bounds, and is a highlight in the Toronto comedy calendar.

Throughout the year we offer special presentations of celebrity talent, homegrown comedy heroes, and our annual Toronto Sketch Comedy Showcases. We also produce Comedy Country, Prince Edward County’s summer comedy series. Each year, thousands of people enjoy TOsketchfest events, and our stages are home to the work of hundreds of comedic writer-performers from across North America and beyond.

Click here for a detailed breakdown of our programs

Our Mission

To support the career development of Canadian comedic writer performers by producing, presenting, promoting and supporting exceptional live, scripted comedy making Toronto a funnier place to be.

Our Mandate

The mandate of the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival is three-fold:

• To grow audiences for Canadian scripted ensemble work by providing big, public performance showcases,
• To deliver relevant professional development to artists, and
• To create opportunities for positive networking and exchange among comedic writer-performers.

The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival is a not-for-profit, charitable organization.

What is sketch comedy, you ask?

Generally speaking, sketch comedy is any funny performance that is written, rehearsed and performed by a cast of comedians. It’s like Saturday Night Live, Baroness von Sketch Show, Key & Peele or Tallboyz. But sketch can also be solo character work, or musical comedy, clown, drag, or hilarious things that defy categorization.

But no, it’s not funny pencil drawings on the wall. Seriously, someone asked us that once.

SKETCH COMEDY MATTERS

TOsketchfest is proud to celebrate sketch comedy – a live, writer-performer-driven theatrical form that combines text, movement, character, musicality, and timing with political and social observation. It is a scripted, rehearsed, and refined form of live performance. The best sketch performers operate at the intersection of theatre, clown, musical theatre, improvisation, satire, and physical comedy.

In Canada, this work has long existed outside of traditional theatre funding streams. Sketch comedy has been a launchpad for many of our country’s most influential voices in the performing arts – winners of Dora and Canadian Screen Awards alike. And vitally, sketch comedy continues to be a low-barrier onramp to artistic life in Canada for marginalized people. It is built on collaboration, ensemble discipline, and risk – the same values celebrated in other live performing arts. The form has evolved into increasingly innovative territory, with companies blending dance, drag, puppetry, and multimedia into their work.

Our commitment is to elevate this form by presenting it in theatrical contexts, pairing it with professional development, and supporting its creators as artists. We program it with curation and care, build bridges to other performance disciplines, and support experimentation in both content and format. We assess sketch work on its own terms, but with the same critical and creative lens applied to any performing arts discipline.

As a charity, our role is to challenge perceptions and open space for comedic creators, particularly those who have been excluded from traditional funding systems – to be seen, heard, and valued.

Click here to learn more about The TOsketchfest Team