History
The first Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival was presented in 2005 and was inspired by great Sketchfests in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and others. Since then, the Festival has grown and changed and moved around town, but we’ve stayed true to our goals of providing a big showcase for sketch comedy and creating opportunities for learning and networking for comedians. Here’s a look back at some TOsketchfest history, milestones and highlights.
2005
- The first TOsketchfest was produced over four nights at the Gladstone Hotel.
- The Festival started with 16 troupes including local favourites The Sketchersons who remain the only troupe to have performed in every TOsketchfest
2006
- TOsketchfest returned to the Gladstone Hotel growing the Festival lineup to 5 nights and 30 troupes
- The Toronto Arts Council awards the Festival its first grant
- The Festival Awards are launched and the first Best of the Fest, Audience Choice and Producers’ Pick award winners are chosen
- The first Best of the Fest Encore Show is presented at The Second City
2007
- TOsketchfest moves to the Entertainment District and plays in two venues: The Second City and the Diesel Playhouse
- The Ontario Arts Council awards the Festival its first grant
2008
- The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival launches Sketch ComAgeddon, the apocalyptic sketch comedy competition that raises funds for the annual Festival
- TOsketchfest adds a third venue as Comedy Bar opens and becomes a hub for Toronto’s comedy scene
- The 48-Hour Video Challenge is launched
2009
- The Diesel Playhouse shuts its doors and TOsketchfest moves to Theatre Passe Muraille for a year on a glorious theatre stage
- We welcome headliners Frankenmatt from Los Angeles (Frank Caeti – MadTV and Matt Craig – Saturday Night Live)
- ‘Some Conditions Apply’ Commercial Parody Contest is launched
2010
- The Festival puts down roots on the Ossington strip with shows at Lower Ossington Theatre and Comedy Bar
- Sassy Gay Friend is our headlining act, performing two shows at Second City
- The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival incorporates as a not-for-profit organization and gets all grown-up and responsible-like with a Board of Directors
2011
- The 7th annual TOsketchfest rocked three venues with an all-Canadian headliner series including Picnicface, Two Kids One Hall (Kevin McDonald and Scott Thompson) and This is That.
- TOsketchfest adds a fourth event to the calendar: the annual Sketchiest Sketch Show featuring the winner of the Sketchiest Sketch Troupe Award.
2012
- The Best of the Fest Encore Show expands into an Encore Weekend complete with three shows and workshops.
- TOsketchfest makes the move from November to March. Technically no festival in 2012, but really we just moved to the spring.
2013
- The 8th TOsketchfest kicked Toronto in the pants with record attendance.
- The festival adds Randolph Theatre to accommodate Headliner performances.
- Headliners included the Premiere of Kids in the Hall, Bruce McCulloch’s “Young, Drunk Punk,” Michael Ian Black (The State, Stella), Eugene Mirman (Bob’s Burgers) and Kurt Braunohler (Bunk!, Chelsea Lately)
2014
- The 9th TOsketchfest once again sets attendance records.
- The festival added the Comedy Bar Cabaret series, and welcomed The Queen Elizabeth Theatre as one of our 4 festival venues.
- Headliners included The Kids in the Hall performing a staged reading of Brain Candy, the Toronto debut of CBC Radio’s sketch comedy show The Irrelevant Show, and Gavin Crawford in his one-man show, Sh**ting Rainbows.
2015
- TOsketchfest celebrates its 10th anniversary festival!
- The festival moved to our new festival home at The Theatre Centre in Toronto’s West Queen West neighbourhood – a return to TOsketchfest’s birthplace completing a 10 year circle.
- Headliners included SNL’s Kate McKinnon, a return of CBC Radio’s The Irrelevant Show, and the hugely influential comedy duo Pajama Men.
- We award the first Sketch Comedy Project Fund Grants in partnership with the Pat and Tony Adams Freedom Fund for the Arts.
- TOsketchfest moves east with a sister festival “Comedy Country” in rural Prince Edward County featuring a performance by Cathy Jones.
2016
- The festival honours ten years of Laugh Sabbath, one of Toronto’s most influential comedy institutions.
- Headliners included the return of This is That, and the comedy-music mash up show Hello! Thunder Bay, created in partnership with Dave Bidini.
- TOsketchfest joins the Toronto Arts Council‘s roster of operating grant clients.
2017
- The 2017 TOsketchfest shines a light on two of Canada’s hottest comedy outfits: Baroness von Sketch Show and The Beaverton, as well as a conversation between Bruce McCulloch and Paul Feig in our headliner series
- The 12th edition of the annual festival achieves the highest attendance ever in the Festival Series, proving that sketch comedy is alive and well in Toronto!
2018
- TOsketchfest helps Rapp Battlez celebrate its 100th show with an epic performance at the Great Hall.
- Bruce McCulloch performs a new solo show at The Theatre Centre as part of the festival.
2019
- The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival moves eastward with a new performance venue at Streetcar Crowsnest. We feature full-length shows by Flo & Joan, The Lusty Mannequins, Generally Hospital and A Sketch Comedy Eleganza Extravaganza
- Comedy Country welcomes headliner Kevin Nealon and breaks attendance records for our rural comedy festival
2020
- The Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival celebrates its 15 Anniversary with 12 days of the best scripted, ensemble comedy from across North America at Crow’s Theatre, The Theatre Centre, and Comedy Bar.
- We were on track to deliver the best-attended festival of our history… then a global pandemic was declared in the middle of our festival.
2021
- In the face of COVID-19 restrictions, we successfully reinvented ourselves in the form of an all-digital festival.
- TOsketchfest21: Screen Time Edition featured 100 titles including brand new sketch comedy shorts, 15 musical comedy videos, 7 animated shorts, 6 web series spotlights, cinematic shorts, live stream events, table reads, audio works, workshops and more.
2022
- With Omicron looming, the festival once again took place online.
- TOsketchfest22 – Screen Time Edition was a five day online sketch comedy festival with over 100 titles in nine shorts programmes featuring Folk Lordz, Wishful Genies, and Fatuma Adar, with One. Live. Show. hosted by Ajahnis Charley at Comedy Bar Danforth to close the festival in person.
2023
- FINALLY! After three COVID-impacted seasons TOsketchfest returns to live performances.
- TOsketchfest23 – a full slate of live sketch comedy performances on three stages, the return of the TOsketchfest FilmFest, and a Best of the Fest Award Show crowning Jon Blair as our 2024 Best of the Fest.
2024
- A fantastic edition of TOsketchfest featured over 60 acts including stand-out performances by Sex T-Rex, the return of Tallboys, and Kids in the Hall legend Scott Thompson.
- Festival awards went to BDB Mandarin Sketch Night and Seth K. Thomas with Best of the Fest honours going to Cam Wyllie