Comedy Bar’s annual Festival of New Formats kicks off today. The celebrate the new year, Toronto’s subterranean comedy hub is throwing a week-long party of free comedy shows and experimental new formats. Expect a healthy mix of stand-up, sketch and improv, but otherwise expect the unexpected. FNF is like a Tom Hanks quote: “You never can be sure if you’re going to get the thing you expected to get or if you even got the quote right.” Some potential highlights include:
Wednesday 10pm: Nouveau Duo – Becky Johnson and Pat Thornton, who have never worked together before, host a sketch show of duos who have never worked together before.
Thursday 10pm: Dancing With Comedians with Sarah Hillier & Inessa Frantowski – No info on this show yet, but it will either be just like an excellent reality show or just like an excellent epic Kevin Costner film.*
Friday 8pm: Catch23 Without Words – Watch Canada’s best improvisers perform an entire show without… uh… what’s another word for “words?”
Friday 10pm: Weird Al Karaoke – Glenn Macauley hosts an hour of original parody songs by some of the city’s weirdest (in a good way) comics.
Saturday 9pm: Asshole Jeopardy – Nug Nahrgang and co-host The Overlady do a version of Jeopardy! that requires audience contestants to know everything and also be assholes. Win $100!
Sunday 7pm: Malcolm & The Dad with Mark Little – Again, no idea what this show is, but, if my credit was still good, I would put money on Mark Little (Picnicface, Mr. D) in any laugh-centric competition that took bets.
Make your way to 945 Bloor St. W sometime this week to catch Toronto’s best comedians at their loosey-goosiest. And did we mention it’s all FREE?
*The author is aware that the film is titled Dances With Wolves and not Dancing With The Wolves.
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Michael Kolberg is The Sprawl Editor at Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter for jokes @mikeykolberg.
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