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Features

Festivals

ShowbizMonkeys.com is sometimes lucky enough to cover major events and festivals in film, music, comedy, and pop culture. Whether a major international spectacle like the Academy Awards or a more regional festival like the Winnipeg Folk Festival, we're on the scene with interviews, photos, video, and special commentary.

JFL Toronto Review: The Lauren & Mary Show

Posted by: Andrew Lizotte  •  October 5, 2026 @ 8:45am

How do you even review an improv show? What have I done? I was so happy to get these tickets and now I'm in hell.

Don't get me wrong, the show was great. It was some of my hardest laughs of the festival.

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JFL Toronto Review: Sasha Velour - Travesty

Posted by: Andrew Lizotte  •  October 4, 2026 @ 2:36pm

This is one of the best concerts I have ever been to, period. Probably top five.

The description of the show on the website does not do it justice. It sounds like it's going to be a one-woman show about social injustice and being sad.

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JFL Toronto Review: Jerrod Carmichael

Posted by: Andrew Lizotte  •  September 28, 2026 @ 5:41pm

In 12 years of doing stand-up comedy, seeing this show is a moment that truly sticks out for me. I've never felt like I've seen the inside of another comedian's brain, as much as I did last night. Jerrod Carmichael is already one of the most intimate comedians working today.

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JFL Toronto Review: David Lynch's Seinfeld

Posted by: Andrew Lizotte  •  September 27, 2026 @ 8:34pm

There's a lot to love here. In a Canadian comedy festival that mostly hires Americans, it's great to see a show by some of Toronto's best performers.

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2026 Winnipeg Folk Festival Preview

Posted by: Nicolien Klassen-Wiebe  •  July 8, 2026 @ 8:18pm

It's official. The 51st Winnipeg Folk Festival is entirely sold out! We're talking single day tickets, full weekend passes, and every camping option available for the fest's 2026 edition running July 9–12. Yowza! I don't have official statistics yet to confirm the following statement, but I think this might be a new record.

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Winnipeg Folk Fest Interview & Performance: Two Crows for Comfort

Posted by: Paul Little  •  December 22, 2025 @ 1:43pm

Two Crows for Comfort are a Manitoba folk duo (with roots and country leanings) who spend a good chunk of their year touring around North America with their dog in tow. The incredible harmonies and storytelling from this real-life couple are up there with some of the best duos making their style of music anywhere on the planet.

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JFL Toronto Review: Maria Bamford

Posted by: Andrew Lizotte  •  September 30, 2025 @ 7:27pm

This is the hardest thing I've ever had to write. I took these tickets with reckless abandon and now here I sit, like a fool caught in a Faustian bargain.

How do you describe a Maria Bamford show? How do you even explain Maria Bamford? For reference, Judd Apatow is currently working on a documentary about her, because even he can't explain it.

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JFL Toronto Review: Dropout Improv

Posted by: Matthew Ardill  •  September 27, 2025 @ 9:27pm

Modern improv is a relatively new art form. Birthed from Viola Spolin's Improvisation for the Theatre, it started out as the back bone of performers' acts like Nichols and May, who were part of the Compass Players, an improvisational theatre company including Paul Sils as well as Ted Flicker and Del Close.

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JFL Toronto Review: Patti Harrison

Posted by: Matthew Ardill  •  September 26, 2025 @ 8:59pm

Tonight I had the absolute joy of seeing Ava Val and Patti Harrison share a stage, and it was so good the only adjective I have left after leaving the theatre is bananas. It was bananas good. A great big hand o' bananas.

It used to be Ava was a Toronto treat, but in the last couple of years she's been spreading her wings and playing across the country and around the world.

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JFL Toronto Review: Chloe Radcliffe

Posted by: Andrew Lizotte  •  September 26, 2025 @ 3:45pm

If there is a black belt in comedy, or better yet a Nobel Peace Prize, give it to Chloe Radcliffe.

I know in comedy there's that cliché of "never blame the audience", but wow what a terrible audience. This was especially weird for a festival.

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