Features
Interview: David Zucker, legendary spoof comedy writer/director
Posted by: Matthew Ardill • November 10, 2025 @ 3:22pm
David Zucker has written and directed some of the biggest comedies of all time, including Airplane! and The Naked Gun.
Matthew Ardill sits with Brendan Taylor, an actor who's been seen on shows ranging from Supernatural to Supergirl, whose latest turn is as Rickie Kananen, the monster from the title of the Lifetime film Monster in My Family: The Stacey Kananen Story.
Photo credit: Studio Aviva
Matt Ardill connected over Zoom with Kaitlyn Bernard, star of Lifetime's Surviving My Father: The Rachel Jeffs Story, to talk about her work in the role of Rachel Jeffs. Kaitlyn talkes about her expieriences filming, as well as the power and strength of Rachel.
Photo credit: Kristine Cofsky
We loop back to where we started sitting down with John Catucci, and this time discuss if a hot dog is a sandwich instead of a hamburger, but if feels like we are returning to our roots on this final episode. On top of that, we get a bit saucy and have a lot of fun.
JFL Toronto Interview: Scottish comedian John Mostyn
Posted by: Matthew Ardill • October 5, 2025 @ 2:02pm
I got a chance to chat over Zoom with comedian John Mostyn to catch up on storytelling, comedy, and their shared love of Britpop bands.
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.
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.
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.
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.
One thing certain about the newly-returned Just for Laughs Toronto is they've branched out into a variety of venues that we would have never seen before, including the Randolph Theatre in the Randolph Centre for the Arts, a Methodist church turned into a community arts space and education centre.
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