GUELPH COMEDY FESTIVAL PERFORMERS 2025
Community Showcase - Thurs. Oct 16 @ 8pm
STEPHEN PAYLOR
Stephen Paylor is a stand-up comic from Guelph.
He’s performed internationally in Shanghai, Seoul and at the legendary Tokyo Comedy Bar in Japan.
Known for his sharp, short jokes, he trained at The Second City Toronto and is the creator of The One Liner Comedy Show.
GCVI IMPROV TEAM
The GCVI improv teams are a battalion of rapscallions from GCVI in Guelph - they’ve been working in their current iteration for over 3 years, and have been growing with more teams every year! They are a group of students from Grade 9 to Grade 12+, and for the Guelph Comedy Fest, they’ll be featuring some members from all of their teams playing a few games - we hope you enjoy, and come out to enjoy their shows!
Follow the team @gcviimprov on Instagram
COMMUNITY OF HEARTS IMPROV CLUB
The Community of Hearts Improv Club is made up of passionate singers, dancers, actors and artists of all kinds. Members of the club are dedicated to independent living and love getting involved with their community. Lead by Hayley Kellett, the COHIC have performed at fundraisers and showcases for friends and family since 2019. They are excited to charm you with their talent and share in the laughter at GCF 2025.
UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH IMPROV CLUB
The University of Guelph Improv Club is a student-run organization dedicated to making improv accessible to people of all skill levels and backgrounds. They offer free weekly workshops to help students and community members develop their improv skills for performance, personal development, or just for fun! They hope to provide an environment that is supportive and accessible.
Find them on Instagram @uofgimprov
STAND-UP SPECTACULAR - Fri. Oct 17 @ 7:30pm
RENEE GROUX
Renee Groux is a stand-up comedian and radio host based in Kitchener-Waterloo with nine years of performing and producing experience. She brings a sharp, high-spirited - sometimes gross - but always hilarious experience to audiences in the hottest venues across the country. She has appeared on Don't Tell Comedy, Guelph Comedy Festival, Femme Folks Fest, and the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. She is also the co-producer and host of Fever Dream Comedy, running Kitchener's longest-running all-women showcase, Girl Night. Follow her at @reneegroux for updates as well as information on her upcoming special taping on October 25th at KW Little Theatre.
LUKAS BRENNAN
Lukas Brennan is a former college fullback turned comedian from Guelph, Ontario, whose young career has led him to opportunities being featured on festivals like the Guelph Comedy Festival, Sorry! London Comedy fest And Skankfest Las Vegas. Lukas has showcased his unique perspective on “Don’t Tell” comedy’s secret shows, and Yuk Yuk’s, “Dark Stars of Comedy”. Lukas can be seen running and featuring on shows throughout Ontario And often opening for international touring headliners like Ian Fidance, Same Tripoli and Jon Dore.
ALLIE PEARSE
Allie Pearse is a standup comedian and writer on the award-winning TV shows Letterkenny and Shoresy. In 2024 she toured North America in over 40 cities as part of the ‘Letterkenny Presents: A night of Standup Comedy’. Allie has performed at Just for Laughs the last three consecutive years, including this past summer. In 2023, she performed at Just For Laughs on the Russell Peters gala, in 2022 she was a 'New Faces' performer at the Just For Laughs festival and is the winner of JFL’s 2021 Standup & Pitch competition. She has performed for tapings at the Halifax Comedy Festival, Winnipeg Comedy Festival, JFL’s New Wave of Comedy, CBC’s The Debaters and CBC’s LOL network. Allie was a staff writer on the 2022 JFL Galas where she wrote for Chelsea Handler, Jo Koy, Patton Oswalt and Russell Peters and a staff writer/performer on Roast Battle Canada Season 3 & 4. She has performed at the Sled Island Comedy Festival, Hubcap Comedy Festival, and Icebreakers Comedy Festival. Allie has been featured on SiriusXM radio, has recorded for JFL Originals and OFF-JFL and was a co-headlining act at the 2022 Just For Laughs in Toronto. She has opened for Marc Maron, Meg Stalter, Hannah Berner, Giggly Squad, and Matteo Lane, among others.
Follow Allie on socials @allie_pearse
An evening of music & laughter - Fri. Oct 17 @ 9:30pm
AFTER THIS
Long ago, in a far away land, there was a small group of idiots trying to make people laugh through the power of sketch, comedy, improv, and music. And their name was, After This.
STACCAYTO STACCATO
Staccayto Staccato (pronounced like "To-may-to To-mah-to") is a Toronto-based musical improv troupe and Comedy Bar House Team featuring performers from the schools and stages of Bad Dog Theatre, Comedy Bar, Second City, and more! Staccayto Staccato got their start as a group in 2024 to participate in that year's Guelph Fringe Festival. They've been performing as a group ever since and are now bigger and better than ever!
MATT SHAW
Matt Shaw is an actor, writer, and comedian based in Toronto. As a comedian he has been one half of the musical comedy duo The Diddlin' Bibbles (Toronto Fringe, Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, Sketch to the Death 2020 Champions). As an actor he has appeared in Sofia Coppola's 2023 film Priscilla, The Paramount Plus series Mayor of Kingstown, and several commercials. His first short film, When We Were Kids, is currently being submitted to festivals. Thanks to all his friends and family and his wife Kari, who makes him laugh too much.
YOUR HOST: SPENCER “SLOW JAM” DUNN
Spencer “Slow Jam” Dunn has been in the Guelph Comedy community since 2014 and has been improvising since 2009. He’s had the beard since 2024 and he’s been hungry since the beginning of this sentence.
MUSICAL DIRECTOR: DAPH
Daphne Zoe Dahlia / DAPH (She/Her) has been performing, composing, recording, producing, and mentoring artists for 20+ years. In 2017, she founded Copper Sound, a boutique recording studio in Guelph, ON, Canada. It serves as home base for her collaborations with artists locally and around the world. Daph's work also includes musical directing for improv comedy, audio mixing for commercials, composing for film, voice over work, album art, photography, and website design. Daphne has been making new queer centred electronic music under the artist name DAPH. Her new direction combines deep vocals on top of hardware synths and samplers, bringing together elements of synth pop, house, hip hop, and darkwave.
Insta: @daph.tone
Web: www.daphtone.com
BITFEST
IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING A NIGHT OF MUSIC AND LAUGHTER FT. A SURPRISE CAST!
MR. J & THE GROOVY GANG (with FRIENDS!) - Sat. oct 18 @ 11am
MR. J AND THE GROOVY GANG
Mr. J and the Groovy Gang are the high energy sweethearts in Family Friendly music. Their first EP of original songs “Hello Friends” can be streamed everywhere, along with the single “I Got This”.
Mr. J and the Groovy Gang put on a LIVE show that is filled with dancing, singing, clapping and so many smiles!! Come on and join in with the band!!!
BEN GORODETSKY
JOSH ANDERSON-COATS
MORE PARENTS TO BE ANNOUNCED!
Sex T-Rex Presents: D&D Live! - sat. oct 18 @ 7:30pm
D&D LIVE!
Award-winning physical comedians Sex T-Rex are thrilled to return to the Guelph Comedy Festival with D&D Live - an improvised love letter to the world’s most popular role-playing game!
Join our stellar cast of hilarious heroes as they battle monsters and share adventures based on your dice rolls. Will evil triumph or will the forces of good live to tell jokes another day? It's all up to you, our PCs (Paying Customers) in D&D Live!
SEANN MURRAY
Dungeon Master
Seann Murray (he/him) is an improviser and stage manager from Fredericton, N.B., where he got his start with Theatre Free Radical. Selected SM credits include Laura Ramoso’s Sit Up Straight tour, Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus' Scriptease, Ajahnis Charley's Thots and Prayers, Second City’s If I could #Throwback Time and the Canadian Comedy Award winning The Adventures of Tom Shadow. Seann is also the Technical Director of Bad Dog Comedy Theatre and a member of Dora Award winning comedy company Sex T-Rex.
SHARJIL RASOOL
Sharjil Rasool is an actor, comedian and writer. He is an alumni of The Second City Toronto Mainstage and was featured in JFL42’s New Faces. You can catch him as Nikhil in Run the Burbs (CBC/Hulu), and hear his voice as Jasper in Piñata Smashlings (YTV) and Ajit in Bakugan: Battle Planet (Cartoon Network/Netflix). Other television credits include What We Do in the Shadows (FX), Adults (FX), Baroness von Sketch Show (CBC/IFC), SkyMed (CBC/Paramount+) and the upcoming series The Miniature Wife (Peacock). Sharjil has also written for This Hour Has 22 Minutes (CBC). He is a Dora Mavor Moore Award winner (Best Ensemble) for SwordPlay: A Play of Swords. Follow him on Instagram (@sharjilr).
SHANNON LAHAIE
Shannon Lahaie has spent over a decade honing her skills in sketch and improv. She co-created 32 Short Sketches About Bees, a sketch revue that earned the Second City Award for ‘Outstanding New Comedy’ and was named ‘Outstanding Sketch/ Improv Production’ by My Entertainment World. She also co-founded the multi-award winning sketch troupe, Dame Judy Dench. Currently you can catch her onstage with her improv troupe, Gal Pals.
TED HAMBLY
Ted Hambly has been part of D&D Live since the beginning and is thrilled to be with them at Guelph Comedy Festival. Ted performs all around Toronto as an improviser and has been part of the Second City education company. With his troupe Orson Whales he has performed in New York, Montreal and Detroit as well. Ted has also performed on international waters as part of erotic at sea! You can see him in the monthly shows he produces and performs in such as A really fun show, Ted and friends and the bathroom is downstairs!
LOWEN MORROW
Lowen Morrow (they/them) is an award-winning actor, puppeteer, comedian, producer and a theatre and filmmaker originally from Nova Scotia. Their debut feature film (Dead Lover, Grace Glowicki) premiered this year at Sundance, SXSW, Rotterdam, TIFF, and more and will be coming soon to a theatre near you! Select theatre companies they've worked with include The Tarragon (Orphan Song, Richard Rose); Mermaid Theatre (Good Night Moon, Jim Morrow); and Bad New Days (Pinocchio, Adam Paolozza). They co-produce Blockbuster Week, an annual improv festival with Bad Dog Theatre, and their short film Mothballs is in post-production and set to debut this year. They are a proud core member of Sex T-Rex.
LIZ JOHNSTON
Liz Johnston is an award-winning actor and improviser from Toronto. On stage she has been a member of the Second City Mainstage Company and Repertory Player at the Bad Dog Theatre Company. Her most recent performances include Second City’s hit shows Chaos Menu: Disorder Up!, and Naughty, Nice, and Undecided. Her voice work can be heard in cartoons and most recently in the best selling game Lil Guardsman. She also recently worked with celebrated theatre company Outside the March to develop their Telephonic improv show The Ministry Of Mundane Mysteries which was featured in the New York Times and awarded a special Citation from the Toronto Critics Association. On TV you can catch her on Apple TV's Murderbot, Nickelodeon's Star Falls, CMT's Almost Genius, or online, in Interview Magazine's web series The Show Show. and on CBC Comedy. Liz was nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award for the show she co-created, Entrances and Exits.
The grand finale - sat. oct 18 @ 9:30pm
SCARED SCRIPTLESS
Scared Scriptless is Guelph's favourite semi-rehearsed drama-comedic theatrical improv experience! Actors are given real scenes from real plays to learn and rehearse, and they get paired with improvisers who have no idea what scene they're in. The two perform their scene together for the first time in front of a live audience to surprising and hilarious results!
Taking the stage for Scared Scriptless at Guelph Comedy Festival are the monthly show's two co-producers!
Scripted: Emma Currie (The Phlegmies)
Scriptless: Rob Lewin (Second City FamCo)
SARAH BENNETT
Sarah Bennett is a tritruple threat in stand-up, improv, sketch comedy, acting, writing, and being a strange and endearing girl. You may have seen Sarah in JFL42, Toronto Sketch Festival, The Next Act Festival, Toronto Fringe, finalist in Sketch to the Death, or on Amazon Prime’s “Overcompensating”. She produces/performs in shows all over Toronto and has been described as “interesting” by friends and lovers.
MEGAN ARNOLD
Megan Arnold is an interdisciplinary artist who uses humour as a coping mechanism for anxiety in the face of an impending apocalypse. Much of their practice unfolds in cabaret and bar entertainment, which is the great irony of their life as someone who likes to go to bed at 9pm.
She has participated in artist residencies across Ontario, Newfoundland, the UK, and Iceland. You might recognize Megan as the organizer of Trial Runners, a local experimental performance open mic; from their 2023 play A Tender Engine, a love story between a man and a steam locomotive; as the host of the radio show Thanks For Listening :) on 93.3 CFRU; or as the electronic pop musician—you guessed it—Megan Arnold.
BIG CHICK ENERGY
Five funny females fighting fear with friendship, and award-winning sketch comedy. Big Chick Energy’s henhouse is clean, satirical, sometimes musical and fabulously fun. They go big so you can go home fully satisfied. It’s BIG CHICK ENERGY!
In 2025 and 2024, the Chicks were official selections in TOsketchfest, Newfoundland & Labrador Sketch Fest, and performed sold-out shows at Hamilton Fringe. BCE is the proud recipient of TOSketchfest’s 2023 Producers’ Pick Award. Individually they are Alicia Carrick, Sam Sexton, Julia Jones, Emily Decloux and Jo Anne Tacorda.
GUELPH COMEDY FESTIVAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS
We are delighted to be your hosts for this year’s Guelph Comedy Festival. Consider us your ambassadors to a community full of friendly weirdos.
KATE ETHIER
(She/they)
President
Board Member since 2019
Volunteer since 2015
KAREN DERRAH
(She/they)
Director
Board Member since 2024
Volunteer since 2022
SPENCER DUNN
(He/him)
Director
Board Member since 2022
Volunteer since 2018
JULIA HAYNES
(She/Her)
Director
Board Member since 2024
Volunteer since 2016