Zillah Ferguson

Choosing to record a comedy special may seem daunting enough, and conceivably, it is - especially so for those who go hard with video in addition to an audio version. How about upping the ante by adding a third medium of animation to the mix? That’s just what Ava Val did for her debut comedy special So Brave that premiered this summer. Inspired by and playing off of what well-meaning, but tone-deaf strangers will tell her, entitling this special So Brave is emblematic of what Val has been doing...

It’s not every day that one gets to experience a one-man show where every character is fully fledged out and palpable, but that is just one of the many wonderful things about the strong performance Anand Rajaram gave in Crosstown. An adaptation of the novel Crosstown by Richard Scrimger, the eponymously named show made its world premiere on July 5th at the Tarragon Theatre. The play, set in Toronto, features a plethora of characters ranging in ages, genders and accents (West Indian, German and S...

The Toronto Fringe Festival is an annual theatre festival and in 2024 there were 77 shows performed in 16 venues around Toronto. While the shows are tickets (how great that the money made from ticket sales go directly to the artists!), there are a number of free events that occur throughout the duration of the festival at the Fringe Patio.One such event was Stand Up Comedy Night that took place on July 6 at the Tranzac, in the always lively Annex. The show, hosted with ease by Ben Sosa-Wright, g...

On the precipice of the release of his debut album, Inter-Dan-Mensional, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dan Galea and Scott Thompson, executive producer and contributor on the album. Spanning across 19 tracks, Inter-Dan-Mensional takes its listeners on a musical and comedy journey of Galea’s life, traveling through various dimensions of self, having contagious fun along the way. It starts off very appropriately for a Canadian with Galea introducing himself and thanking all those for listening to the album. He sets the scene, letting his audience know that we are about to, “Experience multiple Dans from multiple Dan-mensions.”