Current students, please make sure to review your MyHumber Academic Progress report to confirm which courses you should register into for your Winter semester. Courses with in-person requirements will likely also have online components. Humber may need to change plans for in-person learning, subject to government and public health directives and/or additional health and safety considerations.
Upon successful completion of the program, a graduate will:
Produce a variety of comedic materials including sketches, screenplays, sitcoms and variety shows.
Prepare and perform stand-up comedy routines.
Discover their comedic voices and create materials that stem from these voices.
Study both dramatic and comedic performance techniques, and apply those techniques to their own work.
Prepare written humorous materials for magazines and newspapers as well as for radio broadcasts.
Practice individual and ensemble comedic performances both in the classroom and in comedy centres.
Apply the technical requirements of all genres of comedic writing.
Respond to improvisation demands and create characters quickly on stage.
Evaluate the business of comedy and develop career strategies and contacts.
Learn from well-known North American comedic writers and performers and network with those individuals.
Develop team-building and communication skills and engage in exercises that encourage self-understanding, peer respect and professional behaviours.
Comedy: Writing and Performance professors are well-respected writers, actors, standups, and producers. Program co-ordinator Andrew Clark is an award-winning journalist, screenwriter and author known for his regular Globe & Mail column “Road Sage.” Fellow full-time professors Robin Duke and Larry Horowitz are, respectively, Saturday Night Live and Yuk Yuk’s veterans. Part-time professors include Christel Bartelse, Shawn Campbell, Anne Fenn, Deb Filler, Melody A. Johnson, Bruce McCulloch, Bruce Pirrie, and Mike Sacks.
Kids In the Hall's Kevin McDonald spent a week with our 2nd-year Comedy Students, helping them perfect their sketches and writing for the Monday Night Comedy Bar Show.
Hopefully, this will be the least funny thing you read while studying at the Humber College Comedy Program. Why? Because we’re about helping funny people become funnier. And that’s a lot of fun.
Our students come from across the country and around the globe. For two years they are immersed in every aspect of the comedy business: stand up, improv, sketch comedy, script writing, acting, physical comedy, videos, you name it. Humber grads are working at every level of the comedy business as stand-up comics, writers on television shows, actors, and newspaper columnists. Our alumni include Debra Di Giovanni, Nikki Payne, Nathan Fielder, Jason Rouse, Jeff McEnery, Ryan Belleville, just to name a few. Our faculty are all working comedians and writers, among them SCTV, Second City, Yuk Yuk’s and SNL alumni.
It is an intense, demanding program that pushes students to their creative limits. Our students are serious about being funny. Laughing matters. For most, it is a life-changing experience. Once the comedy bug bites you you’re never the same.
Did I mention it was a lot of fun?
Andrew Clark
Program Co-ordinator
Comedy Writing & Performance
We are proud to partner with two of Toronto's premier comedy venues, Yuk Yuk's and Comedy Bar.
Students also get access to top level comedians from across Canada and the US in our PrimeTime speaker series, featuring guests such as Bruce McCulloch and Kevin McDonald of Kids in the Hall, Maria Bamford and Tom Green.
Humour is serious business to growing numbers of researchers worldwide who are discovering that laughter is good for you. Comedy is an art and a business, one at which many Canadians excel. You’ll join their illustrious ranks with opportunities to work in stand-up comedy, sitcom/film performance, production, broadcasting, advertising and voiceovers, sketch comedy, and writing. Humber comedy graduates have found work on stage at Yuk Yuk’s, Second City and Montreal’s Just For Laughs Festival; on major television networks such as Comedy Central, CBC and CTV; and in many major television commercials. Other grads have branched into advertising, public relations and related fields.
Creative Writing - Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction, Poetry
Credential: Ontario Graduate Certificate
Length: 2 semesters
Television Writing and Producing
Credential: Ontario Graduate Certificate
Length: 2 semesters
START DATE | LOCATION | STATUS | INTERNATIONAL STATUS |
---|---|---|---|
September 2021 | Lakeshore | Open | Open |
Watch the video to see how the Humber’s Comedy: Writing and Performance diploma program helps you hone your craft while gaining an understanding of the commercial side of the industry.
Humber
Virtual Information Session: Film & Multiplatform Storytelling
Humber
Mon, January 25, 2021
Online
Do you like to tell stories? Are you curious about new technology and platforms?
Humber's Film and Multiplatform Storytelling program trains you to create compelling short films, documentaries, interactive videos, and innovative transmedia projects. Meet the program co-ordinator and get your questions answered! Register now.
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On October 21, 2019, the Provincial Government of Ontario announced the renaming of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) to the Ministry of Colleges and Universities (MCU). Both names may appear on this website.