Toronto Event Review: The Disaster Show

Sep 20th, 2026
by makeworld

Sometimes, as a party is beginning to die down and lose form, the host will try to blow a second wind into the room by proposing a game. “Let’s play charades!” they’ll say with forced enthusiasm, and people around the room will roll their drunken bodies into teams. Usually the game is more fun than you expect, often because of how it deteriorates, into failure and outrageous explanations. You head home with a warm feeling. Sometimes, though, Charades (or Questions Only, or Pictionary), goes differently. Maybe the right people are there, or the right drinks were poured, but somehow the game is on fire. Your friends have become comedians. Each bit is more clever than the last. The news gets referenced. Inside jokes come up. The game still deteriorates, but only because of how funny and ridiculous it is. You can’t help but go home smiling, even though you only met everyone that night.

The Disaster Show is like that. You and twenty other schmucks shuffle into the tiny basement of Wenona, after being handed a monthly zine. Most of the people there are regulars, or friends of the performers. They all know each other already. The host Alex, begins by assuring you the show will be bad, which it sometimes is. But I tell you, last Tuesday, they were on fire. Act after act comes up. A powerpoint on Pride funding. Girl struggling with disposable camera. Improv. Improv but only with Asian guys. A song. The performers fall apart. In between acts, they’re sewn back together by the night’s recurring bit from the host. You’re in stitches.

Billed as a space where “comedians do whatever they want, as long as it’s not traditional stand-up or improv”, The Disaster Show has been running for thirteen years. You get the sense everyone in the room has been there for that long too, despite some of the young faces on stage. You get the sense you were invited to a friend of a friend’s party. You laugh and groan. And you go back again in two weeks, even though it’s not usually how you spend a Tuesday night. After all, it’s free, you tell yourself.

It’s impressive, to have been running a twice-a-month free comedy show for that many years. A better writer would have interviewed Alex, but I’m left asking–what has kept it together? Where will it go? Why have I only found out about it now? I feel like a lot of the events I attend are multi-year institutions. Which makes sense: they’re the ones that have stuck around. But I have to wonder what I’m missing out on, what I haven’t found yet. Where is the comedy show in someone’s basement that started as a gathering of friends, the one that has only been running for one year? What institutions are just being built today?

Maybe that’ll be my next report. For now, I’ll tell you: if you come to The Disaster Show, be prepared to fight me and my friends for the front row seats.

The Disaster Show can be found at Wenona every second and fourth Tuesday of the month. It’s free and starts at 8:30 PM. Learn more at https://linktr.ee/thedisaster.