Victoria BC's best improv comedy!
About
Garden City Improv
I M P R O V • C L A S S E S • S H O W S
Garden City Improv is Victoria's professional improv comedy training centre. Classes are taught by Kevin Matviw, drawing on his 27 years of experience as an improviser and 12 years as an actor and teacher at the legendary Second City in Toronto. Matviw hopes to bring improv comedy to Victoria BC in new and exciting ways through workshops, special performances, and an exciting variety of weekly and monthly shows.
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Our Team
Kevin Matviw
Artistic Director/Improv & Sketch Instructor
Kevin Matviw has been performing improv comedy for 27 years. 15 of those years were spent in Toronto's highly competitive comedy scene, where he became a three-time Toronto Theatresports Champion. Past performance credits include: S#@t My Mayor Says, Best. Monday. Ever. and The Dysfunctional Holiday Revue for The Second City National Touring Company, Best of the Second City at JFL42 and The Best is Yet to Come Undone as an understudy for The Second City Mainstage. He has been featured in various commercials on TV and radio and can be seen improvising on the Food Network’s hidden camera show Giving You the Business. Kevin’s work has been featured in Canada’s National Post, the Canadian Comedy Award winning sketch troupe The Sketchersons, Cracked.com and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Kevin was the assistant director of the Dora Award Winning One Night Only, a fully improvised two-act musical. Kevin’s musical comedy duo Death Ray Cabaret was named Best of Fringe, Outstanding Production and Outstanding Performance in the Toronto Fringe.
Kevin also taught at The Second City Training Centre in Toronto for 12 years. He taught a range of workshops from specialty classes, Levels A-E, the Longform Conservatory Program, The Second City Conservatory Program and the Sketch Writing Program. Many of his former students are successful actors and writers in the Canadian entertainment industry.
Jan Yamasaki - Improv Instructor
Jen Yamasaki is a performer with 10+ years experience in theatre, dance, public speaking, and improv. Trained at Second City Chicago, Blind Tiger Comedy, and Garden City Improv, she has performed with Victoria's Theatre Sports, at the Vancouver Olympic Opening Ceremonies, and at venues like the Vogue Theatre, Scotiabank Dance Centre, and Imperial Theatre in Vancouver. She has also led communications workshops and spoken at international conferences. Jen is currently a cast member and host of Garden City Improv's Theatresports series.
Andrew Gardner - Improv Instructor
Andrew Gardner has been improvising on stage since 2000, when he began competing in the high school Canadian Improv Games (CIG). From there, he continued to volunteer at the CIG, and trained students in competitive improv at the high-school level for several years. As a founding member of Toronto sketch troupe Elephant Empire, Andrew performed sketch and improv for over 10 years, including headlining the inaugural Guelph Comedy Festival, the San Francisco Sketch Fest, Toronto’s Just For Laughs showcase, Sketch Wars, and winning Best of the Fest three consecutive years at Montreal’s Sketch Fest. Since relocating to Victoria, he’s been performing with Garden City Improv in the weekly TheatreSports series.
Jan Caruana - Guest Director
Jan Caruana is an actor, writer, teacher and director. A graduate of the University of Toronto and Sheridan College Theatre Program, Jan‘s career has been interesting and varied. She is a multiple Canadian Comedy Award winner and has performed across North America in a variety of comedy shows. Jan is known for her work in shows like Monkey Toast, That Moment When and About An Hour (Toronto Fringe Festival – Best of the Fringe). Jan co-wrote and performed in the Second City Toronto’s critically and audience acclaimed revues The Meme-ing of Life and We Can Be Heroes (named one of NOW Magazines Top Ten Shows of 2013). In 2016, Jan was a member of the Dora Audience Choice Award Winning One Night Only, a fully improvised two-act musical. And a Dora Winner for The Wonderpageant at The Coalmine Theatre. She is a regular panelist on CBC's Because News with Gavin Crawford and has appeared in films and television shows including Baroness Von Sketch, Rookie Blue and Mean Girls and the Deepa Metha film Beeba Boys.