Stir Cheat Sheet: 3 shows to put on your radar for Just for Laughs VANCOUVER's second week

Amanda Montell’s rowdy Big Magical Cult Show, Ashley Gavin’s unmatched crowd work, and local standup stars at the Vancouver Art Gallery bistro

Just for Laughs VANCOUVER runs to February 23

FROM IVAN DECKER to Kumail Nanjiani and Jerry Seinfeld, Just for Laughs VANCOUVER boasts some big names as it enters its second week. But here are a few standups that may not be on your radar—from podcast hosts and authors to a fleet of local comics.

The Big Magical Cult Show

February 21 at the Biltmore

Fans of witty writer and linguist Amanda Montell’s New York Times bestselling books (like The Age of Magical Overthinking and Cultish) and podcast Sounds Like A Cult know what she says hits home: our brains are so bombarded with information that we’re left uniquely prone to conspiracy theories, celebrity worship, wellness fads, and mysticism. Here’s a chance to unplug and see her live, in the utterly uncategorizable The Big Magical Cult Show, a rowdy, subversive night of “culty deviance” featuring drag burlesque performances by Rara Darling and Theydy Bedbug, as well as appearances by other guests. Think sharp pop-culture analysis (the comically gifted Montell gleefully tackles everyone from Swifties to oat-milk devotees) and takedowns of irrational thinking, all intermingled with surprise performances. Laugh out loud while learning to question everything in a world you often can’t trust.

Ashley Gavin

February 20 at the Vogue

TikTok sensation Ashley Gavin has more than 1.5 million followers, with the most viral posts usually centred around her unmatched, authentically improvised crowd work. Known for the iconic backwards ballcap she wears onstage, Gavin also has 450,000-plus listeners of her We’re Having Gay Sex podcast, a show that takes a candid, funny look at LGTBQSIA+ dating. What makes Gavin unique is the way she welcomes comedy fans from outside that community, pulling everyone into her standup conversations around topics like cancel culture, relationships, and, of course, the anti-gay climate in Trump America. She's been featured on Netflix is a Joke, Hulu, and Comedy Central, but Gavin really generated buzz last year with her soldout Edinburgh Fringe show “My Therapist Is Dying”; it took her brutally honest storytelling to the next level. Fun fact: Gavin was a software engineer at MIT Lincoln Lab and wrote the curriculum for Girls Who Code before taking the standup stage full time.

Stand Up Comedy: 1931 Gallery Bistro

February 21 at 1931 Gallery Bistro at the VAG

Located inside the Vancouver Art Gallery's cosy eatery, this Standup Comedy Show has a strong lineup of local pro comics—and it’s a rare chance to see them all in one place. With the reliably funny Craig Alexander hosting, the lineup includes top names like Kwasi Thomas (who you’ll recognize from both the stage (Pi Theatre's 2023 show Truth & Lies) and TV (Snowpiercer, where he plays Z-Wreck) and Michaela Chung (the dating coach and author of The Irresistible Introvert who not only does witty takes on relationships but explores the terrain between being half-Chinese and half-white). Elsewhere on the program: Vancouver fan favourites Alex Carr, Ty Boissonault, Colin Cowan, Myles Anderson, and Sean McDonnell.

Featured

Janet Smith

Janet Smith is cofounder and editorial director of Stir. She is an award-winning arts journalist who has spent more than two decades immersed in Vancouver’s dance, screen, design, theatre, music, opera, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

Articles

Applications for Realwheels Theatre's second Academy cohort are open now to March 15

Performing arts training program for D/disability-identified artists will run from September 2025 to June 2028

Theatre review: Primary Trust finds simple wisdom in small-town life

Andrew Broderick leads a versatile cast through Eboni Booth’s quietly endearing play

At Western Front, Fish Tail unfolds as an epistolary narrative, February 20

The one-woman performance and installation is by Montreal’s Marie Ségolène Brault

Théâtre la Seizième presents a staged reading of À toi, pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou, February 21 and 22

Sébastien David directs Michel Tremblay’s tragic play as part of the ÉCHO(S) series

Theatre review: Women of the Fur Trade is a clever, anarchic take on Canadian history

Every performance, under Donna Spencer’s breezy direction, is consistently funny and fully realized

A world premiere, Indigenous satire and musical, and more as The Cultch presents four March offerings

Tickets are now on sale for Little Red Warrior & His Lawyer, How to Disappear Completely, Children of God, and Beauty and The Beast: My Life

Metro Theatre presents Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, March 1 to 22

After last season’s hit The Mousetrap, a new adaptation of a thrilling masterpiece by the queen of mystery hits the stage

Otosan makes a local comeback at Gateway Theatre, February 17 to 22

The puppetry show was a hit at last year’s Vancouver International Children’s Festival

Theatre review: Grandma. Gangsta. Guerrilla. dives into wild mix of immigrant dramedy, wartime recollection, and musical interludes

Cast finds both humour and heart in Ruby Slippers premiere by playwright Abi Padilla

Actor Andrew Broderick forges connections in Pulitzer Prize-winning Primary Trust

In the Arts Club production, his recently laid-off and all-too-relatable character Kenneth learns to face a world he’s long avoided

Theatre review: Wonderful Joe’s eccentric puppet characters fight the forces of gentrification

With a more melancholy undercurrent behind the biting laughs, Ronnie Burkett’s latest show gives voice to the marginalized and the misunderstood

Women of the Fur Trade cheekily shifts historical accounts to tell women’s stories of the Red River Resistance

Frances Koncan’s play looks at the fur trade through the perspectives of a Métis woman, a First Nations woman, and a settler woman

Pi Theatre presents the world premiere of A Taste of Hong Kong, March 6 to 15

Brought to the stage in association with Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, production stars Derek Chan in a tasting class and history lesson

Theatre review: Lasa Ng Imperyo (A Taste of Empire) delivers biting critique of the role of imperialism on the food we eat

The show by rice & beans theatre presented by PuSh Festival and Boca del Lupo moves swiftly with sharp satire

Grandma. Gangsta. Guerrilla. depicts a "sassy old lady" with a sense of humour

Abi Padilla’s new play draws inspiration from both of her grandmothers

Gateway Theatre presents Little Onion Puppet Company's Otosan, February 17 to 22

Heartwarming family adventure is told through puppetry, real wildlife projections, and an original score

A Doll’s House, Part 2 returns to Vancouver in Pacific Theatre presentation, February 5 to 23

Western Gold Theatre production explores the aftermath of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play A Doll’s House

At PuSh Festival, Dimanche delves into the surreal way people live amid climate change

Belgium’s Chaliwaté and Focus Company joined forces to create the fantastical nonverbal production

Puppeteer Ronnie Burkett’s Wonderful Joe asks us to suspend disbelief

The master storyteller’s latest play opens with Joe and his dog facing ejection from their longtime home, with seemingly nowhere to go

Advance Theatre Festival is back at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts until January 31

Ruby Slippers Theatre presents five staged readings of works by IPBOC playwrights, including Damion LeClair’s Rougarou, Carmen Aguirre’s The Consent Club, and more