Improv co-conspirators reuniting for frenetic weekend comedy blitz

They were still green players developing their comedic compass when Riva Billows and Kristina Guevarra first plied their trade at Kelvin High School.

In 2012, as members of Kelvin Red, the pair zipped into the Clipper tradition of competitive improv at a school whose comedic alumni include theatre performers Nicholas Rice, Caity Curtis and Mariam Bernstein, plus members of the longstanding troupe Outside Joke: Jane Testar, Chadd Henderson, Andrea del Campo and Tobias Hughes first acted together in Fiddler on the Roof.

On Kelvin Red — coached by animator Lukas Conway with teammates such as Toronto-based actor Stevey Hunter, who went on to become a founding member of Halifax improv company Hello City — Billows and Guevarra started out learning to crawl on the groundling floor.

“We were so bad, and then we grew together,” says Guevarra, who moved to Montreal in 2021, where she’s the producer for the Sunday night program at Théâtre Sainte-Catherine, the longest-running English-language improv show in the home of Les Habitants.

In their early 20s, Billows and Guevarra tried their hand at independent producing, learning far-reaching lessons about audience and performer experience.

At fringy venues like the anarchically driven Rudolf Rocker Cultural Centre on Albert Street and in the McDermot Avenue basement of the Dawson Richardson Building — the former site of Forth and the future site of Little Sister Coffee Maker’s third Winnipeg café — free shows didn’t translate to value.

“We would pass a bucket around for donations, and of course, we’d make like eight dollars in quarters,” recalls Billows, who performs each summer in the DnD Improv Show at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival. “And then of course, the pandemic happened, Kristina moved. And I’d say in the last year I’ve noticed there’s a huge desire for improv again in the city.

“In high school, I was told by some of the older folks in the city who did improv that improv is kind of on an eight-year cycle for some reason. There’s tons of it for a long period of time, and then there’s nothing for a long period of time, and the pendulum swings back and forth,” adds Billows, an improv teacher who launched a monthly improv series called Top Dog in March at Sidestage (700 Osborne St.).

Early competitors include Hughes, Alli Perlov, Mack Norberg, Christopher Dunn and Calla Abudofour-Poku. Alyssa Bird keeps the score.

Meanwhile, in Quebec, Guevarra has become an associate producer of the Montreal Sketchfest, which wrapped up on May 9; as a booker, Guevarra brought in Billows to host.

With Guevarra returning to Winnipeg this weekend for a visit, the duo have booked back-to-back programming at Sidestage. Vying for the Top Dog crown on Sunday night are Abudofour-Poku, Guevarra, Jesse Miki, CJ Schreimer and Outside Joke’s Henderson and Testar.

Joining those local performers on the bill are Montreal sketch artist Mason Persaud and National Theatre School grad Jeremy Lewis, two of Guevarra’s colleagues at Théâtre Sainte-Catherine.

On Monday night at Sidestage, Guevarra, Lewis and Persaud — “He’s like if you mixed Stavros (Halkias of Bugonia) and Elvis Presley together,” says Guevarra — take the torch with their SEO-friendly travelling show, “Comedy Near Me.”

“We wanted the Google juice,” says Guevarra of the show, which reaches Vancouver on Thursday. “We call it the Montreal world tour, and I wanted to go back to the place I fell in love with comedy, which is home.”

Tickets for both Top Dog and Comedy Near Me are available at Sidestagewpg.com ($15). Top Dog returns to the South Osborne venue on June 29.

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