In Toronto comedy, improv has almost always been viewed as the bronze medalist on the podium, looking up enviously at sketch and stand-up. Never mind that most of the material for Second City’s revues comes from the improv sets after their shows; it’s almost always our sketch exports, like SCTV and Kids in the Hall, or individual sketch or stand-up performers like Jim Carrey or Mike Myers, that people think of when asked about comedy in Toronto.

For the last few months, we’ve been in kind of a fallow period for improv around town, as well. Catch 23 Improv, a weekly improv competition that hosted some of the best and most inventive improv talents in Toronto over its lifespan, closed last summer, and Impatient Theatre, Toronto’s second largest improv school and foundation, has been on hiatus, show-wise, since mid December.

Now, no discussion of improv in Toronto would be complete without mentioning Bad Dog Theatre. Bad Dog’s success means that Toronto does have a steady stream of improv performers working, and there’s an excellent show there almost every night of the week, including the critically adored and very successful “About an Hour” on Friday nights. But as wonderful as it is for improv to have a permanent venue and home at Bad Dog, a monopoly is never a good thing. With the exception of a few one-off shows here and there, and a few monthly shows (like “Monkey Toast” at the Drake Hotel), there’s been no weekly shows anywhere in Toronto outside of Bad Dog’s spaces for a while now. Regular performance is critical for an improv show to build both a stable fan base and a coalition of performers; unlike sketch, where time is needed between shows to generate new material, improvisers benefit most from time on stage in front of an audience.

That’s why it’s such good news that a number of new shows are starting up in March and April. This is mostly due to the evolution of the Diesel Playhouse. When Second City moved across the street to their new home behind Gretzky’s, most in the theatre and comedy communities assumed their old space would become primarily a home for touring shows from out of town, replacing the New Yorker Theatre on Yonge St. (which was cannibalized by the Blue Man Group’s failed permanent show). While that has happened to some degree, the Diesel has also become a welcome haven for local theatre companies, Fringe remounts, sketch specials, and now, weekly improv.

Thursday nights, “Micetro Impro” is in The Diesel’s Tim Sims Cabaret at 10pm. Started by adherents and fans of Western-style improv (i.e. Loose Moose Theatre in Calgary), this competitive night features two directors, who randomly pair improvisers together and assign them challenges. The starting cast of over a dozen players is whittled down through the rounds until one improviser is crowned champ (for the night, anyway). It’s a fun show, with lots of improvisers hailing from different schools and backgrounds, and the wrinkle of audience participation in scoring the scenes is a nice touch, as well.

Fridays at 10pm in the Diesel’s Cabaret, Mantown performs their weekly improv show, with a guest troupe each week. Mantown is one of the most successful troupes to have come out of the Impatient Theatre’s training program, and their signature opening of each chugging a beer as their scene starts belies some crack performers who listen very closely to each other, an essential trait in good improv. The boys are also fearless when it comes to tackling taboo topics; previous Mantown shows that I’ve seen have incorporated spousal abuse, cannibalism, and other touchy subjects, but always with wit and commitment.

These two late night shows are hopefully harbingers of a sea change over the spring and summer for improv in Hogtown. Impatient Theatre has announced that it will be resuming performances (they’ve already begun with a March Madness festival at Bad Dog Theatre) at the Diesel and perhaps other venues in April, and Circular Laughing Bread Co. intends to start a improv show in the next few months at Clinton’s Renaissance Room, the former home of Catch 23 Improv.

All these shows mean that there’s going to be a heck of a lot more opportunity for improv performers around Toronto, which if you’ve even done or considered, is a very rewarding area of study for comics, actors, and performers of all stripes. Bad Dog Theatre, Impatient Theatre, and Second City all offer classes for varying skill levels. If you’re a flat broke performer, there’s another way, if you have the guts to dive right in. Jammin’ on the One, an open improv jam hosted by Ray Smith, Steve Johnstone, and Damon Lum, started out at Bad Dog, but lately has been popping up at venues all over town (The Central, The Victory Cafe, The Arts and Letters Club, etc.). Keep an eye peeled (or contact them at Jamminonthe1@gmail.com), and you could get up on stage to play with improvisers of all skill levels for a measly $5.

Bad Dog Theatre and Impatient Theatre can be found online at www.baddogtheatre.com, and www.longform.ca, respectively. Micetro Impro and Mantown both have MySpace pages: www.myspace.com/micetrotoronto, and www.myspace.com/mantownimprov. And if you think there’s an improv show that I missed that should have been in this article, well, this section of ObSled is where you should be writing about it.

Steve Fisher, www.myspace.com/gracingthestage