The Winnipeg Comedy Festival (WCF) is an annual national comedy festival, held in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The week-long festival takes place at several venues throughout the city, featuring stand-up, sketch, and improvisational comedy.

Performances from the festival are broadcast as a radio series on CBC Radio One and as a television series on The Comedy Network and CBC Television. It is the highest rated comedy festival series on CBC Television.^[1]

History

The Winnipeg Comedy Festival was created in 2002 by comedian Lara Rae and CBC Radio producer Tom Anniko, who pitched the idea of a weekend-long comedy festival that could be recorded and aired on CBC Radio. Partnering with the Gas Station Arts Centre in Winnipeg's Osborne Village, the WCF was established soon after.^[2]

Anniko—who at the time was working as executive producer for radio comedy and drama for CBC—saw the festival as an opportunity to "try out new shows" that could be developed for radio. As such, he claims, CBC's The Debaters is one such show that came out of the festival, along with various other pilots and specials.^[2]

Comic headliners of the inaugural year were Dave Broadfoot, Cathy Jones, and David Steinberg.^[1] Comedian Brian Hartt's performance that year won the Gemini Award for Individual Performance in a Comedy Program or Series during the 18th Gemini Awards in 2023.^[3]

Programs