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.
​
​
Our Team
Kevin Matviw
Artistic Director/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 Randall - Musical Director
Born in Philadelphia, Jan's family moved to Edmonton when he was nine.
​
Primarily a Singer/Songwriter and Soundtrack Composer he was Music Director for Second City where he worked with Mike Myers, Ron James, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Ryan Stiles and the cast of SCTV. Later he performed with John Cleese, Dame Edna, Bob Newhart, and many other mega stars as part of the Banff World Media Festival.
As a blues and jazz pianist, he has performed with Otis Rush, Bo Diddley, Gary US Bonds, Sam Lay, Amos Garrett, Big Miller, Gaye Delorme, LJ Mounteney, Brandon Isaak, and ShaNaNa.
Jan wrote and performed over 50 comedy songs for CBC Radio’s The Irrelevant Show. He has two solo albums, Albums Wait In Line (2021) and Good Fair World (2008).
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.