About this Event
WHAT IS DOJO PREMIERE?
Stand-up isn't telling jokes. It's selling your sense of humour.
Dojo Premiere is a 4-week stand-up program inside a working comedy club. You'll build a real five-minute set with 2-on-1 coaching from Brandon Sobel and Ariel Kagan, the founders of Backroom Comedy Club, then perform it in your Initiation Showcase.
This is not a lecture. This is not therapy. This is work.
THE 4 WEEKS
- Week 1: Comedy as a craft and career. How comics actually make money, how jokes are built, and your "Elephant in the Room" opener.
- Week 2: Structure and delivery. A live lab: you perform, we break it down on the spot.
- Week 3: Point of view and Joke Jam. Find your voice and workshop the premise you can't crack yet.
- Week 4: 2-on-1 coaching and the business of comedy. Polish your set and learn how working comics get booked.
WHAT YOU GET
✔ 4 weekly classes on Sundays (pick 4 PM or 6 PM at checkout)
✔ Live 2-on-1 feedback from club owners and working comedians
✔ Skip the bucket: guaranteed spots at our Wednesday and Friday open mics from registration to your showcase
✔ The New Comic Workbook
✔ Your Initiation Showcase: a five-minute set at a 6 PM Initiation Showcase at Backroom. You pick the date. Bring your people (4 to 6 guests).
✔ After you graduate: an invitation into Backroom's Launch Pad for more stage time
WHO THIS IS FOR
If you can make yourself laugh, we can teach you the rest. Premiere is for people who've started, or finished Dojo Foundations, and are ready to stop waiting. Plenty of our students have full-time jobs and real lives. That's the point.
COHORTS
Choose your start date and time at checkout. Each cohort runs 4 Sundays. No classes over the holidays (Dec 21 to Jan 3).
- Nov 8, 2026 (Nov 8, 15, 22, 29)
- Dec 13, 2026 (Dec 13, 20, then Jan 10, 17 after the holiday break)
- Jan 31, 2027 (Jan 31, Feb 7, 14, 21)
- Mar 7, 2027 (Mar 7, 14, 21, 28)
- Apr 11, 2027 (Apr 11, 18, 25, May 2)
- May 16, 2027 (May 16, 23, 30, Jun 6)
🕓 Sundays 4 PM or 6 PM · 13 students per class · Backroom Comedy Club, 814 Bloor St W
PRICING
🎫 $350 full program
🎟 Or hold your spot with a $175 deposit (50%). We'll reach out to arrange the balance before your first class.
No refunds. Transfers to a future cohort may be considered.
LED BY
Brandon Sobel & Ariel Kagan, Senseis. Club owners, producers, and working comedians at Backroom Comedy Club.
Before Dojo had a name, we were already doing this behind the scenes: coaching comics on building and selling their own shows, including the only Toronto-based comedians to win a K*ll Tony Golden Ticket, and helping a working comic put together his comedy special. The original team who worked with us when we opened Backroom are all now signed with Yuk Yuk's, Canada's largest comedy club chain.
We are the gym, not the greenroom.
Event venue & nearby stays
Backroom Comedy Club, 814 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON, Canada
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