As a performer in The Second City’s World’s Gone Wild, Monica Garrido Huerta steps onstage each night knowing that the show will never unfold quite the same way it did the night before. That unpredictability is precisely what she loves.
“It is this idea of ‘you never know what’s going to happen, and you must embrace it,’” she shares, before articulating the lesson for us all: “I think performing live… is so true to life in general. You just need to know that life is happening… and you might as well approach it with five people on stage who have your back!”
The 91st Mainstage Revue finds humour in the modern chaos which envelopes us all. With the outside world spinning faster by the day, World’s Gone Wild offers audiences two hours of sharp sketch comedy, original music and audience-driven improvisation designed to help us laugh in the face of madness. In addition to Garrido Huerta, the cast includes Tim Blair, Chelsea Larkin, Gavin Pounds, Gillian Bartolucci, and Antony Hall.
For Garrido Huerta, the show delivers an evening that is both exhilarating and restorative. “We have a lot of different points of views and a lot of different ways to approach comedy. There will always be something for someone,” she notes. And she credits the cast’s musicality, the strength of the ensemble and, perhaps most importantly, the genuine joy they share onstage: “When you’re watching a show where you see the people on stage just having the biggest joy of their life, that joy is contagious.”
That joy begins backstage. Four members of the cast graduated together from The Second City Touring Company before joining fellow performers Gillian Bartolucci and Tim Blair on the Mainstage. Garrido Huerta believes the combination works because each performer brings something distinct while complementing the others. Plus, “we do love each other a lot,” she smiles.
For Garrido Huerta, who is a Mexican-born and Toronto-based artist, simply walking onto The Second City stage remains surreal. “Truly, because this is my dream… every second I step on that stage, I’m like, ‘that is happening?” she smiles. “As an immigrant to this country, too… I cannot believe this is my dream and my job.”
Two of her show sketches, which tap into different facets of her experience and background, have become particular audience favourites. In one, she transforms into an exuberant cruise-ship dancer, delighting in spontaneous interactions with an unsuspecting audience member. In another, she plays Jesus in a sketch that culminates in a live question-and-answer session, where the audience is invited to ask anything. The improvised ending was initially intimidating. “I was a little bit afraid,” she admits. “But being afraid for comedy, I think, is one of the best things that can happen to you—because it means that you are so present and so alive.”
The audience’s responses during this sequence inevitably surprise her. While some questions are playful, others reveal something more vulnerable. “We get a lot of really nice, sincere questions sometimes… people really want to be seen and loved,” she says. And as a queer performer, she finds those moments resonate deeply. She is thrilled “if I can give a little bit of that to an audience member… and tell them in front of a whole audience… ‘you are so loved, you are so amazing.’” These one-on-one exchanges reflect the kind of artist Garrido Huerta hopes to be: although comedy like a Mainstage Revue is a collective experience, she strives to make each audience member feel personally included.
Growing up in Mexico before moving to Canada in her twenties continues to shape both her humour and her storytelling. Embracing her identity as a queer artist became a purposeful choice after she arrived here. Her latest short film, a queer zombie horror-comedy Last Call premiered at the InsideOut LGBT Film Festival. Her solo show The Cunning Linguist, was created at Emerging Creator Unit at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, won the 2016 Queer Acts Audience Award. It had its world premiere at Factory Theatre last year. Paradoxically, she believes that “being true to who you are and your identities helps to make your story more universal, even though you are being more specific,” she says. By bringing her full self to the stage, she hopes to inspire others who may not have previously felt welcome in comedy: “I’m hoping that will make other people think, ‘Oh, that sounds fun. I also want to do improv! I also want to do comedy! I also want to tell my story!’”
It takes a village to raise a comedian—and Garrido Huerta is quick to acknowledge the artists who helped make her journey possible. She credits Aluna Theatre artistic director Beatriz Pizano with teaching her “how much to love and respect the stage like no one in my life,” and notes that comedian and showrunner Milo Harada was among the first to champion her work in Toronto. “I think it’s really important to mention mentors and people who were saying ‘Yes!’ when other people were like, ‘Who are you?’” she nods.
For now, Garrido Huerta is right where she should be: on stage, with people who have her back, making diverse crowds laugh. “It is my dream job,” she says simply. “I just hope for the rest of my life I keep telling stories and keep connecting with people… and keep telling stories in any form!”
World’s Gone Wild, The Second City’s 91st Mainstage Revue, is now playing at The Second City Toronto, 1 York St. Performances continue through July 26, 2026. Tickets and performance information are available at secondcity.com.
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2026
