Now that spring is upon us, you have absolutely no excuse to stay cooped up inside. So plug in those headphones, bump John Mayer's Live from LA or Kriss Kross' Alright, and talk a walk with me through This Week In Comedy...

Spoken Word events worth checking out in Toronto this May

Canadians are showered with poems each April courtesy of National Poetry Month, and this May will flower with the fruits of that creative period for local spoken word artists. In a month where longtime spoken word stalwart Dwayne Morgan celebrates his induction to the Scarborough Walk of Fame, it's clear the energy level will be high in the city's spoken word community. To feel that energy, here's where you should go.

The 2013 CONTACT Photography Festival is once again set to land in Toronto. After its official launch tomorrow night at the MOCCA, the city will be dotted with exhibitions at virtually every gallery — not to mention cafes and billboards. Now in 17th incarnation, this year's fest will include public installations, films, lectures and workshops, mostly accessible free of charge and presented to an audience of nearly two million (it's still the largest photography festival in the world).

With more than 1,000 artists showing at 130 venues, finding a theme vague enough to encompass the incredible diversity of work sounds like a difficult undertaking. But the festival organisers once again hit it out of the park with "Field of Vision," which supposedly "explores the photographic medium as a way of seeing." Hard to argue with that.

Last year's festival was defined by the wonderfully ambitious joint exhibition between the MOCCA and UTAC. Entitled "Collective Identity | Occupied Spaces," the show was the absolute centrepoint of the event. Though there may not be a single dominating show this time around, there are still plenty of must-sees at CONTACT 2013.

Last Thursday, 99 Sudbury hosted the graduation exhibit for the Sheridan College Illustration Program, and the massive event space was quickly packed with excited students, supportive family members and friends, and banquet servers relentlessly hawking trays of potato chips in what was perhaps the most bizarre choice of food I've seen at an grad show in the city. But other than this one small misstep, the exhibition offered up some real delights.

Sheridan offers the only dedicated Bachelor of Arts Illustration degree program in Canada, and its students leave the program with an incredibly well-rounded education. With mandatory classes exposing them to both traditional disciplines (such as painting and drawing) and digital technologies (like Web design and motion graphics). A 14-week work term is also offered, ensuring that students graduate with valuable real-world experience, as well as instruction on how to create a workplace-ready portfolio and website. This is definitely evident in the grad show, as savvy artists included cards, posters, and buttons to ensure their work stayed fresh in the minds of the attendees.

Perhaps the best line-up of comedians ever to perform on a show for free is just another reason that Toronto's comedy scene can gwaan. Follow me as I show you the wares in This Week In Comedy...

Look up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's the Funk Docta Rita smoking buddha on the stage! Join me as I shout out Mike Rita and Redman for staying true to themselves in the pursuit of happiness in This Week In Comedy...