A clever wordsmith, an advertising guru, and even a self-proclaimed "Sneaky Gay" grace our stages this week. To complete the kaleidescope, watch me shoehorn in a Mobb Deep joint from '97 on This Week In Comedy.

MON JAN 7 / ALTdot COMEDY LOUNGE / RIVOLI / 332 QUEEN W / 9PM / $5

ALTdot gets even better this week with two of my personal favourite out-of-towners, John Hastings and Jon Schabl, dropping in for a set. Hastings moved to England last year, and I'm interested to ask him how his joke about looking like Hitler's wet dream (on account of his translucent eyebrows) goes over across the pond. Schabl probably has a ton of new jokes given his new residence in the big city of dreams (but everything in L.A. ain't always what it seems / you might get fooled if you come from outta town / cuz we comin from Queens and gets down), but I'm hoping he does his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bit, which is one of my favourite jokes from 2012. Shout out to Mobb Deep, Capone & Noreaga, and Tragedy Khadafi.

TUES JAN 8 / THE JOKE CLUB / LOT / THE GARRISON / 1197 DUNDAS W / 9PM / FREE

This show features Nick Flanagan, Tom Henry, and Sarah Ford. When I first got into comedy, Nick Flanagan--the guy who looks like David Carradine's genitals (watch the clip)--was one of the first acts I saw. To be honest, I didn't really take a liking to him. I'd never been to a live comedy show before and thought it was really weird that he constantly referred back to his notepad when telling jokes on stage. But after seeing him a few times, I realized that his use of the notepad was somewhat different than the other comedians. As my friend Quinn C. Martin put it, "He owns it." Said another way, he doesn't apologize for looking at his notes, and whether intentional or not, it's part of the act. Once I got over the paradigm in my head of how a comedian should act on stage, I was able to take in his material, and as a fan of smart comedy, clever wordplay, and genuine improvisation, he's become one of my favourite comedians in the city.

WED JAN 9 - SUN JAN 13 / SCOTT FAULCONBRIDGE / YUK YUK'S / 224 RICHMOND W / 8PM / $11-20

One of the best things you can say about Scott is that he's been chosen to be a regular on CBC Radio's, "The Debaters." That means the pantheon can count on Scott to be convincingly funny, time and time again. Accordingly, Scott's toured around the world alongside the world's best, including working alongside Chris freakin' Rock and Bill freakin' Maher. Enough said.

SAT JAN 12 / MONKEY TOAST / COMEDY BAR / 945 BLOOR W / 8PM / $10

I hate late night talk shows. They're more like late night monologue shows with, if you're lucky, a moment or two of people actually having a real conversation. Fortunately, Monkey Toast has done away with the idea that you need a pantheon of writers to make a show work. The show consists of three guests interviewed by Ron Tite, who was named one of the Top 10 Creative Canadians by Marketing Magazine. For comedic variety, improvised sketches are injected in between the interviews, drawing their inspiration from the topics discussed. It's unreal. You have a sketch troupe improvising a sketch based on what they hear seconds before they take the stage. Come early because this show sells out!

About the Author: This is Michael Jagdeo, and I refuse to write about myself in the third-person. My blog, Diary of a Stand-up Comedian, walks you through the up's and down's (they're mostly down's, really) in my quest to become a killer comic in Toronto.