Welcome to the FUN HOUSE: Atomic Vaudeville’s Halloween Spectacle

Step right up, ladies, gentleman, for Atomic Vaudeville’s annual Spooktacular! FUN HOUSE you say? Welcome to a history of tradition, and come what may if you dare enter….

Atomic Vaudeville’s Halloween spectacular FUN HOUSE
Tickets can be bought in advance here. Limited tickets at the door.

The theatre company Atomic Vaudeville has been a Victoria, BC, institution since 2004. For those in the know, it is also a place where emerging local talent can find mentorship and opportunities to hone their skills. Some performers have graduated from the Canadian College of Performing Arts; others, I honestly don’t know. But when the team gathers to create its annual Halloween show, I take notice!

This year’s FUN HOUSE sounded like one I had to check out. Although I don’t get to see Atomic Vaudeville every year, I’ve followed with interest ever since 2016. It’s not only because certain luminaries honed their craft here and moved on to establish careers of their own but also they have other events throughout the years.

There’s Mike Delamont (God Is a Scottish Drag Queen), Wes Borg, the comic musician who co-founded Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie before joining the Atomic Vaudeville team, Ingrid Hansen, the puppeteer known for her work on the Fraggle Rock revival, and Trevor Hinton, an actor who appeared in Bones of Crows. The latter is amazing because I’ve seen him perform in numerous genre shows over the years.

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Let Nocturne Gala Whisk You Away! An Interview and The Vampire Ball, Coming Soon to Victoria, BC!

From Disney ballrooms to vampire masquerades, Nocturne Gala founder Anna Stankevich discusses the magic of formal dances and bringing the Vampire Ball to Victoria, BC.

Anna Nocturne Ball
Get your passes for the upcoming Blood Moon Ball in Victoria here.

Formal balls may seem like a thing of the past, something only seen in cinema, but that’s not the case! Based in the Greater Vancouver region, Nocturne Gala is an operation that wants to change that perception. Founder Anna Stankevich (pictured right) is a ball enthusiast and she says they are still ongoing. When she and her husband immigrated to Canada in 2022 and didn’t find anything similar, she started up this business. Balls still happen across Europe and as for why they never took off here, not even historians have an answer.

This organizer said, “A good number of guests attending Nocturne Gala events have a European background and recognize the format immediately, while others are discovering it for the first time. What I particularly enjoy is that these dances can be accessible and easy to learn.”

Depending on the generation, some will fondly recall either Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera and others Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula. But other films, like Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard predate both, and this is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. For anyone who knows the song, “The Music of the Night,” the following lyrics say it all:

Slowly, gently
Night unfurls its splendor
Grasp it, sense it
Tremulous and tender
Turn your face away
From the garish light of day
Turn your thoughts away from cold unfeeling light
And listen to the music of the night

In the animated front, it began with a certain Disney princess, Cinderella, and that movie set a precedent future films from this studio must follow. Anna believes it’s about how the feeling, the music, the costume, and the magic come together. She also believes it’s essential not to go over the top.

Beauty and the Beast Disney

When asked about the animated, theatrical, and live-action versions of Beauty and the Beast, Anna noted a difference. She said, “Compared with the polished, formal balls in earlier Disney films like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, the 1991 Beauty and the Beast ball scene feels warmer and more inviting and real due to more realistic ballroom layout, sweeping camera movement, and the use of 3D. The 2017 live-action version is different. It’s at the end of the movie, and feels more like a theatrical vision of a royal court, perhaps something you could imagine at Versailles, not polished, sometimes even a bit quirky.”

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Halloween 2026 in Victoria, BC: From Spooky Performance Theatre to Wicked Markets, This List Has ‘Em All

No this in’t Pokemon, but it seems Halloween 2026 in Victoria, BC will be packed with enough variety to please little ones and big ones with this collection of top picks on what to do that isn’t corporate sponsor related.

Halloween 2026 in Victoria, BC with Chibi EdThis year’s list of theatrical style events for Halloween 2026 in Victoria, BC is looking good. How much I can take on depends on whether these ol’ bones can still rattle with the best of them! If I had to limit myself, my top picks would include High Moon, which the producers say will be louder and bloodier. It’ll be an improvement upon what I said in my review, or one can read my interview with the creators here. And along with Dread Noir, Final Curtain, and Witches in the Closet, this year promises to be a spooky good time.

That’s technically four, but I’d include Halloween Market YYJ because it has an entertainment component, music from DJ Brian Boitano, workshops, and pumpkin beer. Now in its fifth year, it’s worth mentioning! The following is a list of everything I’ve compiled with the assistance of the great community of Theatre Victoria on Facebook!

Live Theatre Productions

An All-Drag Cast: Rocky Horror

Rocky Horror LipsDate(s): Oct. 22–25, 2026
Venue: Greenhouse (1411 Quadra Street)

Drag Sunday Productions’ all-drag parody of The Rocky Horror Picture Show returns for its fifth year. This strictly 19+ audience-participation event invites guests to dress up, shout callbacks, and use props while the cast serves up a campy, high-energy take on the cult classic. ID is checked at the door.

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You Won’t Have to Catch ‘Em All in NYC! BALLS The Monster-Catchin’ Musical Comédy Hits YouTube For Free!

BALLS The Monster-Catchin’ Musical Comédy returns with an interactive NYCC screening before its filmed stage production premieres free on YouTube.

BALLS The Monster-Catchin’ MusicalGood news, Pokéfans. If you missed BALLS The Monster-Catchin’ Musical Comédy last year, it’s going to be put on stage again! This time, it’ll be part of New York Comic Con’s after-hours event schedule, with a one-night interactive screening on Saturday, October 10. The event will premiere the production’s so-called “leaked bootleg” before the filmed musical receives a free worldwide release on YouTube later that month. Brandon Zelman and Harrison Bryan’s effort has been hailed as Avenue Q for Pokémon enthusiasts, while other outlets have called it a must-see. As a parody, its joy and humour say it all.

The show follows an ambitious young monster catcher on a journey involving friendship, competition and presumably a few uncomfortable questions about making creatures fight for personal glory.

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Vancouver Horror Show Film Festival Conjures a Killer First Wave for 2026

Celebrating Halloween with the Vancouver Horror Show Film Festival can’t look any better with Michael Dougherty in attendance!

Vancouver Horror Show Film Festival
Runs Oct 14–18 at the Cineplex Cinemas International Village and The Rio. Photographer Credit Emmett Race

The Vancouver Horror Show Film Festival returns for its ninth year, and its first wave has a fine Halloween-season hook: a 19th anniversary screening of Trick ’r Treat with writer-director Michael Dougherty in attendance. The presentation also includes a new 4K restoration of Season’s Greetings, the animated short that first introduced Sam before he became one of modern horror’s best-known little monsters.

Four features have been announced so far. Hammer Films brings Ithaqua to B.C. audiences, with Luke Hemsworth starring in a frozen 19th-century Canadian outpost besieged by hunger, cold and an ancient flesh-eating evil. It marks Hammer’s first original monster in 60 years. You can read our review here, as we got an early look during London’s Fright Fest. An interview with director Casey Walker can be read here.

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Top 10 Nerdy Picks of Vancouver Fringe Festival 2026

From an improvised musical inspired by local headlines to supernatural grief stories, smart-home thrillers and a black cat’s final CAT Talk, these are 10 Vancouver Fringe Festival shows worth finding between September 10 and 20, 2026.

Vancouver Fringe Festival Generic
Runs Sept 10 to 20, 2026 at various venues around Granville Island and beyond.

After the Victoria Fringe Festival, I’m debating if I want more compact shows to see. As for my favourite performers, usually there is a lot of overlap. With only Solovela: An Improvised Solo Telenovela being the only overlap between events, I can either stay home or do a day trip over for a show or two before heading home. But with Fringe, that is never a good idea. Vancouver Fringe Festival has a lot to offer

And as I build my list for this year’s neard’s gjuide, here are my top picks for locals and tourists who happen to be in Terminal City from September 10 to 20, 2026.

Canon Fire:
The Improvised Musical
Arts Umbrella (Theatre)

Why travel abroad when Vancouver already has a Broadway AND a West End? Watch six improvisors and two musicians create a brand-new musical right before your eyes with no script, no pre-written music, and no safety net, solely inspired by audience suggestions and the stories you may have missed from your very own hometown newspaper. From local jaywalking scandals to bizarre community board disputes, no local story is too small to be given the grand, show-stopping musical treatment.

Canon Fire

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