The Comics Unseen
Press Kit
Bilingual Stand-up · Keynote Speaker · Comedy Coach
Stephan Dyer
One of the youngest senior managers at Scotiabank, he walked away in 2017 to be a comedian. The first time his father saw him perform, he bombed. Years later he dedicated a show to his dad’s 70th birthday.
Based
Toronto, Canada · born in Costa Rica
Works in
Clean stand-up in English and Spanish · Corporate comedy · Coaching
Founded
MalPensando — Canada’s first bilingual Spanish-English comedy and public speaking school
Reach
2,000+ shows · 13 countries · 4 continents
Interview
Written interview · hopforpop.com
“Be impatient with action, but patient with results.”
Stephan Dyer — The Comics Unseen
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Biography
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Stephan Dyer is a Costa Rican-Canadian stand-up, keynote speaker and comedy coach based in Toronto. He was one of the youngest senior managers at Scotiabank when, in 2017, he left to perform full time. The decision had a date attached: 20 August 2016, after two years of bombing, when a stand-up course at The Second City taught him joke structure and he, and two friends, killed at a show in London, Ontario. He could not sleep that night.
He has since performed more than 2,000 shows in 13 countries on four continents, delivering clean, bilingual comedy in English and Spanish, with appearances at Just For Laughs, Comedy Central, TEDx and The Second City, and invitations to Netflix Is A Joke Fest. He has recorded three specials. His brother Kurt Dyer, who left a corporate job long before he did, put him on his first stages more than twenty years ago.
He co-founded MalPensando, the first bilingual Spanish-English comedy and public speaking school in Canada, and runs corporate comedy workshops that have reached more than 50,000 professionals, for clients including Coca-Cola, Uber, EY and TELUS. In 2021 he was on the cover of Toastmaster magazine. His worst night was in Guadalajara in 2018, a year after quitting, with his father in the audience for the first time. He bombed. His father is now one of his biggest supporters.
The part other press kits leave out
What you should know before you book him
Stephan Dyer treats comedy as a craft and a business in equal measure, and his corporate work is as carefully engineered as his club sets.
Clean, and it still works
No sex, politics, religion or profanity in corporate rooms. His view is that authentic, well-written material works anyway — and corporate audiences give it a long shelf life.
Customised to your company
He sends a questionnaire in advance about culture, in-jokes and challenges, which alone can generate 10–12 minutes of bespoke material, then layers in improv and brings staff on stage.
Bilingual, selectively translated
Many translations bomb, so he only translates jokes with universal premises and strong structure. Anything culture-specific stays in its own language.
A very structured set
Introduction, three to five bulletproof one-liners, crowd work within five minutes, then longer bits. Ordered chronologically, and he rides the crowd work when it hits.
He believes humour can be taught
Thirteen joke structures, 20–25 techniques and repetition: most people can build a solid five minutes in about seven weeks. Introverts, he finds, often learn fastest.
A long-game operator
He is in no rush to record the next special. Content that puts people in seats comes first, because it is what lets him do this for the long term.
For press · cleared for use with attribution
Quotable
01
“After two years of silence, everything clicked. I couldn’t sleep that night.”02
“Some jokes simply don’t survive outside their culture.”03
“If a joke is “culture-proof,” it works in both languages. If not, I keep it separate.”04
“If the material is authentic and well-written, it still works.”05
“Corporate audiences usually haven’t seen you before, so strong material has a long shelf life.”06
“The key is curiosity — you have to approach the audience conversationally, not like you’re forcing a joke.”07
“Yes — because it’s a skill.”08
“Extroverts often struggle more because they resist feedback. Introverts tend to do better — they listen, implement and improve quickly.”09
“If structure is teachable, then humor is teachable.”10
“By coincidence, my dad was in the audience — it was his first time seeing me perform. And I bombed. Hard.”11
“I also knew that if I stuck with it, the story would get better.”12
“That moment aged well.”13
“He quit his corporate job long before I did and showed me this path was possible.”14
“I still feel like I have so much to learn.”15
“My priority is creating content that gets people into seats — that’s what allows me to do this long-term.”16
“Don’t try to do everything in one year. Most of the outcomes you want will take 10–15 years.”17
“Be impatient with action, but patient with results.”
Attribution: Stephan Dyer, in conversation with The Comics Unseen. Read the interview.
Career
Selected credits
Stand-up
- 2,000+ shows in 13 countries on four continents, in English and Spanish
- Just For Laughs · Comedy Central · The Second City · Netflix Is A Joke Fest
- Three recorded comedy specials
Speaking & teaching
- Co-founder of MalPensando, Canada’s first bilingual Spanish-English comedy and public speaking school
- Corporate comedy workshops for 50,000+ professionals; clients include Coca-Cola, Uber, EY and TELUS
- TEDx speaker; cover of Toastmaster magazine, 2021
Before comedy
One of the youngest senior managers at Scotiabank. Left in 2017 to perform full time.
This kit was produced by The Comics Unseen. The interview and quotes are drawn from Stephan Dyer: The Bilingual Comic Who Made A Risky Move, published on hopforpop.com. Stephan Dyer and their representatives are free to use any part of this document — the biography, the quotes — for booking, press and promotion, with credit to The Comics Unseen for the interview material.
The Comics Unseen shines a light on stand-up artists and spreads comedy across the world. Follow at instagram.com/hopforpop.
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