Ahren Belisle does stand-up comedy through a phone. He is nonverbal, uses a speech-synthesis app to deliver punchlines, and has been performing for less than five years — long enough to earn a Kill Tony Golden Ticket, finish in the top ten on America’s Got Talent, and sell out The Port Theatre in Cornwall on November 29.
About the Show
Belisle’s entry into comedy was accidental. In winter 2022, vacationing in Portugal, he heckled comedians at a local show. The performers invited him onstage. The first set, by his own account, crushed. He eventually walked away from a software engineering career that had included an internship at IBM and a networking and IT security degree from Ontario Tech University.
His Kill Tony breakthrough came on episode #596, recorded January 23, 2023 at Austin’s Vulcan Gas Company, where he earned a Golden Ticket: unlimited return appearances on the podcast. He has since appeared on episodes featuring Post Malone and Tim Dillon, and at the Madison Square Garden taping.
America’s Got Talent followed that same year. A friend submitted Belisle’s TikTok to producers without telling him; he advanced through AGT Season 18 to the finale as a top ten finalist. Simon Cowell called him “naturally funny.” Howie Mandel praised his “edgy” material. He is from North Bay, Ontario, so an Ontario tour organized by The Diamond Mine Agency carries a homecoming quality even as his audience has grown well past provincial borders.
His act draws on observational humor, dark comedy, self-deprecation, and crowd work. The phone’s speech-synthesis creates a cadence unlike anything in live comedy: pauses build before punchlines, the app offers multiple synthetic voices for mimicry, and the physical performance — expressions, reactions, improvisation — fills every gap the phone leaves open. As promotional materials describe it: “The phone delivers the words, but the writing, timing, facial expressions, reactions and improvisation are his.”
Venue & Logistics
The Port Theatre is at 132 Montreal Road in Cornwall, Ontario, a theater venue in the North Country corridor along the St. Lawrence River. It is a proper room for this kind of show: seated, focused, the kind of space where timing can do its work. The show runs 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Tickets
This show is sold out. No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. The event page remains live at The Port Theatre for any waitlist or future booking inquiries.