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How ‘Nirvanna the Band’ helped revitalize a landmark Toronto venue
The revitalization of the Rivoli venue in Toronto, driven by the popularity of 'Nirvanna the Band the Show,' highlights the importance of leveraging cultural narratives in brand strategy. By connecting with younger audiences through a beloved comedy project, the Rivoli has transformed its image and increased foot traffic, demonstrating how storytelling can reinvigorate a brand's relevance.
FastCompany: It’s a rather unassuming site for an Abbey Road -style photo activation. To the random observer, no good reason announces itself to explain why tourists from all over Canada and the U.S. would flock to the red-brick facade on Toronto’s bustling Queen Street to take ecstatic selfies beneath an oval sign that reads “Rivoli” in a scribbly font. The tourists keep showing up anyway.
[Photo: PaulMcKinnon/Getty Images] While the combination restaurant/ pool hall/concert venue has hosted performers like Robin Williams, Amy Winehouse, and Adele over its 45-year history, the Rivoli has only lately become a tourist mecca, thanks to a fictional music act relatively few people have heard of—even if it shares a name with one of the most revered bands of all time. Nirvanna the Band the Show —note the legally significant extra “n”—is the unhinged, long-running comedy project of BlackBerry filmmaker Matt Johnson and musician Jay McCarrol.
Starting as a web series 20 years ago, before culminating in the just-released hit indie film ( Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie) , the series depicts its two stars as scrappy musicians on a perpetual, doomed quest to book a gig at the Rivoli. View this post on Instagram Ironically, the project’s conception of the venue as a gateway to fame and fortune seems to have resulted in a real-life renaissance for the Riv. According to owner John Christensen, the timing couldn’t have been better.
“Why are people doing that?” When he took the reins of the Rivoli in 2021, after its earlier owners put it up for sale the previous year, Christensen set out to save the iconic venue from pandemic oblivion. “If you’ve grown up in the city of Toronto, you know what the Rivoli is, but that has not quite been the same for newer generations,” he says. “I feel like since even before the pandemic, the reputation had kind of waned somewhat.” The Kids in the Hall (from left): Dave Foley , Kevin McDonald , Bruce McCulloch , Mark McKinney , and Scott Thompson .
[Photo: Rick Eglinton/Toronto Star/Getty Images] Beyond having hosted a deep roster of A-listers during their earliest Canadian tours, the Riv has long been known as part of The Kids in the Hall origin story. The absurdist comedy legends didn’t just perform their first show at the venue in 1984; they did their 10,000 hours of talent incubation there through weekly performances.
(Indeed, it was during a show at the Rivoli that Lorne Michaels discovered the troupe , before eventually producing their eponymous TV series.) As Christensen tells it, though, the folks who grew up catching The Kids in the Hall or Mike Myers at the Rivoli have long since grown up. They don’t necessarily return on a regular basis anymore. Rising comics and bands still darken the Riv’s green room, but it’s been a hot minute since any homegrown Toronto acts have generated buzz for the space. “When I took over, the challenge was, ‘How can I revitalize this brand in the minds of the younger generation?’” Christensen says.
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The article discusses a successful case of cultural branding that revitalizes a venue, which is significant for brand strategy professionals, though the concept of using storytelling in branding is not entirely new.