The Definitive Guide to Comedy
For all of the artificial and natural word-of-mouth buzz that happens each July in Montreal, perhaps the most likely to produce buzz event of Just For Laughs is the New Faces Unrepped showcase. All of these stand-up comedians arrived in Montreal a week and a half ago without agents or …
I’ve been writing so much about members of The Reckoning, that I should have reckoned that another of the iO West’s improv collective would be the breakout star of the New Faces Characters showcases this summer in Montreal. This year’s showcase had a high standard to meet, with UCB co-founder …
Andy Kindler once again had a full house in the fourth-floor banquet/conference room of the Hyatt Regency Montreal at his full attention on Friday for his annual State of the Industry Address for the Just For Laughs festival. While Kindler did go back to his tried-and-true well of hated comedy …
Comedy Central President Kent Alterman heaped hyperboles of praise upon Nathan Fielder an hour ago as the “Breakout Comedy Performer of the Year” at Montreal’s Just For Laughs festival in a speech that Alterman claimed Fielder had written for him. But the most important words Fielder heard from Alterman today …
Always outspoken but perhaps never quite as sincerely forthright without needing a hard laugh until now, Jim Norton provided the timeliest keynote address yet at Montreal’s Just For Laughs on Thursday. The festival began adding a keynote address from a stand-up comedian five years ago to jumpstart its JFL ComedyPro …
Before welcoming Group 2 of New Faces in Montreal upon their Wednesday night debut, host Pete Holmes asked the audience: “Be gracious. Be present. Be active.” Holmes might also have said be wary. For this crop of comics offered more style than substance, especially when compared to their Group 1 counterparts. …
Each crop of New Faces at Montreal’s Just For Laughs is special and unique. John Heffron, who hosted New Faces Group 1 on Wednesday night, told the audience that all of the big-name comedians you’d see at the festival’s Galas started out years earlier as new faces. That might not …
All of the shows at Montreal’s Just For Laughs festival begin first with a pre-recorded announcement for audience members to check in using social media, but please, to turn off or silence the cell phones as well as their heckling mouths and enjoy the show. Jimmy Carr‘s stand-up performance includes …
The hype surrounding stand-up comedian Jerrod Carmichael is justifiable and warranted. At 26, Carmichael is having a breakout year. A shining supporting role in Neighbors, which has earned $150 million at the American box-office since May and another $100 million globally. An HBO hourlong stand-up special directed by Spike Lee …
The Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal has named Andy Samberg, Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, Michael Schur, Nathan Fielder and Bill Burr as its major award-winning honorees for 2014. Their individual honors: Andy Samberg: Comedy Person of the Year Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg: Comedy Directors of the Year …
