The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Your voices were heard loud and clear, comedians of Canada. Just For Laughs announced Wednesday that their impending takeover of the Canada Laughs channel of SiriusXM radio will now be called Just For Laughs Canada, “and it will showcase 100 percent Canadian content.” Bruce Hills, JFL’s president, released the statement …
SiriusXM Canada and Just For Laughs announced a joint partnership on Monday to launch Just For Laughs Radio this spring on Ch. 168, “with a focus on Canadian artists plus comics from around the world.” Sounds great, right? Here’s the thing, though: Ch. 168 already is a thing, Canada Laughs, which is all …
Howie Mandel recently opened a comedy club bearing his name in Atlantic City, and he’s long been a mainstay judge on NBC’s America’s Got Talent. But Mandel’s heart has remained in his native Canada, so when Just For Laughs suddenly became a real-life Deal or No Deal for him, the …
Some comedians and industry folk joked that Just For Laughs could no longer really do New Faces in Montreal now that the ICM agency had purchased a large stake in the comedy festival. ICM certainly is getting the last laughs. They’ve packaged New Faces 2018 into a streaming TV series …
Dave Chappelle has enjoyed popping up at John Mayer’s concerts, and vice versa. This July, they’re putting on a planned performance together in Montreal that coincides with the Just For Laughs festival. Chappelle & Mayer’s “Controlled Danger” show will happen Saturday, July 28, 2018, at the Bell Centre. Tickets go …
Howie Mandel showed up to join Just For Laughs COO Bruce Hills and the new team running the show at JFL (which includes Mandel and powerhouse agency ICM) to announce the full details for Montreal’s Just For Laughs fest this coming July. Among the new notable items: The Keynote Address …
Brandon Rogers is a YouTube star with four million subscribers and one Streamy Award to his credit. He has starred in two webseries, Sam and Stuff for Facebook, and Magic Funhouse for Fullscreen. Brandon was a New Face at Just For Laughs in 2017, and he stopped by my studio …
Sacre bleu! Just For Laughs Group (Groupe Juste Pour Rire), responsible for throwing the biggest comedy festival in the world each July in Montreal, as well as fests in Toronto, Vancouver and Sydney, television specials, series and tours, has new owners. Howie Mandel and ICM Partners top an investor group …
Mike Allan MacDonald joked onstage that he was “the King of Canadian Comedy,” but to many in Canada, he was royalty. Unlike the other great comedians to come out of Canada, MacDonald stayed. He stayed ’til the end, dying Saturday from heart complications. He was 63. 62 according to his …
Canadians now have another streaming platform of their own to pitch their stand-up comedy specials. CraveTV‘s first original comedy special, Darcy Michael Goes To Church, premieres Friday. It’s the first of three stand-up projects coming to CraveTV in partnership with Just For Laughs, filmed last September during the JFL42 festival …
