Posts tagged as:

Just for Laughs

FESTIVAL CITY

Crowd Controlled

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Audience doesn’t do any favours for Weird Al’s mixed-bag musical comedy show Amp’d, at Just For Laughs

by Daniel Salama
03.08.2011

Last year’s Amp’d show, a collection of musical comedy, was widely praised as one of the better shows at Just For Laughs. It’s unlikely this year’s show, at Club Soda (July 28), will leave the festival with a similar legacy. The revue, hosted by the legendary Weird Al Yankovic, was hobbled by a palpable lack [...]

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FESTIVAL CITY

Situation (comedy) critical?

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A frank and feisty interview with Just For Laughs’ State of the Industry host Andy Kindler

by Jeremy Moses
02.08.2011

It’s become a tradition at the Just For Laughs Festival for comedian Andy Kindler to give his annual State of the Industry Address. Known for being straightforward and scathing when he feels appropriate, Kindler really never holds back his opinions. Not surprisingly, in his sit-down interview with Rover Arts, he didn’t hold back again about [...]

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FESTIVAL CITY

Freakin’ Time to Say Goodbye

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Exiting the Zoo with DeAnne Smith's About Freakin' Time

by Meaghan Thurston
02.08.2011

It’s with a sense of sadness and relief that I must say goodbye to yet another festival. The wild and adventurous Zoofest has come to a close. Festival season in Montreal makes me feel like a two year old who has spent a month and half at the carnival, subsiding solely on cotton candy.

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FESTIVAL CITY

Homegrown Hilarity

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REVIEW: Canadian stand-ups throw down for the Irwin Barker Homegrown Comic award at Just For Laughs

by James Gartler
01.08.2011

You have to love that a festival as big as Just For Laughs will still make a point of showcasing up-and-coming Canadian talent. There may have been only one recipient of the Irwin Barker Homegrown Comic award on Friday night, July 29, but each of the nine performers who took to the stage brought something [...]

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FESTIVAL CITY

Guy’s Got Skills

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Just For Laughs picks an indisputable winner with Tim Minchin’s “It’s Funnier Live”

by Jeremy Moses
30.07.2011

I’m trying to figure out 100 million ways to tell you how amazing Tim Minchin’s show was on Thursday night, July 28. I’ve been writing all week about how great all the shows I’ve gone to have been. But those were all lies.

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FESTIVAL CITY

The Empowerers Strike Back

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Sarah Quinn's one-woman show Other People's Problems celebrates the nervy spaz in us all

by Meaghan Thurston
29.07.2011

“This is a safe sharting space,” declares the maniacal motivational speaker who takes the Zoofest audience hostage at the beginning of Other People’s Problems. Safe-Sharting? Sharing from the heart, of course. Vaguely reminiscent of Sarah Palin in a fitted black dress and maroon jacket, with her brown hair neatly pinned back as she spews advice [...]

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FESTIVAL CITY

High Infidelity

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The Just For Laughs presentation of "Cheat! Live" - featuring Joe DeRosa, Robert Kelly and Bill Burr - runs the gamut of relationship gags and gaffs

by Jeremy Moses
29.07.2011

One of the more hyped shows in this week’s Just For Laughs schedule is Friday night’s Relationship Gala (July 29), hosted by Modern Family’s Eric Stonestreet. Now, I’m sure that the show will be funny and will probably convince your new girlfriend to sleep with you. But if you don’t have over $100 to shell [...]

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FESTIVAL CITY

Standing up for Himself

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Saturday Night Live writer John Mulaney steps out from behind the scenes at Just For Laughs

by Jeremy Moses
28.07.2011

John Mulaney is one funny man. You may only know him from his stand-up clips on YouTube about his obsession with Law & Order, or about playing Tom Jones on repeat at a Chicago diner. But Mulaney is much more than a stand-up. Serving as a writer at Saturday Night Live, he is responsible for [...]

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FESTIVAL CITY

Labour’s Love Lost

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Paul F. Tompkins proves that his "Life Work" can make for a comedy career at Just For Laughs appearances

by Daniel Salama
28.07.2011

Paul F. Tompkins’ new show is only worth seeing if you’ve ever had a job or currently possess a sense of humour. Half autobiography, half stand-up, Tompkins’ “Life Work” covers his, well, work life, from McJobs at a haberdashery and Betamax video store to getting chided by Tom Cruise at a read-through for a P.T. [...]

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FESTIVAL CITY

Monkeying Around

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Nina Conti puts on a zany, deconstructed ventriloquist act that's nothing like the puppets you watched on TV as a kid, at Just For Laughs

by Crystal Chan
28.07.2011

Nina Conti got a present one day: a “Teach Yourself Ventriloquism Kit” that promised she was “30 days away from being a proficient ventriloquist.” Thirty days, thirty booklets. It was a gift from the great Ken Campbell, a man whom she’d met years earlier after she “stalked him” and begged for a role in his [...]

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FESTIVAL CITY

Cocksure comedy

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Just For Laughs gets a double dose of hotshot hilarity from Nick Thune and Anthony Jeselnik

by Jeremy Moses
27.07.2011

There is something refreshing about seeing comedians work the stage with a confident, verging on cocky attitude. Far too often, comedians are too scared to take their jokes to the next level, not willing to put it all on the table. Luckily for the Just For Laughs crowds, Nick Thune and Anthony Jeselnik’s “Double Threat” [...]

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FESTIVAL CITY

Laying all the way back

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New York City’s Hannibal Buress is the best funniest friend you never had, at Just For Laughs

by Jeremy Moses
26.07.2011

Hannibal Buress is a laidback dude. Those are his words, by the way. And it’s true – if you only take one thing away from his show, “The Hannibal Montanabal Experience” (great name for a show or greatest name for a show?), it’s that he’s one chilled out comedian.

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FESTIVAL CITY

And Now for the Rough Stuff

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Jimmy Carr’s “Laughter Therapy” brings some good old-fashioned vulgarity to Just For Laughs

by Andrea Elalouf
26.07.2011

While The Nasty Show may usually take the crown for the most offensive show at Just For Laughs, British comedian Jimmy Carr’s latest, “Laughter Therapy,” could very well be a top contender for the title this year.

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FESTIVAL CITY

All that glitters is comic gold

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Danny Bhoy’s “Wanderlust” lights up the Just For Laughs Festival

by Andrea Elalouf
23.07.2011

Strong from a year-long world tour, Scottish comedy wunderkind Danny Bhoy once again graces Montreal’s Just For Laughs with “Wanderlust,” a sharp and effortless show that will take you wandering back to Scotland, back in time, and back to those little memories that always manage to make you laugh.

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FESTIVAL CITY

For A Bleedin’ Good Time

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Mom’s the Word 2, John Leguizamo, Just For Laughs

by James Gartler
19.07.2010

You may have never figured your mother’s inner monologue to be especially entertaining, but the ladies of Mom’s the Word 2: Unhinged are proving otherwise. The five-woman show, which just ended a run at Centaur, celebrates the daily struggles faced by mothers of all kinds with decidedly fun-loving flair. Meanwhile, at Gesu, John Leguizamo’s Klass [...]

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