By day, Deli Planet looks like any other restaurant you’d find inside of a train station—neatly decorated with a simple arrangement of black tables and chairs and plain leather booths lining the walls. But, don’t let its unremarkable appearance fool you. By night, the restaurant transforms: A small stage is[Read More…]
Tag: stand-up
Stand-up comedy in a stay-at-home world
The COVID-19 pandemic has halted the regular bustle of Montreal life, and with it, halted its entertainment industry. Cirque du Soleil was forced to lay off 95 per cent of its staff; music festivals, including Osheaga and Ilesoniq, were postponed; and even the world-famous comedy festival, Just For Laughs, was[Read More…]
Montreal’s ‘The Dropout! Show’ series continues to impress
A heavy-metal concert venue might seem like an odd place to host a stand up comedy show. Juxtaposed with light-hearted laughter, however, the skulls embedded in Katacombes’ walls only served to enhance the already wildly-funny night that was The Dropout! Show. Thursday’s event was the eighth installment in a monthly series[Read More…]
My search for the best joke at Just for Laughs
On my third day at this year’s Just for Laughs festival, Irish comedian Dylan Moran said something that piqued my interest. Moran had just told a joke about time—comparing it to a French waiter, since it’s never around until it comes and cleans up—and tagged it with a proclamation that it was the best joke at the festival. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.
Artist Profile: Nicholas Krywucki is making lanes in Montreal comedy
Nicholas Krywucki, known onstage as Nick K, has quickly identified himself as an emerging figure in the Montreal stand-up comedy scene. Wearing a baggy green sweatshirt, his floppy blond hair brushed out of his eyes, Krywucki’s posture is unassuming. As he steps on stage he nonchalantly adjusts the microphone and[Read More…]
Stand-up comedy has a sensitivity problem—here’s what you can do about it
“Be sure to check any and all political correctness at the door!” read the press release for one two-week running show at Montreal’s 35th annual Just For Laughs comedy festival. As though the industry has developed a reflex against audience members they perceive to be overly sensitive, it’s not uncommon[Read More…]
Chris Fleming plays Chris Fleming in his Just For Laughs Show
YouTube comic Chris Fleming catapulted to virality in 2012 with the release of Gayle, a series in which he plays the eponymous Gayle Waters-Waters, helicopter mother and suburban housewife extraordinaire. But while Fleming has been tied to Gayle for most of his career, he has recently been touring the continent[Read More…]
Peeking into the ‘New Faces of Comedy’
Having helped launch the careers of Amy Schumer, Kevin Hart, and Hannibal Buress, the Just For Laughs (JFL) comedy festival’s New Faces of Comedy showcase has become a coveted career milestone for young comedians internationally. Each year, comics selected are given six minutes to showcase their best material for audiences in[Read More…]
In a Post-Joke Era, DeAnne Smith cheers up audiences at JFL
In mid-July, comedian DeAnne Smith skyrocketed to virality with a bit she performed for CBC Comedy in which she encouraged heterosexual men to treat their girlfriends better. Shortly after gaining recognition on Facebook newsfeeds in Canada and beyond, Smith reached Montreal’s annual Just For Laughs comedy festival—an event that she[Read More…]
Jen Kirkman and her irrational thoughts take Just For Laughs comedy festival
In the summer of 1998, Jen Kirkman came to Montreal’s Just For Laughs (JFL) comedy festival for the first time. Her standup career was only getting started, but her interest in comedy was longstanding. Using a press pass she received on behalf of a small Boston newspaper, Kirkman and her[Read More…]
