Montreal is famous for being a city of festivals. The summer months see millions of people take to the downtown streets in celebration of many different cultural events that draw tourists in from all over the globe. One of the longest lasting and most famous of these is the Just For Laughs Festival. Since 1983, this bilingual comedy experience has been importing some of the brightest comedy minds in the world to spend a month in Montreal entertaining crowds.
Many different facets of fun
The festival is broken up into several different types of events. For people who are content to wander around outside, there are street performers like clowns, buskers and other types of physical comedy. Indoor events range from small gatherings at local comedy clubs spread across the city to huge galas at large venues such as Salle Wilfred Laurier at Place des Arts on St. Catherines street. The galas frequently combine a large lineup of comedians and comedy acts. In addition to stand-up, there are also script readings by famous animated comedy programs like The Simpsons and Family Guy, where all of the show’s actors read an episode on stage, live. Musical comedy is also on tap, with artists like Bowser and Blue singing about Quebec and Canadian politics, as well as the cast members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus reuniting to perform some of their more famous numbers.
Over 25 years of laughter
After being a fixture of the international comedy scene for so long, the Just For Laughs Festival has managed to branch out into other forms of media. The organization produces recorded versions of some of the most famous comedy performances to occur during the course of the festival, and some of these are broadcast on a television program over the course of the year. A separate program called ‘Just for Laughs Gags’ focuses on a series of practical jokes that employees play on Montrealers, usually out on the city streets.
Just for Laughs has gained a reputation as one of the best places for young comedians to showcase their talents for the large American entertainment companies based in Los Angeles and New York. Executives and scouts alike are frequently in the audiences at both the gala and the smaller events, and many stand-up comedians have had their television and film careers launched through the exposure that they received at the festival.
Funny in two languages
Just for Laughs also has a prominent Francophone component. In fact, the festival began as an exclusively French-language event, with English-language comedy being added in 1985, 2 years after the festival’s inception. Just for Laughs, or ‘Juste Pour Rire’ is the world’s biggest stage for homegrown Quebecois comedy.
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