After a year of forced break, the just for laughter festival is reborn in Montreal from July 16 to 27 and relists the component of its programming dedicated to comedians.
Posted at 4:20 p.m. Updated at 5.57 p.m.
“I never thought of getting on a scene to the sound of just for laughter music,” said Sylvain Parent-Bédard Thursday morning at the Golden Lion. In 2000, the businessman from Lévis founded the big laugh of Quebec, which became the comediha! Fest.
A quarter of a decade and several reversals later, he is now president and chief executive officer of Just for Laughs. His new team raised the veil on Thursday on his first real program since the takeover last June of several assets of the flagship of the fun, who had placed himself in the shelter of his creditors in March 2024.
Photo Patrick Sanfaçon, La Presse
Sylvain Parent-Bédard
Organized with any vapor, in order to save the furniture, the Comediha event! Salue Montreal did not have, in July 2024, the ambition or the scope of a real festival just for laughs. His English counterpart, Just for Laughs, had been reduced to sorrow.
The next Montreal edition of Just for Laughs – the Comediha! Fest-Québec has become the Festival Juste pour Rire Québec, it quickly becomes mixing-will reconnect with its mission to welcome comics from all over the Francophonie, especially during a humor gala of the world led by Mehdi Bousaidan.
The French Jarry, Elena Nagapetyan, Waly Dia, Caroline Vigneaux, Nordine Ganso, Laurie Peret will be on July 19 at the Maisonneuve theater, just like the Belgian Sarah Lélé, the Franco-Otarian Katherine Levac and the Quebecer Laurent Paquin, Rachid Badouri and Anas Hassouna.
It is not for nothing that we had taken care of Tuesday to include in a montage of the best moments in the history of the festival an extract from the American Steve Martin who exclaims that “every summer, Montreal becomes the Mecca of humor”.
“Throughout the world, people in the middle have a lot of memories attached to Montreal. The brand is still very strong, I realized it while traveling in the Francophonie, “said Josée Charland, who is at the programming controllers. “This is why it was obvious for us to bring this international aspect to us. »»
Like a summer camp
As for the resurrection of Just for Laughs, it went without saying for Sylvain Parent-Bédard, according to which the emergence of other rotating plates for the laughter industry, such as the Netflix is a Joke, in Los Angeles, is not empty on the specificity of the Montreal festival, where historically big business brews.
“The people of the industry go to Netflix is a Joke, they return to sleep at home in the evening,” he explains. Here, it is as if they came to participate in a summer camp and in addition, it is bilingual, which is unique. And then there is the whole English -speaking community in Montreal which also was due to its Just for Laughs. »»
Among the 130 Employees of Just for Laughs, from 20 to 30 were rehired, especially on the Anglo side, including the new director of the Just for For Laughs programming, Nick Brazao, who has been working there for 15 years.
No galas, but …
On April 23, Just for Laughs revealed the identity of the leaders of the galas of its edition which will take place in August in Quebec. Her Montreal counterpart maintains her decision not to revive the popular Galas formula. But to that it does not hold, some shows look like it, on paper at least, whose series the best of decades just for laughs, presented at Duceppe from July 16 to 20.
Each edition will bring together from six to eight humorists associated with the 1990s, 2000, 2010 or 2020, with the animation Dominic and Martin, Cathy Gauthier, Eddy King, Silvi Tourigny, Arnaud Soly, Mona de Grenoble, Suzie Bouchard and Tommy Néron.
Photo Patrick Sanfaçon, La Presse
Some of the comedians who appear at the 2025 program of just for laughs
“The idea was to build a program to reach a maximum of audiences, because it is a lot of tickets for sale,” concedes Josée Charland.
The just for laughter festival has been reproached for one time not to know how to get to the times, but its last editions, they may have preached with the opposite excess. Josée Charland Opine. “The idea behind the concept of decades is to offer everyone. »»
Although the programmer denies it, the temple of renown just for laughs resembles a means of importing into the 514 the formula of the great bien-cocks, which has been a hit in Quebec for several years. This is the cinematographic franchise Les Boys which will be inducted there on July 21, during a tribute evening piloted by Guy Jodoin.
A theatrical adaptation of the comedy of 1997 is also in this programming. Remember that Comediha! has become the owner of the brand Les Boys in November 2020.
It was about 80 % of the just for laughter interior grid that was revealed on Thursday. The rest, as well as the outdoor counterpart, will be known later. As for Zoofest, this festival dedicated to emergence remains for the moment on the shelves, but Josée Charland promises a parallel component (off) Just for laughter, which will give pride of place to newcomers. “The important thing,” she summarizes, is diversity. »»Consult the programming
