Owner of Just for Laughs for almost four months, the ComediHa! revealed that it would soon adopt the name “Just for Entertaining” to bring all its activities under one umbrella.
“The ComediHa! and Just for Laughs will remain separate entities. We are creating this new brand, Just to entertain, to oversee all our activities,” explains the president and founder of the new empire of Quebec humor, Sylvain Parent-Bédard.
The Journal obtained this information firsthand during an interview with him, on the sidelines of a conference on his career in front of members of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Greater Lévis, Wednesday.
Photo provided by the GRAND LÉVIS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, STEVE ROY – IMAGE ST-JEAN
Mr. Parent-Bédard affirms that all of the group’s assets, ComediHa!, Just for Laughs, Sismyk, Productions Martin Leclerc and SuperFrancoFête, will therefore be brought together under the aegis of Just for Entertainment (Just For Entertainment, in English).
“It’s a name that couldn’t better explain what we do. It encompasses all our activities and it will be much simpler to disentangle what is happening with our different branches,” he explains.
“Muted”
He also emphasizes that the ComediHa! will be “muted a little”, while Just for Laughs will be put forward.
“The ComediHa! remains, so does the festival. But we will decide which product we associate with which brand. People are going to hear a lot more about the fact that we’re going to focus on Just for Laughs and Just For Laughs and the synergy that we want to create with Just for Entertainment.”
The president of the new major player in the entertainment industry maintains that the reputation of Just for Laughs and its English-speaking counterpart is well established in the world.
Bigger than expected
Since the acquisition of Just for Laughs, Sylvain Parent-Bédard and his team have devoted a good part of their time to understanding “the immense machine with exponential growth potential” that they now have in their hands.
“We knew we were embarking on an important adventure, but it’s much bigger than we thought,” he notes, confiding that he has worked 16 hours every day since June. We are preparing an ambitious development plan and we have some great things coming up.”
The businessman refers, among other things, to festivals Just For Laughs from Sydney in Australia, Vancouver and Toronto planned in the coming months. He also confirmed that the Just for Laughs Festival would return to Montreal after a transitional edition, ComediHa! greets Montreal, in July 2024.
The Just for Laughs and Just For Laughs festivals will return to Montreal next July.
Photo Agence QMI, JOËL LEMAY
“Several major cities around the world have approached us to have their own festival. Clearly, the enthusiasm is there and we will make announcements to this effect soon,” says Sylvain Parent-Bédard.
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