{"id":123182,"date":"2024-03-06T00:50:35","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T00:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/06\/just-for-laughs-cancels-montreal-comedy-festival-seeks-creditor-protection\/"},"modified":"2024-03-06T00:50:35","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T00:50:35","slug":"just-for-laughs-cancels-montreal-comedy-competition-seeks-creditor-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/06\/just-for-laughs-cancels-montreal-comedy-competition-seeks-creditor-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Just for Laughs cancels Montreal comedy competition, seeks creditor safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Members of the comedy world say they\u2019re saddened by the cancellation of this 12 months\u2019s Just for Laughs Montreal comedy competition, whose years of exhibits have highlighted a few of the business\u2019s largest names and launched the careers of many comedians.<\/p>\n

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Groupe Juste pour rire Inc., the corporate that operates the competition, stated in a information launch Tuesday it’s searching for safety from its collectors because it begins formal restructuring underneath Canada\u2019s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act.<\/p>\n

The firm stated its English and French festivals this summer time in Montreal can be cancelled, nevertheless it plans to proceed operations \u201cin a scaled-down format\u201d because it restructures and hopes the competition will return in 2025.<\/p>\n

Kelly Taylor, a comic from Prince Albert, Sask., stated performing on the competition was the one alternative he needed to play in entrance of present bookers who wouldn\u2019t have come to see his act at residence.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was one of these things where you could get something to happen, over a week, you have all these different people come watch you,\u201d Taylor stated in a cellphone interview from a Winnipeg comedy membership.<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s first efficiency at Just For Laughs, in 2005, stays his most profitable: he positioned second in a contest for Canadian comics, and his act acquired him booked for extra exhibits on the competition that 12 months \u2014 and helped him discover a supervisor.<\/p>\n

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\u201cA lot of good came out of it, for sure,\u201d he stated. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of sad that it\u2019s not happening this year \u2014 unless I didn\u2019t get in, then I\u2019m not too worried about it, as long as it comes back again,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n

Matt Labov, a publicist in Los Angeles who has labored with comedians together with Mark Normand, Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen \u2014 and represented Dave Chapelle within the early 2000s \u2014 stated the cancellation is \u201ca sad day for comedy,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not like music, where there\u2019s tons of music festivals,\u201d he stated in an interview. Montreal\u2019s competition, Labov added, has been \u201csuch an important place, a launching pad and such an important destination for comedy in a world that doesn\u2019t have a lot of destinations, and I can only hope that they get back on their feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Julien Provencher-Proulx, a spokesman for Groupe Juste pour rire, confirmed that 75 staff, round 70 per cent of the corporate\u2019s workforce, had been laid off Tuesday. He wrote in an electronic mail that individuals who had bought tickets can obtain refunds.<\/p>\n

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In addition to the competition, quite a lot of different upcoming Groupe Juste pour rire performances in Quebec had been cancelled \u2014 although a number of of the artists who had been booked for these dates stated on social media they’d produce the exhibits themselves.<\/p>\n

The competition, which started in 1983, has expanded with occasions in different cities and tv applications, together with the Just for Laughs Gags prank present. Over the years, the competition has introduced lots of the largest names in standup comedy, together with Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle, Amy Schumer and Jerry Seinfeld. In addition to ticketed indoor exhibits, the French and English festivals featured free outside performances.<\/p>\n

The Toronto Just for Laughs competition, set to happen in September, has not been cancelled, Provencher-Proulx stated, nor has the competition in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n

Just pour rire blamed its monetary woes on quite a lot of elements, together with the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and the altering leisure business.<\/p>\n

The firm, whose officers declined interview requests, stated it’s searching for new buyers, or consumers for components of its enterprise, and that it hopes to protect operations \u201cas much as possible.\u201d It is 51 per cent owned by Bell and Montreal occasion promoter Evenko, whereas Los Angeles-based expertise company Creative Artists Agency owns 49 per cent.<\/p>\n

Fran\u00e7ois Brouard, the affiliate director of the Observatoire de l\u2019humour, a company that brings collectively comedians and researchers who examine comedy, stated the competition might have struggled to adapt to altering tendencies in French-language comedy in Quebec.<\/p>\n

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The competition stated in 2023 that it might now not placed on French-language galas, he stated, including that Quebec\u2019s francophone comedians are more and more reaching audiences on-line and have turn into much less depending on occasions just like the competition to construct a fan base.<\/p>\n