As soon as one of many comedy enterprise’ most influential manufacturers, Only for Laughs final 12 months confronted a shocking downfall. After 4 a long time as a high business kingmaker — a spot the place reps and bookers found the subsequent large factor, and a brief set may change your life — the legendary pageant filed for chapter safety in 2024, its future unsure amid powerful financial situations.
The warning indicators had been constructing: a management scandal, pandemic-era shutdowns, and an evolving comedy economic system the place the algorithm dictated who broke by means of as a lot as any business gatekeeper. As comics went viral on TikTok and constructed followings on YouTube, the query emerged: did JFL nonetheless matter?
And but, the legacy is simple. Based in 1982 as a two-day francophone occasion, JFL has exploded within the years since right into a marquee title — with Montreal because the flagship pageant and quite a few different satellite tv for pc occasions going down over the course of the 12 months. Its New Faces program has been a career-making platform for dozens of now-household names, from Kevin Hart and Amy Schumer to Jimmy Fallon and Ramy Youssef.
Even within the final decade, with all of the challenges JFL has confronted, the fest has saved its finger on the heartbeat of comedy’s subsequent wave, spotlighting future stars like Hacks‘ Hannah Einbinder, Abbott Elementary‘s Quinta Brunson, and Shane Gillis. And now, after a 12 months of restructuring, there are indicators of renewal.
After buying the model, Sylvain Guardian-Bédard’s Quebec-based ComediHa is relaunching JFL Montreal for the primary time in two years, beginning July 16 — considerably leaner, refocused, and with a mixture of new and preexisting management on the helm.
Guardian-Bédard calls this 12 months’s fest a mere “first step” within the path of his full imaginative and prescient, whereas underscoring that over 100,000 tickets have already been offered, which means that the pageant formally “received’t lose cash this 12 months.”
At this time on the Comedy Means Enterprise podcast, we replicate on the rise, fall, and return of Only for Laughs — joined by the workforce now steering it into the long run: President & CEO Guardian-Bédard, government producer, head of growth and artistic technique Spencer Griffin, and head of programming Nick Brazao.
View a video clip from the dialog above and take a look at the complete audio-only podcast under.
