Chicago

Presenting...Just For Laughs: A very Funny Festival Coming To Chicago Summer 2009

With 25 years of experience running the world’s largest and most prestigious comedy festival and a reputation for fresh and innovative thinking, Just For Laughs and TBS will collaborate to launch Just For Laughs: A Very Funny Festival. The ground-breaking U.S. comedy festival will hit Chicago, IL summer 2009.

Hot on the heels of last summer’s 25th edition of Just For Laughs and the highly successful inaugural Toronto Festival, Just For Laughs continues its comedy takeover into Chicago – a city renowned for launching comedy superstars such as John Belushi, Tina Fey, Bill Murray, and Steve Carell. With a rich history in comedy, especially Improv and sketch, Chicago is the perfect location to host Just For Laughs: A Very Funny Festival.

“This has been a truly phenomenal time for Just For Laughs not to mention a milestone year, as we just celebrated our 25th Anniversary this past summer in Montreal. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that Just For Laughs started out as a small local comedy showcase and has grown and evolved to become one of the biggest producers of comedy in the world. We are thrilled to be involved in this endeavour with TBS, especially with Steve Koonin, and to have Chicago as our flagship comedy event in the U.S.”– Gilbert Rozon, President, Just For Laughs

“We’re proud to take a leading role with Just For Laughs for this exciting new summer event in Chicago, and we couldn’t be happier that the enormously talented and always funny Ellen DeGeneres is on board,” said Steve Koonin, President of Turner Entertainment Networks. “Just For Laughs: A Very Funny Festival is a perfect opportunity for us to showcase some of the best talents in the comedy industry and to expand the reach of the TBS brand in exciting new ways.”

The five-day festival will feature: a TBS special hosted by TV star Ellen DeGeneres; a series of stand-up concerts by top-name comedians, the very best in improv and sketch including a collaboration with the famed Second City comedy troupe; Latino and urban comedy extravaganzas; various other events at local comedy clubs as well as a film component. “My first special, Ellen’s Really Big Show, turned out to be so big that TBS asked me to do another,” DeGeneres said. To create the new comedy event, TBS and Just For Laughs will collaborate with the U.S.’ largest independent promoter, Chicago-based Jam Productions, LTD and Outback Concerts. More details and ticket information will be announced this fall.

TBS, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., is television’s top-rated comedy network. It serves as home to such original comedy series as My Boys, The Bill Engvall Show, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne, 10 Items or Less and Frank TV; hot contemporary comedies like The Office, Sex and the City, Everybody Loves Raymond, Family Guy, King of Queens, Seinfeld and Friends, with My Name Is Earl joining the line-up in 2008; specials, such as Funniest Commercials of the Year; live events like The Comedy Festival in Las Vegas and the new Just For Laughs: A Very Funny Festival in Chicago; blockbuster movies; and hosted movie showcases.

Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner company, creates and programs branded news, entertainment, animation and young adult media environments on television and other platforms for consumers around the world.

Just For Laughs is active in many areas of entertainment production including festivals, television, theatre and touring. In the spring of 2006, the company’s French division launched the Festival Juste pour rire Nantes Atlantique in France and in 2007, Just For Laughs launched the Just For Laughs Toronto Festival, both to great success. The company also successfully tours across the globe bringing some of the Festivals’ best talent to Canada, the U.S., Bermuda and Asia and has personal management offices in Los Angeles, Paris, London and Montreal. Just For Laughs television shows are seen in over 125 countries and on over 95 airlines around the world. Just For Laughs stand-up shows have been seen on MTV, Showtime, HBO, BBC America and Fox in the US. They are currently on the air on CBC, as well as The Comedy Network and the popular hidden-camera gags show recently premiered on ABC.