Big Changes for the Better!

 

Just For Laughs 2011: A Year of Trial and Success!


Montreal, August 1st – The Montreal Just For Laughs Festival presented by Videotron in association with Loto-Québec was held for the 29th time, from July 5th to the 31st. This year, we took some risks and we changed (almost) everything. The results are incredible and our smiles are ones of complete satisfaction. Now that its all said and done (and we can all get a bit of sleep), here is an overview of this year’s activities.


 
A change of venue
The move to the Place des Festivals is now complete with the transfer of our Galas to the Place des Arts. With this, we:
  • Provided a better festival environment
  • Had more prestigious venues
  • Created a better way of getting to and from events and shows
  • Brought people back to the street
  • Created new and more efficient set designs 
 
Holy crap statistics
  • 3,695 participants and artists
  • 158 shows
  • 1,762 representations
  • Over 20 countries represented
  • Close to 135,000 tickets sold
 
Just For Laughs
JFL presented shows from July 11th to the 31st. This extended programming (20 days!) was a huge success:
  • The largest number of Gala tickets sold in our history!
  • The Best Night Ever Gala, hosted by Russell Peters (4 shows and also filmed for CBC) sold over 10,000 alone!
  • Louis CK, "Comedy Person of the Year," did the show of the Festival; hardest ticket to get. And topped things off by sharing his wisdom in an “In Conversation” in front of a capacity crowd at the Comedy Conference.
  • Daniel Tosh (star of 2.0) sold out his much anticipated first show in Montreal.
  • Amp’d (Hosted by Weird al and filmed for the Comedy Network) The Ethnic Show and The Nasty Shows were Festival favorites
  • Just For Laughs exploded with over 20 intimate 100 seater shows as part of Zoofest
  • The surprise of 2011 was the unplanned show by Adam Hills and his International friends at the Hope & Cope Center of the Jewish General Hospital for cancer patients. It came from a request from a festival-goer who, at his show, asked if they would do it… and they did!

Juste pour rire
This year’s programming was diversified and above all, international:
  • 13 Galas, one event and an hommage were presented at the Place des Arts
  • Two Quebec premiers: Confessions de Stéphane Rousseau and Torture from Jean-Marc Parent (already 75,000 tickets sold!)
  • One final show: Florence Foresti and her Mother Fucker tour (sold out in 24 hours with 4 tweets and one Just pour rire En direct show!)
  • Non comedians such as Eric Salvail and Gregory Charles had a go at it and lit it up!
  • The Gala Hommage, under the artistic direction of Stephane Bureau and Guy Lévesque, was one of the best moments of 2011, with a look back at the career of Denise Filiatrault by over 50 artists
  • Eddie Izzard presented a show in French (cool!)
 
Street Events
The big change of the 2011 Festival – three weekends of family-filled fun with multiple highlights:
  • Comedians were back in the street, playing free outdoor shows in front of ecstatic fans. Rachid Badouri (100,000 people just for him!), Dominic et Martin, Jean-Thomas Jobin, Sylvain Larocque, Les Denis Drolets, Maxime Martin, Christopher Williams, Jeremy Demay et Nabila, and Mario Jean
  • Pinkarnaval saw tens of thousands of people show up for the big parade paying tribute to the world of Jean-Paul Gauthier. 1,600 Montrealers paraded 26 different costumes, hair styles and choreographies
  • Les Arts de la Rue presented Victor’s Follies, a trip through the vast history of musical comedies, and the Grand Bisous: The wedding (finally!) of Rose and Victor
  • L’Humour partout let festival-goers live the 14th edition of the Twins parade – the largest ever!
  • A special mention goes out to Juste pour nourrir, the one-night event that brought together some of Montreal’s most reputable restaurant owners (the 8 participating restaurants sold out in just a few hours!)
 
Comedy Conference
For a fourth year, the Comedy Conference brought the comedy industry back to Montreal:
  • More than 400 of the biggest players in the industry, including high-level executives from the worlds of feature film, television, digital media and live entertainment attended and close to 1,000 industry people attended the festival.
  • Podcasts made their first appearance ever at the Festival and were an instant hit: Chris Hardwick, Matt Mira and Jonah Ray recorded their popular podcast “The Nerdist” in front of a capacity crowd. Marc Maron’s popular “WTF” podcast was taped in front of a sold-out crowd. Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier received a standing ovation from a full house as they stepped on stage to record an episode of “SModcast”.
  • Garry Shandling received the Just For Laughs “Lifetime Achievement Award.”
  • Steven Levitan (Modern Family) was presented the “Comedy Writer of the Year” award by Eric Stonestreet.
  • Ken Jeong (The Hangover 2, Transformers 3, The Zookeeper and Community) was presented the “Breakout Comedy Star of the Year” award by David Wain.
  • Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) was presented the “Director of the Year” by Richard Crouse.
  • Louis C.K. was presented the “Comedy Person of the Year” award by Tom Green.
 
Zoofest
For its third year, Zoofest continued its growth and presented content aimed at the younger generation:
  • 10 venues in the heart of the Quartier des spectacles, from July 9th to the 31st
  • 83 shows, 365 representations and 250 local and International artists
  • The birth of Zoofest.tv, where 90 videos were viewed over 100,000 times in one month
  • The show “60 minutes avec... François Bellefeuille” was chosen as the Festival favourite by our jury made up of journalists and bloggers
  • The Zoopass found over three times as many buyers as last year
 
Digital Overview
We used 2011 to start a digital revolution and the numbers show that we’re really on to something:
  • Close to 600,000 visits to hahaha.com in July (a 155% increase) and 2.9 Million page views (up 285%)
  • Users more than doubled the time spent on the site
  • 12,000 mobile apps were downloaded
  • 10 times more Facebook fans compared to last year
  • Over 20 Million views in July only on our Youtube channels
 
Television and International distribution
In 2011, our television distribution made great strides:
  • The Festival enabled us to produce 110 hours of television in English and in French that will be shown here and across the globe in the United-States, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands
  • Juste pour rire TV filmed and captured enough material for 15 hours of programming on TVA
  • JPR En Direct had a new host (Mélanie Maynard) and presented 21 live shows during the Festival
  • JFL TV filmed 3 shows and captured 16 representations
 
Film Festival
For its 15th edition, the Just For Laughs Film Festival continued to grow:
  • Presentation of close to 50 films and shorts from July 24th to the 31st
 
Other interesting facts about the 2011 Festival
  • Over 500 French and English comedians
  • Over 2,000 outdoor and indoor shows
  • 12,000 tables d’hôte served in our VIP restaurant
  • Over 200 technicians and close to 300 hours over setting up and closing down
 
Victor Awards
We would like to salute this year’s recipients:
  • Programmer’s favourite (it’s a tie!) – Torture from Jean-Marc Parent and the Denise Filiatrault Gala Hommage
  • The newcomer – Guillaume Wagner
  • The best Gala number – Emmanuel Bilodeau
  • The Coup de Coeur LaPresse – Rachid Badouri
  • The Zoofest media favorite – François Bellefeuille
 
2011 was filled with bright lights, highlights, high-end comedy and high times! But it will be nothing compared to what we have in store for you next year – our 30th anniversary! As of today, we start work in order to bring you unique and unforgettable moments! See you then!
 
 
About the Just For Laughs Group
Founded in 1983, the Just For Laughs Group’s growth is concentrated on four major focal points: Festivals (in Montreal, Toronto and Chicago), from begining to end; television production (most notably Gags seen in 135 countries and on 95 airlines); live shows (Canadian tour dates for Jerry Seinfeld, Jeremy Hotz, John Pinette, Louis C.K., the Capital One Just For Laughs Comedy Tour, North American dates for Family Guy Live!); and talent management. Its inaugural Montreal Festival 29 years ago is now the world's largest and most prestigious comedy event welcoming 2 million people each summer. The Group has offices in Montreal, Paris, Los Angeles, Toronto and London. 
 
-30-
 
 
Source: Just For Laughs
 
Information: Tammy Peddle
Director Media Creativity
Annexe Communications
514.844-8864 ext.114
tpeddle@annexecommunications.com Go Back