What does Canadian comedy look like without Just for Laughs?

Last Tuesday, the company behind Just for Laughs comedy festival announced they would be cancelling its 2024 run in Montreal due to their troubling financial situation. They cited lost revenue, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the main factor for the cancellation. 

A few days after the announcement, the company also cancelled the 2024 Just For Laughs festival in Toronto, which was slated for September.

Comics have been making a name for themselves at the festival for over 40 years, including big acts like Ali Wong, Hasan Minhaj, Ronny Chieng, Jo Koy and Taylor Tomlinson.

Standup comedians looking to get their big break, count on the festival's New Faces Comedy Showcase, which gives them the opportunity to book bigger shows or get their own comedy specials. For comedian Cassie Cao, New Faces was pivotal to boosting her career.

Cao and fellow Canadian comedian Ali Hassan join host Elamin Abdelmahmoud on Commotion to talk about the cancellation of Just For Laughs and imagine a future for Canadian standup comedians without the festival.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, plus a conversation about whether Wendy Williams truly consented to the docuseries about her, listen and follow the Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud podcast on your favourite podcast player.

LISTEN | Today's episode on YouTube:

Elamin: Cassie, you were chosen to be one of JFL's New Faces of Comedy a few years back. How much of a blow is this for people who might be counting on this year's festival? 

Cassie: I think the New Faces is the most exciting event at JFL. I think JFL itself is already the biggest festival in the world. It's so big for us to have it in Canada, given that we have so little else in the industry. New Faces itself is like what everyone is excited about. It's what all the industry and agents and producers and casting directors and talent scouts go to. Everyone's looking for the new faces of comedy. 

And I was so lucky to get it. It boosts your profile for a minute, but also you have to prepare for it for so long. And, I think having that taken away, given that there's really nothing else in this country that even compares to JFL being able to give you that kind of profile is a huge loss for Canadians, because American comics who get to do New Faces, have tons of other stuff in America that they can do, but there's really nothing of this size in Canada for us. 

Elamin: When you get a spot like New Faces, it's kind of like the Olympics. You spend time preparing for this thing. You spend months and months planning for the set, planning to get ready for that moment. And so when this moment gets taken away from you, it feels like a significant blow. Is that an accurate description? 

Cassie: When I think of it disrupting the industry, it's not just that it's not happening in July, But that most comics take at least six months a year to prepare for their showcases. Everyone's writing new material, especially depending on your style. Not every style is super conducive to JFL. So often if you're too dirty or too political or whatever, you will adjust your set so that you can showcase for JFL and put your best foot forward.

You spend months gossiping about what the bookers are looking for. And then the showcase actually takes place over three months a year. I think they've already started, which is why it's such a wild thing that they cancelled the festival. But in Canada, 200 comics have already showcased for the festival and that's like what you build your year around. Like in Canada we build a year around our showcase sets. That's what the season is like for us.

Elamin: I watch a lot of TikTok comedians, and to me, they're famous. But I show them to my friends and they go, "I've never heard of this person before." It creates this insular consumption of comedy. But then there are also the Netflix specials, meaning that you might be less inclined to spend money on tickets at a festival. And then there's also this idea that big comedians can actually sell out arenas on their own. They don't really need a comedy festival to anchor them. Ali, what do you think about these two different paths? 

Ali: I had this insider information about Just for Laughs for a number of years, and I'm happy I did. And I'm just going to use Kevin Hart's name, because he's one of these types of guys. He represents all these big names and Just for Laughs would always go for a big name and say, "Hey, we want you at the festival this year.' And then their managers or agents, being the savvy sharks they are, would be like, "Great. Kevin will come to the festival and so will these nine performers." So now you have Kevin Hart plus nine. It's a big guest list. They're all comedians. And the agents are like, "Guess what? We're all going to Montreal this year."

But what happens in that world is that the spots are reserved for Canadians because as Cassie said, 200 people have already showcased. These people stood a chance to perform at Just for Laughs. And then Americans would come in and take those spots. And there's a finite number of spots every year. So that was always a bit of an issue for Just for Laughs. And I think that in part motivated a lot of comedians, certainly Canadian comedians to do it on their own. And a lot of them have. And so you get into this interesting world where now, if Just for Laughs approaches some of these comedians and says, "We have a thousand bucks for you to do this," Some of these comedians can say, "I don't need your thousand bucks. I can make $8000 in a weekend here because of my own fan base." So it's a very tricky situation that we find ourselves in. Also, I don't think comedy's going away just because you can see it on Netflix. 

Elamin: Ali, maybe more importantly, why wasn't JFL a better place for Canadian comedians? Why are Canadian comedians trying to go these other paths? 

Ali: It's actually a frustrating subject because having grown up in Montreal, in Quebec and being very familiar with the star system — this is a term maybe most of your listeners don't even know. 

The star system in place in the U.S. is: you see somebody who has some potential and you nurture them, you support them, you encourage them, and you say, "We are going to get you, young performer, out into the market, and we're going to make sure we get as many eyes on you as possible because you are a talent." So you have this world where you perform at open mics, and you don't get paid for them. But we don't care if we get paid or not. 

But then you find out that open mics in Quebec are anywhere between 50 and 100 bucks, maybe sometimes more to do open mics. And suddenly you're paying rent off your open mics. Rent is much cheaper in Montreal, of course, but it's still wild that that's an option. And it starts at the ground level and goes up from there. You support talent and you encourage it. So, my hope is I would love to see Just for Laughs again. 

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jess Low