25th Les Olivier gala | The end of Just for Laughs will not be the end of laughter

On the eve of the 25th^e Les Olivier Gala, The Press brought together three of its most famous comedians – Suzie Bouchard, Arnaud Soly and Simon Gouache – in order to reflect on the transformations of an environment which, despite the shock caused by the announcement of the financial setbacks of Just for Laughs and the end of its festival, has never experienced such vitality.

What impact could the Just for Laughs festival have on a career?

Simon Gouache: I’ve been in the industry for 15 years and I lived through the era where if you didn’t have a gala, it was a wasted year. Your whole year was organized around this objective: you sent your text in December, the auditions started in January and if you weren’t chosen, you started from scratch. A single number in a gala could launch your career. Doing a gala meant having a stamp in your notebook, it meant that you had moved to another stage and suddenly, everywhere else, you were paid better. This is where stars were made.

Arnaud Soly: The pitch that we were given in recent years, for the galas, was: “We’re going to give you $2,000 to burn a number and we won’t tell you when we’re going to release it on Facebook or on TV and that We may cut it during editing. » More and more of us thought it was better to film ourselves, put it on YouTube and keep control of our stuff.

Suzie Bouchard: I started five years ago and I never really identified with the gala format. It was when humor diversified that I saw myself doing it. The bankruptcy of Just for Laughs is a shock because I was produced by Just for Laughs, but the end of Zoofest is my great mourning, that’s what I thought of first, because that it was really a beautiful laboratory.

SG: When the buzz of the galas faded, the festival should have turned around a little more quickly [le festival a présenté son Ultime gala l’été dernier]. I hosted one in 2021 and it was difficult to convince comedians to participate. Patrick Rozon [le patron du volet francophone] was doing an extraordinary job, but I think Just for Laughs was too slow to realize that comedians no longer needed the festival to boost their careers.

Middle class humor

But what role remained for a festival like Just for Laughs? At another time, the Vieux Clocher de Magog was pretty much the only place to present humor, in the summer, outside of Montreal, whereas now, humor is everywhere in the city. Quebec, 365 days a year.

AS: There is definitely decentralization that has occurred. Several cities have their small festivals, their comedy evenings, their comedy clubs, their podcasts. Lots of artists self-produce. I think we are moving more and more towards a reign of self-production on one side, and giants like Netflix and Amazon who come to swallow everything up on the other, with little room for the in-between.

SB: It’s true that what we are experiencing is paradoxical: the giant is collapsing, but there is real vitality in the environment. There have never been so many comedians of different genres. What is certain is that if anyone still thinks that humor is only one thing, they are not really interested in it. There may be fewer comedy millionaires, but there are more people making a living from it. A comedian can find his audience in many ways without a producer having to put his face on a billboard.

AS: Over the last 10, 15 years, we have really witnessed the emergence of a middle class in humor.

SG: The public developed a curiosity that they didn’t have before and which, I think, was fueled by On the way to my first Just for Laughs gala [concours diffusé à MAtv de 2008 à 2017, qui a contribué à révéler François Bellefeuille, Virginie Fortin, Mariana Mazza, Phil Roy, Katherine Levac, Richardson Zéphir, Rosalie Vaillancourt, Guillaume Pineault, Pierre-Yves Roy-Desmarais et de nombreux autres]. The impact ofOn the way. It gave a showcase that was non-existent to a daring next generation who didn’t just do a kind of humor. And once again, the goal was to have a gala.

And Zoofest had a similar impact!

AS: Yes, it gave us solo shows lasting an hour and a quarter and a half. There was room at Zoofest for concept shows and risk-taking. Word got around when a show became the event. We could feel the excitement in the Monument-National. I remember seeing Katherine Levac and David Beaucage when they left the National School of Humor and being shocked. There was the feeling of a community: “Hey, the next generation, we exist, we have a voice and an audience. »

And now ?

Does Montreal absolutely need a summer comedy festival?

SB: It would take something unique, something special, which is different from what is already offered the rest of the year.

SG: It would take, yes, something more marginal, more surprising, like the Edinburgh Fringe festival, or like what Zoofest and Just for Laughs were, with surprise shows, at different times, sometimes late. Because at the moment, in humor, the public likes emergence and novelty.

AS: It’s fun to walk downtown and be amazed. When I was 10, 11 years old, I left the Center-Sud with my brother and we spent the day seeing the activities, the mascots, the circus. Perhaps we should give back a place to the next generation, to something more edgy, and to street art.

SG: As a native Montrealer, I find it a shame for Montreal. The Soccer World Cup won’t come, F1 seems to have been hanging by a thread for years. It’s sad that the city is losing what sets it apart. We must remember that if Montreal is one of the world’s Meccas for humor, it is thanks to Just for Laughs.

SB: The industry has changed a lot in recent years and it needed to change, but it is certain that without the Just for Laughs festival, which gave its luster to this form of art, humor would not occupy such a big place in Quebec.

The remarks have been abbreviated and condensed for brevity.

The 25th^e Gala Les Olivier is broadcast live from the Pierre-Mercure room at the Center Pierre-Péladeau this Sunday at 8 p.m. on ICI Télé, ICI Tou.tv and on Radio-Canada.ca/Olivier