ComediHa! salutes Montreal, the festival set up in fourth gear to fill the space left by Just for Laughs, although it may be a “transitional edition”, the Quebec company intends to make downtown Montreal its home for several months of July coming. Katherine Levac, Jean-Marc Parent and Arnaud Soly will be among the headliners of this first edition, from July 18 to 28.
Wait until next year to relaunch a comedy festival in downtown Montreal? For Sylvain Parent-Bédard, it was out of the question, despite all the hours of sleep he had to give up in recent weeks.
“When an important event in the comedy industry does not go well, it leaves a perception of difficulty in the entire industry,” the president and CEO of ComediHa! explained in an interview on Wednesday, after a conference of press rich in emotions, during which his voice was choked with tears on a few occasions. On Tuesday, his company officially became the owner of the majority of Just for Laughs assets, the kind of day you only experience once in a lifetime.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Sylvain Parent-Bédard
We had to monopolize these dates to ensure that they continued to be dedicated to humor. That a different festival, having nothing to do with humor, would take these dates, for us, it was unimaginable.
Sylvain Parent-Bédard, President and CEO of ComediHa!
From July 18 to 28, at Place des Arts as well as on Place des Festivals, ComediHa! will celebrate its 25e anniversary with an event having little in common with its flagship festival, which takes place in Quebec in August. No gala is therefore on the program, although the two evenings There’s something to laugh aboutduring which Korine Côté (July 19) and Billy Tellier (July 20) will welcome ten of their comrades to the stage of the Salle Jean-Duceppe, look a lot like galas.
“Our intention was really to offer two different products,” explained the general director of ComediHa! Fest-Québec and main architect of the programming of this new happening, Josée Charland. “We wanted at all costs to avoid people thinking that it’s a copy and paste of what we do in Quebec. »
Promising figures
With shows at the Wilfrid-Pelletier hall (The JMP event, July 19), a series highlighting funny things to discover (The hour of laughter, July 18 to 20, at the Claude-Léveillée hall) and a cabaret-style evening (the Comédie Club Tour, hosted by Neev at the Cinquième Salle, July 19), ComediHa! salute Montréal takes over the entire Place des Arts.
But it is thanks to its outdoor, free programming that the festival shines the most (on paper, at least) with its evening Stand-up generation (Adib Alkhalidey, Matthieu Pepper and Mona de Grenoble will be there on July 21), a stage transposition of the Noovo show The fan war (hosted by Phil Roy, July 20) and Less far than Saint-Titegreat country celebrations during which Pascal Morissette will attempt to beat the world line dancing record.
Still on the Place des Festivals, Katherine Levac will be surrounded during the event Queer & Friends (July 19) of some of the most promising figures of Quebec laughter, including Jessica Chartrand, Sam Cyr and Coco Belliveau. Although queer comedy evenings currently abound in the metropolis, the host was delighted at this rare opportunity to present such a comic rainbow to thousands of people.
“It’s a great privilege to be able to tour all year round, but there are a lot of comedians who depend on the summer,” she observed in an interview. “That’s among other things why it would have sucked if there wasn’t a comedy festival in Montreal this summer. »
The importance of the outside
Arnaud Soly has also brought together an impressive lineup of comedians who deserve to be known, including Anas Hassouna, Douaa Kachache and Mibenson Sylvain, who will be on his Carte Blanche on July 25.
“There is an audience who cannot afford to pay $50 to come see a comedian in a theater and who can finally be there when we play outside,” he underlined, referring to this mixture of tourists, newcomers, young and old who make up the festival crowd in Montreal.
He said he was especially happy to have been able to invite his favorite colleagues, regardless of their notoriety. “There are some names that are a little more left field, but these are the people who make me laugh the most right now,” he applauded. And ComediHa! fully embarked. Since these shows, unlike the Just for Laughs galas, are not captured for TV, it removes the pressure of having absolutely only big names. »
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
Comedian Arnaud Soly
I am wary of monopolies in general, but I think we are far from a monopoly with ComediHa! There are plenty of other players in the industry. And I don’t see who could have changed course so quickly.
Arnaud Soly, comedian
At the end of the press conference, Sylvain Parent-Bébard made it clear that despite what the headline said The Press Wednesday, he is not the “new king of humor”. If he still didn’t know if, in 2025, the summer festival he will lead in Montreal will be called ComediHa! or that of Just for Laughs, one thing is certain, this transitory event is destined to become permanent.
Read “Sylvain Parent-Bédard, a new king of humor is born! »
“I liked the article, but I don’t like being described as the king of humor,” he said, “because heads get cut off. I want to be seen as a unifier, a federator of talents. »
Check out the ComediHa programming! salutes Montreal