4:00 P.M., July 24, 2000

SHECKY! A magazine about standup... treks to Montreal for the second straight year to bring you daily slices of the world's largest comedy festival!

\It's Over!

\Surreal World!

\Crappy Party!

\Hype Dangers!

Combatants in the Real World/Road Rules challenge can't seem to ignore a still camera.

Cameraman, cameraman's assistant and sound man record the drama as combatant takes last puffs on a nicotine delivery system.

MONTREAL--We are sleeping as we type this. Eight days in Montreal has induced a coma. We are among the few brave souls who remain in this town on the last day of the festival. A peculiar kind of fatigue-induced depression colors everything we think and say...and write. The comics who must perform on the final gala and in the other shows get hosed in terms of buzz and publicity and excitement. The bleary-eyed industry types have long since taken the shuttles to the airports. The three Bar Mitzvah Shows are all sold out. CJAD reports today that, once again, the Festival ends up in the black and that it "profited to the tune of $80,000." (That's it?)

Two buses--excuse me, two luxury motor coaches-- are parked outside Le Nouvel Hotel, and they are emblazoned with the logos of Road Rules and The Real World. The two MTV "reality" programs have come to Montreal to videotape their "stars" as they battle for supremacy in the improvisational comedy department. The Comedy Nest is taken over by the equipment, technicians, producers, assistants and, of course, the hi-Q-rating gen-Y-ers who squabble and philosophize and agonize while desperately ignoring the cameras.

The plan called for James Cunningham, Larry Miles, Phil Shuchat, Heidi Foss, Freddy Charles, SHECKY! editor Brian McKim, D.J. Hazard and Marty Putz to entertain the crowd for an hour or so before members of the Upright Citizens Brigade mounted the stage and started the competition.

The standup part, as can be expected, goes well. After a brief intermission, however, the audio on the monitor in the green room goes out, so we are forced to entertain ourselves by watching the competition and mocking the participants. Dave Beckey, Ernie Butler, Putz and members of the Upright Citizens Brigade are among the judges for the improv competition. We never did stick around to find out who won. I tried to obtain some information (like the names of the participants, stuff like that) from an assistant to an assistant, but he told me that they don't carry press kits with them. He told me to call MTV. Yeah...jeez! Why didn't I think of that!?!? Perhaps the next Road Rules challenge should be a trip to Kinko's! The team that produces the nicest press kit with the most information arranged in a logical way wins!

Rumors are circulating sluggishly that there will be a final party at a place called Lynx or Jinx or somewhere. We ascertain that it's Jinx and we catch a shuttle to a morgue-like Delta. We hear from a couple of party returnees that the Jinx party stinx. Cash bar, one free drink ticket and throbbing music on two or three levels. We shuttle on over anyway and strain our vocal chords over the disceau musique. Our patience wears thin. We leave after a free biere forte.

Somewhere along the way, on one of the shuttles, we misplace our bag containg our beloved digital camera, a few SHECKY! t-shirts and a wristwatch emblazoned with the likeness of "Corny", the Kellogs Corn Flakes rooster mascot. After a few phone calls and some agonizing, we are re-united with our valise and all is right with le monde.

We heard that Norm Crosby killed at the Bar Mitzvah Show. It was nice to hear a positive review. We've heard a scary number of negative reviews this year. It was not rare for someone to say that they had attended a show and liked only one of the comics --out of the ten or more that were on the bill. The Gazette was churning out negative comments on a regular basis.

And the good reviews couldn't always be believed. The Hollywood Reporter, in their daily updates, were churning out little review-lets that sometimes strained credulity. We stopped into Works on Tuesday night and saw Aussie Sarah Kendall have quite a rough time of it on stage. We admired her for handling her less than smashing set in a creative and inventive way. The headline on a subsequent review-let was "Kendall Kills!" It cited the show that we saw and said quite clearly that she killed. There's hype and then there's hype. A writer could have found many things to like about her set that night. But Kendall Kills? That kind of hyperbole doesn't do her or the Hollywood Reporter any good. And it kinda waters down the impact of the term "kill," at the very least

And speaking of hype and the dangers of hype, Orny Adams won the award for Most-Hyped of the Fest. The Orny hype was ankle deep at the Delta. The Hollywood Reporter referred to Adams as the "It" comic. Who's writing this stuff? Theda Bara's publicist? (Our tribute to Dennis Miller!) We never saw Mr. Adams perform, so we can't comment one way or the other on his talent as a standup comic. However, there was a palpable "hype backlash." By midweek his name became a punchline. Did he deserve such treatment? Nobody deserves that. But we're fairly certain that the object of publicity and hype and press is not to invoke pity. And, by the weekend we felt bad for the guy. What went wrong there? Pray that it never happens to you!

It's a fun festival. Every comic should experience it at least once. However, since purchasing a pass can run you $200 or more, plan now to suck up to someone who can get you one for free! We were walking to our hotel one evening when we passed buy the last knot of revelers evacuating the party zone on Crescent Street. One of them was obviously eyeing the red Just For Laughs 2000 passes that dangled around our necks . When he had finally gathered enough data from the badges, he turned to his party and reported: "Oh, they're just the media...they're not anything important."