"On February 15, 1965, Canada's national flag, with its single, red maple leaf, was raised for the first time above the peace tower in Ottawa."

--From Canadian History for Dummies, Will Ferguson, 2000 CDG BOOKs

If you could only go to Just For Laughs for one day, you would do well to choose Friday. Many people fly in on Thursday, recover from that experience for the rest of Thursday, then hit the Fest hard on Friday. It's a day when everything accelerates and/or expands-- the pace, the parties, the number of shows, the number of industry people and talent in attendance. At least it seems that way. And this year, there was an added bonus: Festival organizers switched Andy Kindler's State of the Industry Address to Friday at 2 PM.

We have now seen five SOTIA's in a row and this was the best one. Kindler's commentary was as cold as the air conditioning. And the Opus Room crowd roared as Kindler delivered a tight, 75-minute screed that was all killer, no filler. Todd Glass did the honors of bringing on the beleagured Kindler and the presentation got under way only 3 minutes past the hour (a record?).

In contrast to last year's multimedia extravaganza (which, you'll recall was augmented by a riotous slide show from Ed Crasnic and a taped piece or two), this year's tirade could be titled, "Andy Kindler Unplugged." It was nothing but an hour and fifteen of bang, boom, crash, bang-- Kindler on the podium, delivering a wicked monologue that trashed everyone from Eddie Izzard to Leni Reifenstahl.

TV product, such as Crank Yankers, the Friars Roast and Star Search, was mercilessly deconstructed. His earnest plea to euthanize Saturday Night Live was met with general approval and, of course, tears of laughter. He ripped into Jason Alexander, Jay Leno and Margaret Cho ("My mother has ten minutes of solid material-- where's HER huge gay following?!") and engaged in some extreme satire that managed to skewer both the business of standup and the inanity of network suits ("Who Wants To Marry A Road Comic?")

It is our humble opinion that his closing joke, a well-crafted bit about Leni Reifenstahl's curriculum vitae, was better than anything Woody Allen ever came up with in his standup phase. It was, as always, a bitter, bittersweet essay by a guy who would dearly love to love the business that so often disappoints him.

Scroll down to the bottom lefthand side of the page to see the complete list of people, places and things that got hammered during the 2003 SOTIA!

AFTER A late lunch/early dinner at Cafe l'Etranger, we strolled over to the catch the last hour of the Hollywood Reporter party, the first party of the Fest to be held out on the terrace. Scheduled to run from 5 to 7, the party's second hour thins out pretty quickly, as so many folks have plans to attend so many of those 7 PM shows.

SO FAR, we have not spotted any of the Gala celebs. No Brad Garrett. No Kelly Ripa. No Carl Reiner. No Rick Mercer. No Tina Fey. We did, however, see self-described D-Lister KATHY GRIFFIN in the lobby waiting for transport to her Evening at Eve's Tavern gig. Griffin also presented An Evening with Kathy Griffin, her Joan Rivers for the New Millenium celeb-bashing show, the other night.

The Friday night Gala, hosted by the aforementioned Ripa, also featured RUSSELL PETERS, SEAN MEO, ADAM HILLS, MAX ALEXANDER, MITCH FATEL, OTIS LEE CRENSHAW and LOUIS CK.

We boarded a shuttle to the most far-flung of all the JFL venues, Kola Note, to catch the first half of the 9:30 Masters Show. We caught JIM SHUBERT, BILL ENGVALL, ANDREW KENNEDY and DREW HASTINGS before we found it necessary to seek oxygen outside. That room is hot, literally and figuratively. It's the former Club Soda and, from all reports, it is a performer's dream-- spacious stage, great layout, etc. The four sets we witnessed confirmed that it's an ideal performance space for both comic and audient.

We made it back to the Delta by 10:59-- coincidentally the start of the CBC bash. It was the first of the big, corporate-sponsored parties and it was well-attended, but not obnoxiously so. We ran into an ecstatic Max Alexander there, fresh off his Gala performance (he was the last act before the intermission). Max, we learned to our astonishment, has never performed at a JFL before this year. And, while the veteran of huge casino gigs (opening for the likes of Tom Jones) and high-profile corporate gigs is no stranger to big-audience, flashy situations, he said that his gala gig (and the cameraderie beforehand with the other acts) made him remember what this comedy thing is all about.

MASTERS QUESTION--You may recall that in yesterday's update, we posed the following: "...the stated mission of the Masters: "...to allow a carefully selected lineup of veteran standup comics re-introduce themselves to the industry." Paul Rodruguez needs a re-introduction?" We spotted Mr. RODRIGUEZ at the CBC party and asked him why he needs to be re-introduced to the industry and he instantly replied over the din, "Because everybody thinks I'm George Lopez!"

Also spotted at "Slawko & Debby's Late Night Nosh" (the cryptic, official name for the CBC party) were JOE STARR (Best of the Fest, along with LEE MACK, MITCH FATEL, GODFREY, JIM DAVID and TOM PAPA), JUDY GOLD (on Colin Quinn & Friends with Papa, EDDIE BRILL, RICH VOS, JIM NORTON and GREG GIRALDO. ROCKY LAPORTE (on Wiseguys with FRANK SPADONE, DOM IRRERA and ADAM FERRARA). And RYAN WILNER and DAVID PRYDE (on Comedy Night in Canada with SCOTT HARRIS, JOHN BEUHLER, BRIAN LAZANIK, VIC LAPUCCI, SEAN COLLINS and GLEN FOSTER.

I spotted many of the potential participants in the Artist vs. Industry basketball game (to be held Saturday at 2:30 PM) still partying into the oui hours. There should be a lot of wheezing. Saturday will feature the annual Comedy Network Barbecue and the usual avalanche of standup we've come to expect from this, the world's largest and best comedy festival. We'll keep you posted, of course, in this, the world's largest and best online comedy magazine.

In closing, we'll leave you with a quote from Todd Glass' introduction of the SOTIA: "Don't just laugh... CHANGE!"