DAY TWO: SPRINGER HOSTS FIRST GALA OF THE WEEK!

MONTREAL--Theatre St. Denis was the site of the first of five galas here at the Just For Laughs Festival. Talk show host Jerry Springer hosted the first one without having to do much standup.

CAMPING OUT IN THE V.I.P. TENT,
SEEING THE FRIARS MOVIE,
HANGIN' OUT AT THE DELTA!

Springer kicked off Wednesday night's Gala in front of a mockup of the Springer Show set and presided over "My Lover Is A Separatist," which went a little long but was a creative use of Springer without having him actually do a monologue.

Hey, isn't that the guy from X-Files? No, no, no, the one of the right! My right! His left!

He did, however, do material in between introducing the rest of the night's acts, which consisted of Lenny Clarke, Heidi Foss, Emo Philips, Ed Alonzo, Rich Jeni, René Hicks, Ronnie Edwards, Carlos Mencia and a trio of juggling Mexicans who call themselves The Richards Brothers (No, I am not making that up)!

These three guys are, from left, Kevin James, (King of Queens) Joe Rogan (News Radio) and manager Jeff Sussman

This was the first time we ventured into the Latin Quartier and waded into the street performances that draw a big chunk of the million or so folks that descend on Montreal for the JFL Festival. To get to the Gala V.I.P. tent, we had to push through slack-jawed crowds that were watching puppeteers, mimes, guys on stilts, lip-synching something-or-others and zany bands.

On the left: Mike McDonald--Canadian Mike McDonald, not Boston Mike McDonald--the only comic to have performed in the Festival all 17 years!!

Their jaws weren't exactly slackened in amazement as far we could tell...and their wasn't a lot of laughter in the streets either...it was a lot like performance art.

Anyway, we flashed our press passes and found a seat near one of the many large

monitors that carried the closed circuit narrowcast of the goings onstage at the Theatre St. Denis. Among the steady stream of folks cycling through the V.I.P. tent was Dean Haglund--the guy from X-Files, (Top photo, he's on your right, my left)--who, unbeknownst to us, is a comedian and was scheduled to perform (participate? compete?) in the World Improv Championships.

Dean also said he was planning to swing on over to the Comedy Works on Bishop Street (which was hosting Best of the Fest on this particular evening), and do a set.

We abandoned the tent for a bit to tend to some SHECKY! business. We had plans to return to the area because a block away from the tent was the National Film Board (NFB) Cinema, a high-tech wonder that was the staging area for the Eat My Shorts and Eat My Twisted Shorts series. Ezra Soiferman is the man who organized this smorgasbord of "the world's funniest new short films" and tonight Ezra was proud to screen "Let Me In--I Hear Laughter."

We were fortunate to discover press releases about "Let Me In" at the press desk and decided that this 60-minute documentary about the Friars Club was right up SHECKY!'s alley!

"Let Me In" director Dean Ward, comedian Steve Mittleman, Co-Producer Dolores Gavin and comedienne Wendy Kamenoff at Montreal's NFB Cinema.

We attended the screening at 11:30 PM with a healthy crowd, among which was "Let Me In" director Dean Ward and Co-Producer Dolores Gavin. After a brief intro by Ward,

we were moved by this loving tribute to the legends of comedy and their fraternal organization. Footage of Friars roasts, photos of Sinatra and Dino, interviews with Uncle Miltie, Buddy Hackett and Red Buttons--it's a beautiful thing to see and a must-watch for anybody who call himself (or herself) a comedy fan. The film was backed by Cinemax, where it will debut in October.

Back at the Delta afterwards, the roar of the schmooze was audible as soon as we entered the lobby off of President Kennedy. Budd Freidman, Rick Messina, Jan Maxwell-Smith, and a barful of comedy industry notables were doing the Festival two-step long after the house lights went up at 3 AM. Sitcom stars Joe Rogan and Kevin James (See photo above) arrived late and dove into the networking mosh pit for brief periods. We renewed old ties with Philadelphian Jim Shubert and hooked up briefly with author, lecturer and May SHECKY! interview subject Bob Harris. And this was just Wednesday night! Whew!