Just For Laughs in Chicago: Just For U.S. T.V.

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on March 17th, 2008

The real reason that the JFL folks are holding a fest in Chicago (in fall of 2009) is on the second page of this National Post article from last Thursday:

“The problem with America [is] if we don’t have a festival in the States, we’ll never be on American TV,” Rozon says.

Hence the announcement last month of a Chicago edition of the Just For Laughs festival, to take place in the summer of 2009. The company has joined with U.S. channel TBS to turn Just For Laughs: A Very Funny Festival (as the event is billed) into four specials. Ellen De-Generes will host.

“When our brand is well-known throughout Chicago, which I hope will happen within a couple of years, Just For Laughs is going to mean more as a stand-up franchise in the United States,” says Bruce Hills, the company’s chief operating officer, “maybe bringing us back to where we were when we were on HBO and Showtime all the time.”

The Chicago shows represent the second attempt by JFL to crack the U.S. market. “We had a great stretch in the glory days of stand-up,” says Hills, referring to the Seinfeld bubble of the 1990s. “We had major prime-time specials on HBO and Showtime and even Fox.”

The specials lured U.S. networks’ talent scouts north to Montreal to schmooze potential sitcom stars. “That’s when networks were paying a lot of money for stand-up,” Hills says. “And then the boom died. Big thud, and no one wanted stand-up on television, let alone a festival from Montreal.”

It’s the television, stupid!

(The fest organizers face the same dilemma that Canadian comics have faced for the past 25 years– If you want that American TV exposure, ya gotta relocate to L.A. or NYC! In this case, Chicago will do just fine. Or so they hope.)

Will this mean that Montreal will cease to exist? Probably not. But it will probably shift its emphasis to Canadian and international acts (U.K., Australia, France, etc.)

We’re on the fence as to whether we’ll attend this year’s fest in Montreal. We’ve been there every year for nine years (NINE YEARS!) and something quite extraordinary would have to happen for us to show up north of the border this year. (Actually getting booked to perform in it? All our rowdy friends are included in this year’s version? We stumble over a bag of unmarked 100’s and there are no witnesses?) Stay tuned.ashley baia

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