In the Season 3 opener of “Hacks,” stand-up legend Deborah Vance, played by Jean Smart, touches down in Montreal to accept the comedy special of the year award at the venerable Just for Laughs festival. The episode allowed the Emmy-winning Max series to finally pay homage to the world’s biggest comedy fest, which for decades was a talent incubator and industry summer camp where deals were struck and comics like Kevin Hart, Amy Schumer and Quinta Brunson were discovered.
But the episode aired at an awkward time. Two months earlier, in March 2024, Just for Laughs filed for bankruptcy after owing millions in unpaid bills to hotels, venues and production companies. It shuttered its global events and production arm, leaving the future of the 43-year-old gathering, the crown jewel of comedy industry events, uncertain.
Then, later that year, Sylvain Parent-Bédard, the head of the Quebec-based company ComediHa!, swooped in, acquiring Just for Laughs and marrying the two brands. With Parent-Bédard as its new president and CEO, the festival made a gradual return this year with small events in Sydney and Bermuda. With new initiatives and a greater focus on development, Just for Laughs hopes Hollywood and beyond will return in droves to Montreal for the rebooted fest, which runs July 16-27. (The lineup has yet to be announced.)
Parent-Bédard, a primarily French-speaking businessman with a sunny smile and spiky hair, launched his first business at age 17, hopping the Canadian border to buy video games from American ports and then selling them in Quebec. He barged into the comedy world in 1997 when he decided to rent a venue, book the comedian Stéphane Rousseau and “call every businessman in the city,” selling tickets one by one over the phone.
He fell in love with comedy. “I wanted to launch Just for Laughs in Quebec City, but the former owner told me it was impossible. So I launched my own festival,” he says, referring to ComediHa!, which he built into a full-fledged production company. “I know what it means to light the stage, to put the sound on, to roll cables for the camera, because I’ve done it myself.” What separates him from Just for Laughs’ previous ownership, he says, is a true passion for comedy and an ear to the ground.
“With all the respect I have for the old owners, you do not manage a creation company with a finance ideology,” Parent-Bédard says. “When I met the CEO of Just for Laughs in 2018, I had the phone number of every stand-up comedian, their management, their agent. He did not have one, but he had the phone number of the bank. He had the phone number of the sponsor. He knew nothing about comedy.”
Spencer Griffin, Just for Laughs’ longtime head of development and creative strategy, emphasizes that while the fest has historically been focused on discovery of new talent, the new regime aims to play a more active role in career development.
This year, Just for Laughs is partnering with Rob McElhenney and his More Better Productions on an initiative geared to writers, Will Arnett and his Electric Avenue banner on a shorts and pilots platform, and YouTube sketch-comedy stars Smosh on a program for social media creators. Those selected for the programs will receive development deals and prolonged mentorship.
“We want to be additive. We want to introduce artists to the industry at the festival and then actually help them succeed in the industry,” Griffin says. “Whereas the old company just said, ‘Good luck,’ now we want to say, ‘Here’s how we take the next step together.’”
While some in the biz are skeptical about the brand’s health just one year out from bankruptcy, Hollywood is still eager to return to Montreal. Even in an era when comedians are self-distributing specials and self-financing movies and TV shows, their representatives still see Just for Laughs as a key-holder to some of the gates encircling the entertainment industry.
“A lot of pipelines have disappeared in this industry in terms of building your career,” says one comedy manager. “Having a respected institution like Just for Laughs backing you and guiding you is actually exciting.”
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