Just For Laughs, the Toronto edition of the legendary Montreal laugh fest, hits town this month for 10 days of standup comedy and 42 comics, beginning Sept. 22. Here’s the list of the 10 shows I’m sure to be at, in case you’re a big comedy fan or want to hand me a subpoena.
Maria Bamford: I saw her show in Montreal and was blown away by her loopy eccentricity and offbeat madness. She talks in a little-girl voice, sings songs about her therapist and takes you on a stream-of-consciousness journey through her slightly tortured psyche. It’s taken her a while to go beyond cult status, but her star is in ascendency with her new sitcom, Lady Dynamite.
Emo Philips: If he’s not the best and the smartest joke writer in the business, then who is? No one can mine the absurdities of philosophy, religion and coleslaw like Emo and deliver them with the panoply of body tics that make him one of the true comedy greats.
Roseanne Barr: Newly svelte and chic, her recent tweets on feminism, Trump and the alleged sexual misconduct of Louis C.K. prove she’s lost none of her edge. It’s been a long time since she’s done a lot of standup, and this could be the show of the festival to see.
W. Kamau Bell: Bell brings an intellectualism and political consciousness to the fore. His underrated FX series, Totally Biased, is a masterpiece of Jon Stewart–style humour.
Demitri Martin: He’s been called the successor to Steven Wright, and it’s true they share a sense of the absurd. But Martin is just as likely to use charts and diagrams as punchlines in his act, and you really don’t know where he’s going to go next.
Jim Norton: The man is a free-speech advocate, and you can see why. No topic is taboo for him, and he performs with a rough and authentic edge. If you like Howard Stern (and I do), this is the show for you.
The Flirty Boys: Well, they’re actually gals, so there! It’s a sketch supergroup made up of four comics from Second City and comedy troupes the Sketchersons and Ladystache. They were given Now Magazine’s Audience Choice Award at the 2016 Toronto Sketchfest.
Jim Jefferies: I once saw Jefferies, a Brit, do a show in Edinburgh for a thousand people, which consisted of just one 90-minute story full of tangents, lacunae and asides that kept returning to the main narrative, like a premier jazzbo on a tear. That’s the kind of spellbinding master craftsman he is.
Ron Funches: The star of Undateable has one of the sweetest, gentlest acts I’ve seen in a long time. They say that a major component of comedy is likability, but Funches goes way further, into an area of vulnerability that’s rare in today’s comedy.
Sirius XM’s Top Comic: Let’s face it, everyone loves a competition, and this is Canada’s comedy competition with the biggest prize — $25,000! Ten comics from across the country have each won trial heats over the past months and will be bringing their best to win the giant cheque.
