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At 11:24 last night, I watched former Daily Show correspondent Rob Riggle surprise Jon Stewart while he was interviewing Will Ferrell.

“Wha? I was watching the Daily Show at 11 last night, and his guest was Mary Roach! What you talkin’ about?”

Indeed, if you were watching the Comedy Network, you would have seen day-old versions of the Daily Show and Colbert (TDS with Roach, Colbert with guest Jimmy Cliff). Normally, Comedy Network would premiere the shows at the exact same time as on Comedy Central in the US, 11pm & 11:30pm respectively.

Was this just an error? Or is this a return to the 2000-2001 days, when Comedy Network would air the Daily Show a day later? (Yes, they used to do this. No, I have no idea what they were thinking.)

Consider the options:

a) They did pre-empt both shows on Monday night, so there’s certainly a possibility that programming department ignorance is to blame. (Speaking of inter-office brilliance, note that the August 3 episode is now up on the Comedy Network website, before they’ve even broadcast it.)

OR

b) As I’ve been half anticipating, they may be slowly killing off the simulcast* Comedy Network airings altogether. In all likelihood, to make room for the previously announced addition of Conan O’Brien to the fall lineup on both the Comedy Network and CTV. *(is it still a “simulcast” if you can’t view the American station?)

Not everyone is willing to stay up an extra hour to watch the shows on CTV. I personally have zero interest in watching a topical satire show from Thursday on a Monday. And I’d prefer to know what my American Twitter friends are talking about in statuses tagged #tds.

I’m optimistic this is just a fuck-up, because it certainly wouldn’t be the first time. But should this fail boat continue to sail, I highly recommend doing what I did last night, and get your current 11pm fake news fix via this illicit – but effective – stream of Comedy Central.

This was my night to be on the run — hitting up 3 shows, or, perhaps more accurately 1 show and 2 chunks.

I was shocked to learn before departing for the 8pm Double Threat show at Yuk Yuk’s that it was not sold out. What? This was a double bill of Todd Barry and Noel Fielding, for cryin’ out loud. Easily one of the best shows of the whole Festival. Thankfully, there were only a few empty chairs by showtime, otherwise I’d have some strong words for my fellow Torontonians.

Todd Barry rocks out his half hour at Saturday's Double Threat show.

The couple I spoke with in line had no idea who they’d be seeing, so I did my best to school them whilst picking my jaw up off the sidewalk. Turns out, they weren’t alone in their random choice. It seemed that almost half the crowd was a blank slate, with the other half being fans of Fielding.

Montreal’s Derek Seguin got the show off to a killer start, even when endangering the audience’s goodwill with a cutting Leafs slam. Todd Barry went up next and was his regular kick-ass self. Unfortunately I had to miss Fielding’s set, a hiccup in my schedule that hurt just a little bit more after becoming a newly-converted fangirl at Comedy Bar the night before. But I wouldn’t leave until hearing the piercing female screams that accompanied Fielding’s ascent onto the stage.

A harrowing cab ride later (really, a cellphone AND pager while driving?) I slid through the stage door of Massey Hall just in time to witness early show host Brad Garret exit and greet a hoard of flashbulbs and autograph seekers. From what I saw, he accommodated everyone. Thumbs up.

Unfortunately I had to take my place in the house before the anticipated arrival of last year’s gala host Sarah Silverman, in town this summer to shoot a movie. She reportedly hung out in the dressing rooms all night, as evidenced via Jimmy Carr.

When host Louis CK walked onstage to host, it seemed the ovation in the hall surprised even him. When someone like Louis gets such a deafening welcome, it kinda gives you faith in the tastes of the comedy-consuming public.

I would be there only long enough to see Louis deliver his opening set, which was 100% new-to-me (I last saw his full show in November). I will never forget the image of his female masturbation impression. And probably neither will the stagehand who had to deliver a new mic after Louis broke the first by dropping it on the ground as part of the bit.

Upon his surprisingly sweet introduction of Todd Barry, I had to tear myself away.

It hurt so very much to abandon the Massey Hall lineup (which also included Mike Wilmot, Mike Birbiglia, Jimmy Carr, and Tommy Tiernan) to haul my ass uptown and see Chris Hardwick host Best of the Fest. The schedule for Best of the Fest made it logistically impossible to attend any other nights without wiping out my entire evening, so a hard choice had to be made.

But oh, it was worth it. I’ve quickly fallen in love with the Nerdist podcast and wanted desperately to see Hardwick this week, and he didn’t disappoint. Someone please bring him back up here to headline. I beg you.

The mystery lineup included Mark Little, Maryellen Hooper, Michael Mittermeier, and Sebastian Maniscalco. Not too shabby at all! If even a few of these names had appeared on the JFL website as teasers, perhaps it would have been a sell-out.

Well, that’s it — I’m beat! A great time was had this week, and I’m as exhausted as I typically am when I hit the Montreal edition. I’d say that’s a success.

Hey wait a minute, that’s not Garry Shandling!

Nope, that’s Russell Peters, the last-minute fill-in, carrying out hosting duties for Friday night’s gala at Massey Hall. (Shandling pulled out of Just For Laughs last week due to “scheduling” issues.) Read the rest of this entry »

On paper, those of us who attended the 9:30 Alternative Show on Thursday night got shorted. Those early-show people got the surprise bonus additions of Noel Fielding and Chris Hardwick! Damn them! Plus, they got a set from Pat Thornton which, by all accounts was absolutely killer. Sigh.

It’s hard to feel too sorry for ourselves, though, because the lineup as-is was damn stellar.

Andy Kindler approached the mic to commence hosting duties and assured us he “got here at 3 in the afternoon to work on that.” Good to know the festival is still ensuring veteran comics are capable of the most basic aspects of their jobs, a practice David Cross told us about at a gala last year.

We learned a lot through the evening. That Mark Forward is a weird and hilarious individual. That Kindler does a startlingly accurate Todd Barry impression. That at least one member of the audience would happily let Todd Barry crash on his sofa for a while. That TJ Miller can do precisely one magic trick, and that there is such a thing as a “double-sided closed sign”. The man everyone came to see – Patton Oswalt – taught us about the uselessness of moderate fame, the only valid reason for being opposed to gay marriage, and what it’s like to audition for a Kate Hudson rom-com.

Sure, the Winter Garden Theatre lacks the intimacy of its Montreal counterpart (hosted by Kindler every year at the Cabaret), and it was hard to fathom that the shows weren’t sell-outs. But at the end of the day, it was an alt-comedy nerd’s dream come true.

Kindler and Oswalt have jetted out of town already, but Barry can still be seen Saturday night at Yuk Yuk’s and Massey Hall gala hosted by his arch nemesis Louis CK.

A reliable little birdie has told me that for those wanting to see a Just For Laughs show on the cheap tonight can head over to Comedy Bar, and with the password “OPRAH” score themselves a 2-for-1 deal on Daniel Packard’s 7:30 pm show Live Group Sex Therapy.

It’s not as good as everybody getting a car, but not too shabby either!

It would turn out to be a slightly ironic statement made by Tommy Tiernan at the start of his Wednesday night performance of Crooked Man, pointing out how ridiculous it was that he was beckoned to travel all the way from Ireland “to do something you’re very capable of doing among yourselves – laughing.”

As it happens, as an audience we collectively were responsible for a good chunk of the evening’s entertainment. After an impromptu us vs. Tommy debate over Canada’s hockey dominance, the show quickly became a banter-filled event, clearly not a part of the plan.

Audience members thought nothing of engaging in conversation with Tiernan when it was called for. And in a few cases, when it wasn’t called for (I’m looking at you, middle-aged guy on the aisle of row F).

“This is not a fuckin’ resident association meeting!” he finally retorted, just minutes before he busted a woman in the second row for pulling out her cellphone.

Turns out, her babysitter was trying to reach her. Tiernan drew it out into a lengthy saga, providing hilarious commentary on her departure to the lobby to make a call, returning to her seat, and later in the show getting another call. (Possibly the most literal example of a “callback” ever seen on a standup stage.)

Between the interruptions, Tiernan did manage to deliver his bits about caffeine addiction, sex, the recession, sobriety, marriage, and my personal favourite story of the night — indoctrinating his seven year old daughter into Liverpool soccer fandom.

There was an attempt to frame all his bits with a single mission statement. For the life of me I can’t remember what it was, which goes to show how cohesive the theme was. A minor complaint, that.

It felt odd to watch him with a hand-held mic instead of a headset mic. Its flailing around – sometimes drifting as far as his waist – was a slight distraction but didn’t hinder the

Having seen Tiernan do 20 minutes on a past Just For Laughs Comedy Tour, I was already hungry to see a full set from him. And it’s at around the 20-minute point that you settle into his frenetic pace, and stop worrying that you’re in for an exhausting hour and a half. An extended set like Crooked Man is precisely the way Tommy Tiernan was meant to be enjoyed.

Crooked Man runs through Sunday at the St. Lawrence Centre’s Jane Mallett Theatre.

Last night marked the world premiere of Mike Birbiglia’s new one-man show, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, at Just For Laughs Toronto. Having seen his wildly successful off-Broadway run of Sleepwalk With Me last year, this was unquestionably at the top of my list of “must-sees” for the Festival. And it remains there.

It isn’t just an hour of standup with a title slapped on it — not to disparage the shows that are that, but the story arc is the key ingredient in making this show a substantial meal.

The format of weaving a single story throughout, and jumping back through time for asides, is almost identical to that of Sleepwalk. It’s a winning formula for Birbiglia, who has a knack for steering the audience away from the main narrative for long stretches without anyone getting impatient.

His courtship with his wife Jenny is the cornerstone of the tale, which ties in awkward school dances, a missed flight, a hilariously graphic account of puking on an amusement park ride called the “Scrambler”, and the life-altering experience of making a girl laugh really hard for the first time.

While the content itself isn’t as jaw-dropping as the climax of Sleepwalk (no jumping out of hotel room windows here), he makes his journey through his lifetime of romances just as riveting and hilarious.

The heartbreak of realizing you’re not someone’s first choice feels very real, and is literally authenticated with relics of his tales. He brings with him the police report detailing a car accident he was involved in, and what we’re told is the actual napkin he wrote down ideas on during a turning point in his relationship with Jenny. The napkin has seen better days, and I suspect it’s unlikely to survive its inclusion much beyond next week’s Montreal dates.

It feels as though this style of lengthy storytelling is exactly what Birbiglia should be doing always. Despite the minor lapses in judgment he recounts, his decency shines through and he doesn’t even need to try to convince us he’s The Good Guy. He could probably take us just about anywhere, and we’d stick with him. Ultimately, I suppose we relate just as well to Jenny just as strongly as we do to him.

My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend runs through Saturday at the Berkeley Street Theatre, and then heads to Just For Laughs Montreal July 15-17.

I’ll admit off the top that my expectations for Elon Gold’s show were low. Perhaps unfairly. My one and only experience seeing him live was on a steamy Tuesday night in July of 2006, at the Comedy Cellar in NYC. After that show, I blogged privately that “he got mad at the audience, didn’t want to do his material… I felt like he was wasting our time and we were wasting his.”

Ok, so everyone has a bad set. I’m happy to report my second impression of Gold is much more pleasing.

To categorize the show’s style in simple terms, I’d call it “multimedia standup”. Gold walks the stage with a hand-held mic, pure standup most of the time. There is some light utilization of slide-shows, mainly to assist with “closed captioned for the Hebrew impaired” — which genuinely assist those of us who need it, and contain bonus jokes for the chosen. (And then the video… oh G-d, that video.)

Half Jewish, Half Very Jewish is one of those shows where you know what you’re getting from the title. Indeed, the opening night crowd was of the “very Jewish” variety, no doubt due to this performance functioning as a fundraiser for the Koffler Centre of the Arts.

My own generic white Christian background includes a two-year stint working for a Jewish Community Centre, so I know my mezuzahs from my menorahs on a basic level. But at the core of it, would bacon-munchers like myself get it all? Should a gentile allow themselves to be coerced into giving this show a shot?

If all you know about Judaism is the existence of Hanukkah, you’ll be lost. You can play catch-up by mentally filling in the blanks for most bits, but to really enjoy it you need to go in there with some education. There are individual jokes that rely solely on the knowledge of kosher laws, what the main tradition of Sukkot is (my personal favourite joke), and what a Seder is. No way around it: if you don’t have that info, jokes will be flying over your head at a pretty good clip.

I only truly felt left behind when his impression of his cantor completely destroyed the room. I’ve never stepped foot in a synagogue in my life, and clearly I’m missing out on some quality entertainment.

Gold dips into generic material – on squirrels, texting, British accents – but just to let everyone take a quick breather. He doesn’t linger in it. He knew what people came to hear.

For something billed as a “one-man show”, I would like to see a tighter ending. With many warnings that he was wrapping it up, and doing so with multiple strong bits that all could have been mistaken for a closer, I felt like we lacked a true fade-to-black conclusion.

Based on my own level of enjoyment, and the crowd response, I can confirm the obvious: the more Jewish you are, the more you’ll dig Half Jewish.

The show runs at the Berkley Street Theatre through Sunday — taking Friday night off, of course.

Until this morning, posters like the one you see on your right were a source of excitement and anticipation. Garry Shandling! In Toronto! Hooray!

However, these are now relics of an extinct booking. Slightly more than a week before his scheduled gala hosting gig in T.O., Shandling has been quietly replaced by Russell Peters as host of the Friday night galas.

Perhaps a good deal for the JFL folks, since those galas are now a guaranteed sell-out (indeed, the 2-for-1 ticket offer I reported on yesterday has vanished from the Ticketmaster site, for this particular gala only). But a bad deal for comedy geeks.

What happened? There was no mass press release sent out to the list of journos, only selectively disseminated info hyping the addition of Peters.

All I know is that his name has vanished from the official JFL site, and these posters plastered to Toronto streetlights are all that remains of the kick-ass show that wasn’t.

At the risk of revealing myself as a cheapskate with these last few posts, I would like to point you all in the direction of these fabulous Ticketmaster deals for Just For Laughs Toronto:

Click here for 2-for-1 tickets to many of the Galas, including Wayne Brady, Demetri Martin, Garry Shandling, and Brad Garrett.

Click here for 25% off tickets for the Nasty Show, Alt Comedy, and The Relationship Show.

These are amazing deals, so much so that you have to wonder how well tickets are (or aren’t) moving. The only ticket sales I was curious enough to keep an eye in past weeks on was the Alt Show, and I’ve been shocked that excellent seats have still been available.

The festival may be overshadowed a bit by the G20, or by the Toronto Fringe which starts today. Regardless, I hope Toronto will take advantage of these, and fill those seats up. These are stellar lineups, all of them.