Montreal Comedy Festival: Of (driving to) Montreal

Published Jul 20 2009, 09:51 PM by Sara Faith Alterman

I'm writing this from the (what so far seems to be) fair city of Montreal, where I'm stationed for the week, covering/attending/stalking the Montreal Just For Laughs comedy festival, the biggest festival of its kind in the world. I bet it says that to all the girls.

I just arrived at my hotel about two hours ago, but I've already made myself a regular at the hotel bar - a good start to the week. In a short while, I'm stumbling over to Comedyworks to check out my first show of the week - the "Best of the Fest," rumored to be including Boston-bred (and, now, New York-based) favorite Myq Kaplan.

But oh, what adventures I've had so far today.

I actually drove up here with 2009 Phoenix Best Local Comedian MC Mr. Napkins (a.k.a. Zach Sherwin -- also a STUFF featured spotlight performer. What a publicity whore, that guy.) and I'll tell you. Six and a half hours in a car with a dude -- plus a stopover in Burlington, VT for an impromptu midafternoon swim in Lake Champlain -- and you hear some stories. Mostly stories involving terrible puns, and about the hippie ladies who stalk him. Can you blame them? Look at this face:

That's the face of a guy who's smelled a lot of patchouli.

But we weren't alone in our sojourn North of the border. Our third travel companion? An origami bird, made out of trash. Meet Quack Sherwin.

Ol'Quack has seen some serious shit, and boy, does he love to crow about it. Bird pun! Up top.

When you're stuck on the same goddamned highway for hours at a time, you make up little games to amuse yourself., For example, we debated, for quite awhile, how we should incorporate this slogan into the lexicon of our peers:

What do you think "the Dutch touch" is? I suspect that it involves weed, clogs, and Chris Faraone. Just my 'pinion. Also, people still love vanity plates!? Exhibit A: