Montreal Comedy Festival: Secrets and snafus

A bit of a rocky start to my Just For Laughs festival experience. Last night, I'd planned to hit up the 11:00 "Best of the Fest" show, but I arrived at the comedy club to discover that I'd been misinformed - the show was actually a warm-up show for the "New Faces of Comedy" -- comedians who are ostensibly the freshman of comedy high school. But, the nerdy and gifted freshmen who take special AP classes before the school day starts for the rest of the pleebs. The New Faces line-up is kept from the press, and the public, until the actual shows (which start tonight) and, believe me, I worked every contact I have to see if someone would spill, to no avail. (You bitches are good.) I did manage to get some intel, and apparently these New Faces are kept in a separate hotel (for optimal bonding experience?), given special warm-up shows and subsequent pep talks, and a ton of support from the Just For Laughs staff. Which is wonderful, but, also, hilarious. Because, even though many people haven't heard of these New Faces, these are well-seasoned comedians, with impressive resumes and tons of experience. AND they had to pass an incredibly selective audition to get on this festival.

For example, as previously mentioned, Boston fave (and last year's Best Local Comedian) Myq Kaplan is on the New Faces show, and dude has been on Comedy Central, he's won (or made it to the final rounds of) several comedy festivals, including the Boston Comedy Festival. He's done some cool shit. New to the general world? Ok, sure. New at comedy? Not even close.

So, because these newbies are being treated with kid gloves, I was told at the door, "NO MEDIA." Which is understandable, I suppose, but frustrating. Myself and a BBC reporter tried to reason with the festival muscle, but to no avail. I'll see if I can pump Napkins for more info before the first official New Faces show tonight. (I did manage to squeeze out of him that, besides Kaplan, there aren't any Boston comedians on the New Faces show., Which really surprises me, because of the calibur of talent we have in town AND the calibur of talent that auditioned for this festival. I heard, for instance, that Ken Reid and Tom Dustin had incredible auditions, and I'm really disappointed that they're not here. Tom Dustin would skull fuck anyone who tried to give him a comedy pep talk, which would be comedy gold. You could sell tickets to that, Just For Laughs!)

But first, I'm off on a tour of Montreal. This is my first time here, and I've barely seen the city, except for the inside of my hotel, the inside of the press office, the inside of a taxi and the bar above Comedyworks. I'm antsy for adventure. Maybe Quack Sherwin wants to join me.