Comedian Joey Elias knows a thing or two about making people laugh, but Tuesday’s announcement by Just for Laughs regarding the cancellation of its summer festival in Montreal, is no laughing matter.
“It’s devastating, it really is,” Elias said in an interview.
He has done 17 shows with Just for Laughs, including galas, smaller shows and even some cross-country road trips.
“I’ve known them a long time,” Elias said. “And I have to say, just to start off, I don’t know if I would be standing here talking to anybody if it wasn’t for Just for Laughs.”
Elias said that when he was starting out, getting on Just for Laughs, was the ultimate goal.
“In the last 20 years, if you made Just for Laughs, you were all right. You know, that was somehow the sign that your career was on the right track,” he said.
Elias recalled not making the gala event in 1999 and being told he was the last cut.
It admittedly stung, but Elias said it’s also what spurred him on; making him work harder.
“And I think that’s what Just for Laughs did for a lot of comedians, is that was their goal. And then they worked harder.”
Elias said he feels especially bad for young comics. Those who’d already put in the effort to come to this summer’s comedy festival.
“I know that literally last Friday they had the auditions in Winnipeg,” he said.
For a comedian, being at the festival isn’t unlike finding your people.
“Imagine you get to hang out with everybody who is similar to yourself and they understand you, but you’re also in one of the most beautiful metropolitan cities in North America,” he said. “Imagine you’re an astronaut and all of a sudden NASA closes, you know, it’s kind of like you’re without a home.”
The absence of the festival won’t just leave a void with comedians though.
“It was a major piece of Montreal summer,” Elias said. “You had the Grand Prix that kicked it off, and then you had jazz and then comedy.”
Festival cancellation will impact Montreal tourism, economy
Others agreed that losing the festival will hurt Montreal.
“It’s certainly a sad day for the city, for tourism in general,” said Martin Roy, the CEO of Quebec festival association the Regroupement des évènements majeurs internationaux.
Roy said that a 2017 study evaluated the economic impact of the festival on Quebec’s GDP to be around $34 million.
Moshe Lander, an economics professor at Concordia University, explained that with the cancellation happening so close to when the festival was supposed to happen, the impact will be large in the short-term.
“It’s not like you can quickly just grab a whole bunch of other tours for a whole bunch of other reasons, and find festivals to fill that space,” he said.
As for the medium and long-term impacts, Lander was more optimistic arguing that what made Montreal attractive in the first place hasn’t changed.
“There’s still the same hotel capacity with or without the festival. There’s still the same beautiful weather. There’s still the same, restaurants and cafes and patios, that will continue to exist,” he said.
But more importantly, Lander and others believe a comeback is possible.
“When you’re filing for bankruptcy protection, you’re just saying that the current owners can’t meet their existing obligations under the current model,” he said. “It doesn’t mean the festival is necessarily gone forever.”
Roy believes that as we move forward, there’s a lot of questions we need to ask ourselves as to how we want to access culture and the viability of live entertainment.
“But for now, I’m calling for the governments and all the partners to get together … and discuss solutions,” he said. “We don’t want it to be the start of a wave.”
As for Elias, he’s taking a glass-half-full approach.
“Like I said, it’s not a closure. It’s a temporary shutdown is what I’m going to call it.”
Assets seized last week
Last week, a bailiff seized more than $800,000 in assets from the Montreal company that runs the Just for Laughs comedy festival. The move came just days before the event was axed.
The seizure came after it failed to make a court-ordered payment to a former employee.
The bailiff was sent after the Quebec Court of Appeal on Feb. 8 ordered the company to compensate an archivist who had been promised a job for life, but who was laid off in 2019.
Quebec’s highest court said the company, called Le Groupe Juste pour rire inc., must pay André Gloutnay more than $660,000, equivalent to the wages he had lost since 2019 and his future expected earnings.
But an enforcement notice filed by a bailiff said that payment was never made.
PwC, formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, has been appointed to act as insolvency trustee as the comedy company seeks creditor protection.
— With files from the Canadian Press
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