A local comic has launched a website to give other local comedy people a place to list events now that Just For Laughs has gone.
Updates from March, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
La Presse’s Judith Lachapelle tells about the end of Ameublements Elvis as a graphic story.
Ian
Aww, I bought my first stove there.
Janet
So did I. I remember it fondly. So much of quirky old Montreal seems to be disappearing.
Tim S.
For me a washer. I was just thinking today that if the new French labelling laws go through appliance repair people might experience a golden age.
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Kate
A fight broke out in a St‑Laurent apartment early Sunday, someone pulled the fire alarm, and a hundred people had to evacuate. Then a bigger fight broke out in the street. Three people got stabbed but nobody died. What’s cop French for “shitshow”?
Blork 17:46 on 2024-03-10 Permalink
English only. Cue the outrage. Cue the police. Cue the doom.
Kate 10:01 on 2024-03-11 Permalink
There’s already talk about the possibility of a new comedy festival this summer in Le Devoir, Monday, and it would be francophone.
CBC is saying gloomy things about the future of Montreal summers.
Blork 10:55 on 2024-03-11 Permalink
The horror of a Montreal summer that would be enjoyed by Montrealers.
It seems to me that 30+ years ago, Montreal was a place that had a bunch of small festivals in the summer and everyone loved it. Then the money arrived and all those small festivals became bigger festivals and eventually gigantic festivals that eat up public money, disrupt city life for locals, and in some cases are largely shunned by locals because they are expensive, crowded, highly corporatized, and have no local flavor at all.
Pro tip: the “Montreal city of festivals” that Montrealers loved was the version from 20 or so years ago when things were smaller, less formulaic, less corporatized, and enjoyed much more local participation. Just sayin’
Blork 10:57 on 2024-03-11 Permalink
Prediction: 10 years from now, after the big-money festivals have collapsed and small more local festivals begin to re-emerge, it will be referred to as a “renaissance” and it will be fantastic for a decade or so and then the cycle will repeat. You read it here first, people.
DeWolf 21:14 on 2024-03-12 Permalink
I don’t agree with your assessment, Blork. What are the big corporate festivals that are shunned by locals while disrupting life for them? The Francos draws an almost exclusively local crowd, aside from random tourists who stumble into the free shows. The Jazz Fest is enormous and very crowded, but it has such a range of programming that it draws a very diverse audience. Aside from that, the other big festivals are on St. Helen’s Island or in places like the Olympic park and if you ignore them it’s easy to forget to exist.
Meanwhile there are still tons of smaller festivals, probably more than there were 20 years ago. Pouzza Fest, Off Jazz, OK Là, Mutek, Nuits d’Afrique, Italfest, Pop Montreal, Suoni Per Il Popolo, MAPP_MTL – just to name a few. There are literally dozens more.