JFL’s Hills gets last laugh
Contrary to reports, longtime exec is now president of Comedy fest
The cone of silence has been lifted for Bruce Hills.
In spite of reports from La Presse and other media outlets that Hills had been summarily fired as Just for Laughs’ chief operating officer, it will be officially announced Monday that he has been given quite the promotion. Hills is now president of Just for Laughs.
“The roller-coaster ride is definitely over,” Hills says in reference to the bogus reports.
“A story got leaked incorrectly. It wasn’t cool, and it definitely wasn’t something I wanted to read. But I knew what the situation was and where we were going to end up.
“To be honest, it’s been a really challenging last eight months. But I knew we were going to clean things up and that the truth would come out.”
Challenging is an understatement.
After allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Gilbert Rozon surfaced in October, the JFL founder and owner — who has since been hit with a class-action lawsuit by more than 20 women in this matter — decided to unload his entire stake in the company.
This set off a flurry of sales activity, with American entertainment conglomerate ICM Partners and comedian Howie Mandel buying JFL in March.
Then, 11 days ago, Bell Media and Group CH purchased a controlling interest — 51 per cent, according to sources — of JFL from ICM and Mandel. Evidently, the reason for this latest sale is that local ownership of the festival is imperative in order that JFL continue to receive annual government grants of $10 million.
Hills has been with JFL for 32 years and has been credited, along with a few others, for transforming it into the world’s biggest and most respected comedy festival.
In his newly created position as JFL president, Hills will oversee all aspects of the Montreal festival as well as the expansion of the other festivals (Toronto, Vancouver and Sydney, Australia) and of touring throughout North America and the rest of the world. His functions will also include all development and production of English-language content derived from the festivals for live events, domestic and international TV and digital platforms.
In short, Hills is top dog in all aspects of JFL, other than activities relating to the French-language Juste pour rire side.
Hills reiterates that Montreal will always be the site of JFL’s head office and base of operations, regardless of the fact that expansion is very much part of the JFL platform.
“I’m really pumped,” Hills says. “It’s great to actually go into a meeting with our new owners who just say one thing: ‘What can we do to make this festival the biggest success possible?’ And then to get their practical support and positive energy. It’s like a dream team. It’s really motivating to my team and to myself.”
Then again, dealing with four owners could pose issues. Hills isn’t concerned.
“That will all be aligned in very clear reporting procedures in the near future. There will be clarity across the board.
“But the priority now from our owners is: ‘What can we do to help?’ Over the last eight months, the strategy for us at the festival has been to focus on the work and to get this year’s edition ready.”
And that they have been doing. Amid all the rumours and sales activity, the 36th edition of the festival, which will run from July 11 to 29, has signed some impressive talent: Dave Chappelle, John Mayer, Kevin Hart, Trevor Noah, Tiffany Haddish, Russell Peters, Jo Koy, Jimmy Carr, Nikki Glaser, Maz Jobrani, Robert Kelly, Brad Williams, Ken Jeong, Iliza, Maria Bamford, Roy Wood Jr., Melissa Villaseñor, Tom Papa, Godfrey, Derek Seguin and fest co-owner Mandel.
Just added last week were Will Forte, Wanda Sykes, Chris D’Elia, Tig Notaro, Moshe Kasher, Jim Norton and Gina Yashere. There has also been some good news relating to the local front, with the announcement of wits Mike Paterson, Tim Rabnett and Ryan Wilner, “the world’s greatest lipsynch band,” reuniting to perform at Café Cleopatra, and Joey Elias, the king of Montreal anglo comedy, doing his take on 60 Minutes at the same venue.
Also last week, it was announced that Amazon has given the green light to a docu-series for Prime Video on up-and-coming comics in New York and L.A. competing for spots on JFL’s New Faces.
“More surprises to come,” Hills teases. “I couldn’t be feeling better about the state of the festival. This is the result we were looking for, once this whole (Rozon) incident came into play and when we knew we were going to be sold. We were hoping we could be sold to a group who could take us to the next level, and I believe that has been accomplished.”
So Hills can now sleep better at night?
“A little better, and not with one eye open,” he cracks. “But no time for much sleep now. We’re off to the races.”