HONOURING JEAN SMART
Just for Laughs giving award
The venerable Jean Smart will be presented with the first of, doubtless, many honours, with the Comedy Performance of the Year Award by the Just for Laughs festival for her work in the stellar HBO Max dramedy Hacks.
Smart will be joined by and let loose with such other winners as Dave Chappelle, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis and Bowen Yang in this year's virtual Just for Laughs Awards Show, which will air online for free at hahaha.com July 28 at 7 p.m. Comedian/writer/tv host Amber Ruffin (Late Night with Seth Meyers, Drunk History) will serve as moderator for the event.
Also being added to this summer's hybrid Just for Laughs festival, running July 26-31, are performances by Cedric the Entertainer, Ari Shaffir, Jessica Kirson and London Hughes as well as a candid chat with Kevin Hart.
Smart, previously best known for the sitcom Designing Women and Frasier for which she won two Emmy Awards, has starred in, unarguably, two of the best TV series of the past year, Hacks and the intensely gritty HBO drama Mare of Easttown. It is particularly heartening in an era where stars of yore are far too often denied meaty roles to see Smart, set to turn 70 in September, continue to deliver these master classes in acting.
In Mare of Easttown, Smart plays the hard-edged mom of the cop show's equally hard-edged lead, Kate Winslet — who, too, will likely pick a fair share of silverware for her performance.
In Hacks, Smart portrays a veteran Vegas standup who refuses to go quietly into the night and retire as her casino overlords wish. Feisty and ever-uncompromising, she hooks up with a young, equally maverick comedy writer to take a few more kicks at the can and at those who get in her way. On occasion, she channels the life and times of Joan Rivers, who never backed down, either.
Because of travel restrictions preventing talent from outside Canada coming here on short notice, JFL has done the next best thing: It has also brought the festival to New York and Los Angeles, where there will be live spectacles, like the Nasty Show, Just for Laughs Live in N.Y., Just for Laughs Live in L.A., LOL'S Comedy Gold Minds with Kevin Hart, The Alternative Show and The Ladies Room with Jazzy.
For fans of Hart, without question the most successful comic working today, he can be caught sitting down, long enough, to partake in a revealing conversation with fellow wit Neal Brennan. Hart continues to pop up regularly at JFL, which he credits for having launched his career decades back.
The Hart interview, as well as most of the other shows noted, will stream online for free as of July 28. Live in L.A. and The Alternative Show, will stream for free as of July 29.
Ex-montrealer Ali Hassan will host Comedy Night in Canada in a live performance with, at long last, a live audience, July 28 at 10 p.m. at Club Soda.
The show will air free online as of July 30. Also at Club Soda will be Just for Laughs Live in Montreal, hosted by Jon Dore, July 28 at 7 p.m. and airing for free online as of July 30.
On a much welcome note this year, the fest will showcase a particularly strong representation of local stand-ups like Joey Elias, Heidi Foss, Sylvain Larocque, Rodney Ramsey, Derek Seguin, Chantal Desjardins and Tranna Wintour, who will be seen at both indoor and outdoor events.
In years gone by, homegrown wits on the anglo side — as opposed to their franco counterparts who usually receive top billing at Juste pour rire shows — often got lost in the shuffle, particularly because of the strong presence of international talent who descended on the city en masse. This summer, however, with no shows here by comics outside Canada, the locals will be afforded their best opportunities in years.
The Just for Laughs disc label JFL Originals will be recording live albums from here, including performances from Elias, Foss, Seguin, Desjardins, Ramsey and Wintour, among a host of other locals. These recordings will take place in front of a live audience July 27 at 7 and 9:30 p.m. at the Comedy Nest.
Prior to the official fest opening July 26, there will also be three outdoor Montreal Shows, all hosted by Elias at the Beneva Stage. The first, featuring Desjardins, Paul Baluyot and Eddy King, takes place July 21 at 7 p.m. The second, with Foss, Ramsey and Larocque, is July 22 at 7 p.m., while the third, with Seguin, Wintour and Daniel Tirado, is on July 24 at 7 p.m.