Jimmy Carr @ Just for Laughs

Just saw Jimmy Carr in his last night playing at this year’s Just for Laughs festival. Highlights included – nice small venue, good drunken crowd and a fine selection of highly inappropriate jokes. I would repeat some of the jokes here, but I suspect my blog would get banned from everywhere in the world. Suffice it to say he is hilarious and highly recommended. In fact I enjoyed his show more than Eddie’s, which is surprising, although maybe I was expecting more from Mr Izzard. Just don’t sit in the first few rows unless you can handle being picked on.

Anyways, that’s it for this year’s Just for Laughs. The confetti is being swept off St Denis, the drunks are causing their last havoc at Couche Tard (the Quebec equivalent of 7-11) and everyone is either heading home or having a last dance on the streets. Until next year, thanks to all.

Bob Odenkirk & David Cross in Montreal

Last night we went to see The Line Up, part of this year’s Just for Laughs festival. The format was to showcase up and coming sketch comedy groups, presented by Bob Odenkirk & David Cross – who used to team up for the wonderful Mr Show.

The show was in a cramped, most likely over capacity, Kola Note which could have done with a bit more air conditioning. Luckily the comedy kept us awake for the most part. David & Bob opened the show with Bob introducing a fake ‘David Cross’ before the real David came in from the audience to reclaim his rightful place after an amazing dance off. That man sure can bust a move. They then carried out a short re-enactment of Bob’s attempt to buy coffee in a Montreal cafe, where David Cross stole the show completely with his over the top ‘Qwebetoise’ accent.

After this intro the other acts began, with Kurt & Kristen’s inspired double act of randomness. Their re-enactment of the real first ever telephone call was genius, as was our amazement at how sore Kurt’s throat must have been after his singing finale.

Next up was Hot Sauce, a trio of lads also from New York (there was a bit of NYC bias in this show). Again, very enjoyable with some planned heckling and excessive destruction of eggs before our very eyes. Without stunt doubles, amazing.

Bob & David came out for a brief interlude prior to intermission. After which they returned with David’s ‘French speaking mime’ called ‘Est le petit bonbon’, dressed as a clown and holding balloons. The sketch again revolved around Cross’ frantic movements – leaving Odenkirk mildly stunned. All this physical comedy was a great starter to the main course that was Karla, a female duo from LA with a great line in cerebral comedy. Karla was probably our favourite act all night, offering something that stood out as hilariously different and interesting, in a lineup that often seemed a bit in the same groove of east coast stylings. Go check them out if you get the chance, if just for their glove puppet morality tale.

Finally we had the Buffoons, another New York based male trio, this time with a much more physical approach to their comedy. There were some inspired moments of chicanery in their act, but for me it didn’t quite gel, although Miette loved it. They might have suffered at this point of being right at the end of a long show.

Thanks to Bob & David for a splendid evening, hope you had fun up in Montreal. Please come back soon with your own show!

Oh, and as a minor ‘celebrity’ bonus wandered past Greg Proops and Brad Sherwood (of Whose Line Is It Anyway fame) on the way out. Mr Proops looking very dapper as he grabbed a quick pre-show cigarette outside.

Get Smart, not Buttons

Well there’s been no sign of Brad Pitt or the film crew of ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button‘ over the last few days, but that doesn’t mean the fun is over. Oh no. Today’s random Old Port film set is for ‘Get Smart‘, a remake of the classic TV series starring Steve Carrell. Looks like they’re shooting over night (till 5am tomorrow morning) so hopefully they’re not shooting any gun fights or car chases! Still, can’t be any more noisy than the usual drunken shouting/throwing things at shop windows we get on the weekend.

Brad Pitt in Montreal

Yep, Brad Pitt is now officially in Montreal, as I just watched him film a scene in an Old Port alley way for his latest movie – Benjamin Button. No pics this time I’m afraid, as it was a very dark alley way and there was an over-anxious security guard who made grumpy faces and used pointy finger tactics every time someone reached for a camera. Plus he had a scary beard.

en Montreal (‘with’ Brad Pitt)

Well I’m now up in Montreal and it turns out that Brad Pitt & Cate Blanchett are filming in the Old Port this week. In fact, not only are they filming in our neighbourhood, they’re actually filming about half a block away from us opposite our regular dep (that’s short for ‘depanneur’ which is long for ‘deli’ which is short for ‘newsagent’). So from 5am tomorrow, till 11pm at night, we can expect fun & games in a movie stylee. I’ll try and get some pics from our balcony if anything exciting happens, but we don’t have a great angle onto where they are as they’re on a side street.

Le Singe est en Montreal

Oh my frikkin’ lord… I just found out that Eddie Izzard is playing Montreal’s Just for Laughs festival this year!! Huzah! Go get tickets now!!

This was also as Arcade Fire suddenly released a few tickets to their New York gigs tonight & tomorrow, but having managed to get one held in TicketMaster’s evil clutches I then decided that $15 in fees on a $35 ticket was excessive given I don’t really want their children. Eddie on the other hand… well. I think most folks know how I feel about Eddie.

Slip Sliding Away

Last night, on the way back from a design awards ceremony, I decided to have my first ever serious Montreal winter fall. Whereas it has been absolutely freezing and icey the last few days, last night it turned into wet slushy now, which was now lying over a layer of solid ice. So, not being quite with it, I stepped off the sidewalk (that’s ‘pavement’ to my British readers) onto the road (that’s ‘pavement’ to my American readers) and into a slide fest of epic proportions. My left leg started to slide forward, so my right leg compensated by going back and then sliding out itself, then my left knee decided to help out – so I ended up in a rock star pose on one knee with both arms up in the air. Classy. Well, it would have been more classy except that the slush/stones decided to take out the knee of my left jeans and I now have a lovely graze to show for it as well as a dead pair of jeans.

All in all I gave myself 9/10 for execution, and 6/10 for self-damage. More scores as winter continues, and possibly even in New York if these snow storms continue…

Sleeping Is Giving In

Tonight The Arcade Fire start their residency in Montreal for five nights. Like all of their other residencies the gigs are being held in small, intimate venues – with the associated immediate selling out and subsequent touting of tickets on eBay for significant profit. This is a shame, as like many folks, I think they’re really quite lovely and would like to see them live someday.

Then I found out that every day at 10am there are 50 tickets being released for sale at a local ticket shop. So this morning I popped along, just in case people hadn’t worked this out. Arriving at 10.10am the line looked pretty reasonable so I joined the end. Then the TV crews turned up asking people in front of us who was person number 50. A guy in orange about 15 people in front put his hand up. Doh. Of course having gone all the way up there I wasn’t going to go just because of that – so I hung around, with my new line buddies, till the shop owner stuck his head out the door and told us and the news crews that all 50 tickets were now gone and that the first in line had been there since 4.15am that morning and the 50th had arrived at 7.15am! More tickets are available tomorrow and every day after – but with -17c temperatures and lower I’m not convinced the tickets are worth hypothermia… Maybe.