I don’t remember voting to elect Andy Kindler the President of
Comedy, but I’d like to hug all you motherfucking constituents who did.
At Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival last week (Juste pour rire!
POUR RIRE!), Kindler delivered a “State of the Industry Address” in
a corny hotel conference room—I mean Grand
Salon—packed with comedians and industry types. On actors
striking during a food crisis: “Stop stabbing yourselves over
rice! Don’t you know what’s happening in New Media?” On mastering
the pitch: “Here’s how to do it—it’s something that they’re
already comfortable with meets something else that they’re also already comfortable with… ‘It’s like Frasier meets the
beach!'” And one more, for good measure: “I noticed that Eric Bogosian
is on a new show—Law & Order: Mailing It In.” GOD, I
love a good Bogosian joke.
Montreal is awesome. And fucking weird. Everyone is at least half
clown, and average citizens seem comfortable riding unicycles and
wearing jester caps. A thin layer of cirque blankets the entire
town. In addition to Just for Laughs (supposedly the biggest
comedy/film festival in the world), the city was just setting up for
some crazy music festival and just closing up shop on a jazz festival
and a fringe festival and who knows how many other
what-the-fuck-stivals. Giant papier-mâché heads and puppet
giraffes bobbed through throngs of people (again, 50 percent clowns),
with no discernible affiliation. It’s the Montreal Festival Festival!
Bring all your festivals! No festival too festive!
We heard some terrible jokes (“You think it’s hard being black? Try
being pink for 30 seconds!”) and some great ones (anything out of Brent
Weinbach’s mouth). Local geniuses the Cody Rivers Show had a
well-deserved five-night run. Judd Apatow told genuinely uncomfortable
stories about his children: “One of my kids grew, like, little
boobs—and she’s 10. So it’s weird.”
As the festival wound down, I tried to draw some intelligent
conclusions about the current state of comedy. Turns out, there’s not
much we didn’t know. Hacky comics hate their wives. Nag nag nag.
“Alternative” comics (Bob Odenkirk! Dana Gould! WTF?) are weirdly
relegated to “edgy” midnight shows.
But there were inspiring moments, too. Directors Jason Reitman
(Thank You for Smoking) and Edgar Wright (Shaun of the
Dead) led a generous, insightful discussion about the growing pains
of young filmmakers. “Whenever people ask me for advice, I always say,
‘Don’t give up!'” said Wright. “That’s so sweet,” offered Reitman. “I
thought it was going to be ‘Follow your heart!'” “That’s it. That’s the
master class on filmmaking. Don’t give up and follow your heart.”
Reitman: “But my heart tells me to give up! FUUUUCK!” Awww. I
love you dudes. 
