Just For Laughs Announces This Year's New Faces of Comedy

Comedy conquers Montreal every July with the annual Just For Laughs event, the world’s largest comedy festival. This year’s Just For Laughs started on July 14, but will reach its peak this week, with dozens of comedy shows spread across a number of venues throughout the city. Just For Laughs has been the preeminent festival within the comedy industry for much of the last 40 years, and has been crucial in helping some of the most famous comedians in the world take the next step towards superstardom—with many of them being highlighted as part of the festival’s annual New Faces of Comedy lineup.

The New Faces of Comedy series is typically split into a handful of showcases that run during the festival’s last week. There are two showcases for the main group of New Faces, which this year includes 21 different comedians, a showcase for New Faces from Canada, another one for international comedians from outside Canada or the US, and also a showcase for comics without representation. There’s also a showcase called New Faces: Characters for improv and sketch comics, and New Faces: Creators for content creators. Former New Faces include Mike Birbiglia, Kevin Hart, Amy Schumer, Taylor Tomlinson, Kumail Nanjiani, John Early, Julio Torres, Conner O’Malley, and a few dozen other future all-stars.

This year’s New Faces were announced yesterday and will be performing at a series of showcases in Montreal this week, with hosts including Chris Redd, Langston Kerman, Mark Forward, and others. There are 66 comedians in this year’s batch, and given the festival’s track record, there’s a good chance at least a few of them will become top stars in the near future. Here’s the full round-up:

Just For Laughs Announces This Year’s New Faces of Comedy