The Just For Laughs festival, now in its second year under its new ComedyHa! ownership, has unveiled its complete line-up for the 2026 edition, which runs from July 15-26. It will take place at 35 venues across the city and feature more than 800 English and French-speaking artists.
“This festival is a true collective effort, as Just For Laughs continues to have everyone laugh along together in a spirit of diversity and creativity,” said CEO Sylvain Parent-Bedard at a recent press conference at the Lion d’Or pub on Ontario Street East.
Along with the impressive group of performers in the previously announced shows, the gathering revealed a roster of new shows added to the line-up. It includes the thematic New Faces of Comedy showcase shows (July 22-25) for stand-up and characters; Ashley Gavin and Fibs & Friends (July 24, Club Soda); Just For Laughs Pilots & Shorts presented by Electric Avenue (July 24 and 25, Cinematheque); and the annual JFL Awards Show, which will be open to the public for the first time (July 24, MTELUS).
CEO Sylvain Parent-Bedard at a recent press conference at the Lion d’Or pub, photo by Stuart Nulman
OFF JFL
For the OFF JFL series, there will be the always popular Best of the Fest (July 22-24, Theatre St. Catherine); JFL Live recording sessions (July 21, Theatre St. Catherine); Four sketch comedy troupes at the new Sketch Series: She/They, Funny, I’m Home!, Small Fish and Tandem Jump (July 21, Theatre St. Catherine); four Montreal Series shows (July 16 and 17, the Comedy Nest), including a special Queer Show on July 16; Maddy Kelly and Janine Harouni (July 23, Cafe Cleopatre); Mark Watson (July 22, Cafe Cleopatre); and The Improvaneers (July 25, Theatre St. Catherine).
However, that’s not all. Festival organizers stated that several more additions to the line-up will be announced at a later date. For more information or to purchase tickets, go to hahaha.com.
Stuart Nulman was born and raised in Montreal. He began his journalism career in 1980 as an entertainment reporter/reviewer for the Vanier College student newspaper. Two years later, he worked as a summer student intern at CBC Montreal, where he worked in the English TV news division, CBC Radio and CBC Communications. During the late 80s, he worked as an assistant copy editor and columnist for The Suburban Newspaper for three years, and then joined the staff of the Hampstead/Weekly Herald before it closed in 1991. Stuart also worked as a comedy researcher/writer for the Just For Laughs festival, where he was responsible for creating and editing the festival's entire advertising and program book copy for the 1994 edition, as well as providing background research about comedians who performed there. After a seven-year stint as a technical editor for the flight simulator company CAE Inc., Stuart returned to the world of journalism, writing book reviews, covering the Montreal summer festival scene, conducting celebrity interviews and writing travel pieces for a number of platforms, such as the Montreal Times, BestStory.ca (a long form journalism website), and his blog Stuart Nulman's Grapevine. As well, since 2009, he does a book review segment called "Book Banter", which is heard twice a month on The Stuph File Program with Peter Anthony Holder podcast, which evolved from the segment of the same name he did for 19 years on CJAD's "Holder Tonight/Overnight" program. He also authored the book "Beyond the Mountain: True Tales About Montreal", which was published in 2002 and was a local bestseller, which peaked at #2 on the Gazette's nonfiction best seller list. Stuart is currently semi-retired after working for 20 years at the English Montreal School Board (EMSB), and still writes articles, reads and reviews books, and travels more frequently.
