ComediHa! salutes Montreal, the festival set up in fourth gear to fill the space left by Just for Laughs, may well be a “transitional edition”, the Quebec company intends to make downtown Montreal its home for several months of July coming. Katherine Levac, Jean-Marc Parent and Arnaud Soly will be among the headliners of this first edition, from July 18 to 28.

Wait until next year to relaunch a comedy festival in downtown Montreal? For Sylvain Parent-Bédard, it was out of the question, despite all the hours of sleep he had to give up in recent weeks.

“When an important event in the comedy industry does not go well, it leaves a perception of difficulty in the entire industry,” the president and CEO of ComediHa! explained in an interview on Wednesday, after a conference of press rich in emotions, during which his voice was choked with tears on a few occasions. On Tuesday, his company officially became the owner of the majority of Just for Laughs assets, the kind of day you only experience once in a lifetime.

From July 18 to 28, at Place des Arts and Place des Festivals, ComediHa! will celebrate its 25th anniversary with an event having little in common with its flagship festival, which takes place in Quebec in August. No gala is therefore on the program, although the two evenings There’s something to laugh about, during which Korine Côté (July 19) and Billy Tellier (July 20) will welcome around ten of their comrades to the stage of the Jean-Duceppe room , look a lot like galas.

“Our intention was really to offer two different products,” explained the general director of ComediHa! Fest-Québec and main architect of the programming of this new happening, Josée Charland. “We wanted at all costs to avoid people thinking that it’s a copy and paste of what we do in Quebec. »

With shows at the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier (L’éveil JMP, July 19), a series highlighting funny things to discover (The Hour of Laughter, from July 18 to 20, at the Salle Claude-Léveillée) and a cabaret-style evening (the Comédie Club Tour, hosted by Neev at the Cinquième Salle, July 19), ComediHa! salute Montréal takes over the entire Place des Arts.

But it is thanks to its outdoor, and free, programming that the festival shines the most (on paper, at least) with its Generation Stand-up evening (Adib Alkhalidey, Matthieu Pepper and Mona de Grenoble will be there on July 21 ), a stage transposition of the Noovo show La guerre des fans (hosted by Phil Roy, July 20) and Less far than Saint-Tite, great country celebrations during which Pascal Morissette will attempt to beat the world dance record online.

Still on the Place des Festivals, Katherine Levac will be surrounded during the Queer event 

“It’s a great privilege to be able to tour all year round, but there are a lot of comedians who depend on the summer,” she observed in an interview. “That’s among other reasons why it would have sucked if there wasn’t a comedy festival in Montreal this summer. »

Arnaud Soly has also brought together an impressive line-up of comedians who deserve to be known, including Anas Hassouna, Douaa Kachache and Mibenson Sylvain, who will be at his Carte blanche on July 25.

“There is an audience that can’t afford to pay $50 to come see a comedian in a theater and who can finally be there when we play outside,” he emphasized, referring to the mix of tourists, newcomers, young and old who make up the crowd at festivals in Montreal.

He said he was especially happy to have been able to invite his favorite colleagues, regardless of their fame. “There are a few names that are a little more left field, but they are the people who make me laugh the most right now,” he applauded. “And ComediHa! went all in. Since these shows, unlike the Just for Laughs galas, are not recorded for TV, it takes away the pressure of having absolutely only big names.”

At the end of the press conference, Sylvain Parent-Bébard made it clear that despite what La Presse headlined on Wednesday, he is not the “new king of humor”. Although he still did not know whether, in 2025, the summer festival he will lead in Montreal will be called ComediHa! or that of Just for Laughs, one thing is certain, this transitory event is destined to become permanent.

“I liked the article, but I don’t like being described as the king of humor,” he said, “because heads get cut off. I want to be seen as a unifier, a federator of talents. »