Pete Holmes Elevator Talk Show, Red Carpet Shows and No-Shows and More From Montreal

Jeffrey gurian montreal just for laughs edition

Jeffrey Gurian continues to Jump Around up north to cover the last few days of the Montreal Just for Laughs comedy festival.  Jeffrey joined our site as a regular columnist one year ago with his coverage of Montreal 2014, so Happy Anniversary Jeffrey!  He’ll be sending in news, updates and stories from Canada all weekend, so check in every day to see what’s happening. Jeffrey Gurian is a writer and comedian in New York who loves to Jump Around. Follow his regular column, right here every Monday morning, to find out what’s happening in comedy, and who Jeffrey Gurian ran into this week.

 


When you get to bed at 4 you’re not getting an early start the next day so everything today was gearing itself towards the Just for Laughs Awards Show red carpet.

I got up late and I went to the food court before heading to  the courtyard to do interviews with Chris Gethard and Chris D’Elia. It was cool cause we got to talk bout Chris Gethards’ show and the circuitous route it took to get to Fusion.

The Big Red Carpet Event, Who Showed, Who No’ed.

We had to be at the Red Carpet area to sign in by 2:30 and the place was packed with press. It was the biggest red carpet that they’ve had, physically, they extended the size of it, so it was very long. And it was great, but it happens at the same time that Andy Kindler does his annual state of the industry talk. Andy was being introduced by Dr. Katz so I was running back and forth between the red carpet sign in, and Andy Kindler’s event to see a little bit of each until the red carpet actually started.

There were a lot of great people on the carpet, like Kevin Hart who got Comedy Person of the year. I got a cool interview with him. Armando Ianucci— he’s the comedy writer of the year– did the red carpet as did Patton Oswalt who won stand up comic of the year. Ellie Kemper was there, I was so happy to see her. We did a fun interview. Ellie is just great and bubbly.  Jeffrey Ross was the host of the entire awards show which was really cool. He was so humble he didn’t mention that yesterday when we did his interview. I also talked with Dana Gould who made the keynote speech, and Eddie Pepitone, and I did a really fun interview with  T.J. Miller. He said he cut his hair because his wife doesn’t like long hair while they’re having sexual intercourse. And I got to meet Thomas Middleditch. I was really excited to meet him because I had not gotten the chance to meet him at the Del Close marathon. Great guy.

I couldn’t even stay to see the award show because right after the red carpet I went to do a SiriusXM radio show, the Todd Shapiro show. There were so many Ron Bennington fans in Montreal, and Ron did three shows this afternoon, and while I was on the Todd Shapiro show, Ron came on and joined us too.

Later, as I was walking in the street I ran into Ari Shaffir hanging out with Artie Lange on a street corner. Artie said they were trying to start a doo wop group. And then Orny Adams came along, he’s doing a gala tomorrow night. He was on his way to do another show. Tht’s what its like here. It’s comedy camp.

Pete Holmes Elevator Talk Show.

Pete Holmes is so funny. He’s doing a thing in the elevator of the hotel. He’s interviewing people, in an elevator.  He takes people on an elevator ride. There’s one elevator in the bank that’s his for a few days, and he rides from the lobby to the twelfth floor and does an interview inside the elevator. It’s an elevator talk show!  Only Pete Holmes could do that, and I’m doing it tomorrow with him. We thought it would be funny if I’m interviewing him while he’s interviewing me on the elevator.

The Ellie Kemper Gala Was A Hit With Some Very Unique Performances

Pete also opened for the Ellie Kemper Gala tonight. He got a big ovation from the crowd. Reggie Watts was on and he’s so unusual and unique. He came out and didn’t speak for awhile and then he did what I can only describe as microbatics. Acrobatics with a microphone. He was twirling it and spinning it, and doing all kinds of stuff. And then he asked the question, is it only for laughs? He plays with his delivery and his words and his speech- he’ll talk very very slow…and then very fast. He does such unusual things with his cadance. He’s really so different and fantastic. And can’t wait to see him later.

Thomas Middleditch performed.  I saw him earlier today and I got to ask him about his name. i said you sound like an English Lord, like a land baron. He told me the story of his name, but I”m so tired that I can’t remember. But he came out and did improv that he made into stand up which was a very cool thing.

Margaret Cho closed the show. She pulled down her pants and pulled up her shirt facing away from the audience. She said she had a giant bush so she didn’t want the audience to see. So she faced away, pulled her pants down to her knees wearing just a thong and she’s got two faces, one on each butt check and they’re facing each other. So what she did was wiggle her butt cheeks to make it look like they were talking to each other and that’s how she closed the show. It was very very surprising. I had seen her do something similar at Gotham one night, but she just pulled down her pants for a second. Here she kept them down for quite a long time.

Also walking in the street I ran into Geno Bisconte strolling with Marina Franklin. She and Gino were teasing each other, she was telling him that he didn’t belong here, very jokingly, and they looked like they were having a good time.

I think that’s it. I’m going to the Funny or Die party and if I survive, I may stop off at the finals for the roast battle. More tomorrow from Monreal, I am OUT!

 


Jeffrey Gurian is a comedian, writer and all around bon vivant in New York City.  Subscribe to his YouTube channel. Below, photos, Jeffrey with Ellie Kemper, Thomas Middleditch and Chris D’Elia.

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Jeffrey Gurian is a comedy writer, comedian, author, producer, comedy connoisseur, comedy journalist, and an all around bon vivant. You can find him on red carpets, at comedy events across the country and hosting Comedy Matters TV. He’s the author of the book Make ‘Em Laugh with an intro by Chris Rock”. You've seen him on Comedy Central's Kroll Show and he's a regular on SiriusXM's Bennington Show and it's predecessor the Ron and Fez Show. He's also A BIG BELIEVER in Happiness and Love.
Jeffrey Gurian
Jeffrey Gurian
Jeffrey Gurian is a comedy writer, comedian, author, producer, comedy connoisseur, comedy journalist, and an all around bon vivant. You can find him on red carpets, at comedy events across the country and hosting Comedy Matters TV. He’s the author of the book Make ‘Em Laugh with an intro by Chris Rock”. You've seen him on Comedy Central's Kroll Show and he's a regular on SiriusXM's Bennington Show and it's predecessor the Ron and Fez Show. He's also A BIG BELIEVER in Happiness and Love.