Just for Laughs Vancouver returns, highlighting emerging talent and stand-up icons

Some of the biggest names in comedy will be in town over the next 10 days as Just for Laughs Vancouver, billed as Western Canada’s largest comedy festival, kicks off Thursday evening.

Organizers say this year’s line-up truly offers something for everyone.

“So, whether it’s family friendly, I mean, Justin Willman doing his Magic for Humans show, it’s like a mixture of comedy and magic, very family-friendly. You can bring your kids to that show,” said Nick Brazao, head of programming for JFL.

“If you want to get a bit nastier, we’ve got Big Jay Oakerson on the final weekend at the Rio Theatre [and] everything in between.”

Brazao is happy to welcome some marquee talent to the Vancouver festival.

“Some will be familiar faces within the festival context like Bill Burr playing Rogers Arena. [It’s] the first time that we’ve had him for a few years,” he said.

“Someone brand new to the festival, who we’ve been trying to get for a couple of years, is Brett Goldstein, who’s doing Queen Elizabeth Theatre three times on our opening weekend, [he’s a] star of Ted Lasso obviously, and a multi-Emmy Award winner.”

Brazao counts Goldstein among his personal highlights of this year’s line-up.

“Brett Goldstein’s show I saw at the New York Comedy Festival in November. And that show is just, you know, as amazing as he is hot right now as a touring artist,” he said.

“And, of course, Ronny Chieng, I mean, to be able to promote Ronny Chieng’s shows in Vancouver is always a really special experience. That guy, I just think is really one of the best in the game doing it.”

Brazao says the hallmark of any Just for Laughs festival is supporting local talent, and Vancouver is no exception.

“The Best of the West series has 31 shows. Some of the highlights in there [include] the Ryan and Amy Show, Sunday Night Stand-Up, the Comedy Treat Show, Comedy Smash Hit, Citizen Hurricane, Ola Dada’s Black Out comedy show, another show called Chill Comedy. There’s nine new shows. So, every year we try to take the opportunity in February to, say, if it’s a weekly or monthly Vancouver show, can we do like a special edition of it during the festival and really sort of spotlight it.”

Just for Laughs Vancouver runs Thursday through February 24th.