Just For Laughs 42

Just For Laughs returns again for another week of laughter from many different headliners such as Miranda Sings, Bill Burr, Craig Ferguson, Trevor Noah, Grace Helbig and more. I had the chance to see a few of these amazing acts. Sean Emeny and Garrett Clarke.  It was such an honor to see these two perform at JFL in Toronto, even though according to Clarke they were performing in a basement. I watched them before they became headliners. The room they performed in was quite small, but cozy. The female comedian who opened for them was one of those comedians who likes to interact with the front row, which was where I was sitting with my friend. I got off lucky with her only making fun of my taste for younger men, but the 19 year old down the row from me didn’t. Phew. Both Emeny and Clarke have distinctive styles in comedic performance. Clarke likes to tell story-like jokes about his flight attendance days and everyday nuisances, whereas Emeny likes to share one-liners one after the other. Both are good at keeping the audience rolling in laughter.

Rhys Darby has a knack for telling one comedic narrative one after the other, that builds upon the last one he just told, tying them together into one story at the end. He didn’t have anyone open for him, but his solo performance was still really funny as he makes use of the entire stage and his body language to get the crowd going. He has a very physical style to his performance.

This show started off with a bang with Tony Hinchcliffe kicking out two heckers. The story was that Hinchcliffe pissed off radio DJ Todd Shapiro, who decided to promoting his own show while introducing Hinchcliffe at a previous venue. In true comedic fashion Hinchcliffe made fun of that while he started into his routine and then, according to him, sent hecklers to throw him off. That sounds too paranoid for me, but then again the first heckler started in on Hinchcliffe as soon as he got on stage. Nonetheless it makes for good comedy.

Anyways, Hinchcliffe is the type of comedian who will pick a subject while giving a comedic perspective on aspects of said subject, like when women squirt during sex, it’s actually pee.