Interesting take. The first half was not good. He was just obnoxious and too emo for my liking. But it got a lot better after that.

Yeah I guess it's all subjective. Wasn't a huge fan either. Turned it off about 2/3 through so it sounds like I may have missed the stronger material.

Super enjoyed his story telling.

Watched Dave Chappelle's special on Netflix (the one in Texas, not the OJ one).

Was pretty disappointed. Seemed to have some overly simplistic social commentary that wasn't all that unique. Definitely some funny moments, but social commentary is more of a 2000s thing imo. Unless you're coming at from some absurd angle (Bill Burr's bit on sinking cruise to solve overpopulation was great), it comes off as generic and blah. It's why Jim Jefferies last special was pretty meh and why his show looks pretty mediocre.

i saw one preview for jim jefferies and it was the "we should build a wall, but on the canadian border!" joke ive heard about 50 times. wow you sure flipped reality on its head no one saw that coming

anyone going to JFL this year? would recommend this david baddiel show. haven't seen it but it's gotten excellent reviews in the UK - it's more of a story show about his family as opposed to straight stand up so could be a nice change of pace from other stuff you see.

You did.

Hey I figured this would be a good thread to mention to check out the new show on Showtime "I'm Dying Up Here". It's about the beginning of the stand up comedy scene in the 70s. Premiered tonight.

Has anyone seen Chris Rock lately? He's playing 2 shows in Vegas while I'm there, was debating checking it out. I assume he would be solid, but tough to know for sure.

I saw Chris Rock a month ago, he was outstanding.

Strongly considering this but we're running out of slots. My biggest gripe with JFL every year is they don't release the schedule all the once. So you book some shows when the first batch is released because you don't want to miss out on tickets, then 3 weeks later they release the next batch and of course someone awesome has booked a show which overlaps with something you have already purchased.

We ate Nick Kroll tickets one year because Chappelle booked a few weeks later. Most often though you miss out on something great because you already have something great booked so it isn't the end of the world. JFL usually releases the schedule in 3 or 4 phases - a new batch of shows was just released today.

Here is what we have so far:

Monday:
7 - Ryan Callen
9 - Katherine Ryan
Tuesday
maybe Baddiel here at 6:30
8:30 - Ryan Hamilton
Wednesday
8:45 - Mark Forward
10:30 - Ron Funches
Thursday
7 - Mike Birbiglia
Friday
9:30 Trevor Noah - I was indifferent to this one but my wife really wanted to go.
Saturday
7:30 - John Mulaney
9:30 - Judd Apatow (Apatow show is being filmed for a Netflix special).

We looked at the Seinfeld/Emeleh show at the Bell Centre - $560 for floor seats. No thanks.

We will also see a few midnight shows - Goddamn Comedy Jam, Alternative Show, Hold on with Eugene Mirman. We normally wait and grab tickets for the midnight shows using our daily free ticket because they normally don't sell out.

Here's the lineup so far if anyone want to make any suggestions. Scheduling can be tricky because there are a lot of shows but other than podcasts in the afternoon and midnight shows everything falls at 7 or 9 so you can only book a handful even though you are there for a full week.

http://www.hahaha.com/en/montreal-fe...=Festival-2017

We decided to skip the galas this year. They are expensive and can be hit or miss because you don't know the lineup until close to the show date so it's a bit of a gamble

If anyone is going to JFL for the first time feel free to ask me any questions, I've attended 7 times over the last 10 or 11 years.

I've seen Mulaney, Birbiglia and Funches within the past six months, those are all great shows.

Other stuff I would recommend:
James Adomian, Ian Karmel, Emily Heller.

Gina Yashere,who appears to be the headliner of the Brit(ish) show, is also fantastic.

Thanks for the recommendations. I've seen Mulaney a bunch of times as well and he never disappoints. I saw Funches back in 2013 or so but it was just a short set when he opened for Hannibal.

I usually don't bother with The Nasty Show but we might check it out this year, they actually have a pretty solid line up for once - Jimmy Carr, Robert Kelly, Big Jay Oakerson and Godfrey. Looks like they finally dumped perennial host Bobby Slayton. Normally they just have a bunch of hacky "edgy" comics like Ralphie May (and Bobby Slayton).

First guy on my JFL schedule should be Bryan Callen, not Ryan Callen. I know a bit about him, not sure how funny he is, but he's playing the early show at the same venue as Katherine Ryan so we figured we may as well grab tickets to both.

I don't mind dirty stand up but if they feel the need to bill it as dirty it is probably going to be bad.

The same is also true of clean stand up.

With her latest special, Sarah Silverman is reaching elite status. Outstanding.

I came here just to write a similar comment Dominic. Really enjoyed it.

Agree on Sarah Silverman. New special is really good.

Bill burr

I also really enjoyed the silverman special. Amy Schumer's leather special on the other hand was the most unfunny thrash i've seen in a long time.

That's very much the consensus here.

Rory Scovel has a new special on Netflix and it is stupendous.

the TJ miller special was god awful.

i only made it like 15mins.

Yeah. =(

Yep, TJ provided mostly background noise for me. He had a few good bits though, but Silverman had some very masterful jokes - A+ special.

In other news: I really enjoyed Al Madrigal's latest - Shrimpin ain't easy.

I thought it was decent, but it's definitely a weird taste of comedy. It's hard to bat 1.000 with that style, but even with the stuff that really falls flat, I appreciate that the guy is ****ing with the medium and trying new things.

You wouldn't believe how here in LA, it's just so oversaturated with a handful comics with such similar styles and premises. Like, 95% of people in LA trying to be comics could be neatly placed in a half dozen different categories of style and humor. So many are trying to ape Louis or Bill Burr, but without the recognition of how they do what they do that makes them so great and funny.

Don't know if you guys are following but there's a big hullabaloo in the past week with Iliza Schlesinger. She did some magazine interview where she essentially called out the majority of female comics for being so uncreative and predictable, doing pussy jokes, period jokes, etc. and it's getting a huge backlash from the community. My entire FB feed is filled with comics ripping on her, saying how dare she say that they can't do vagina jokes, etc. COMPLETELY missing the point of what she was trying to say. I will say that her tone definitely came off bad, seeming very holier than thou. Like at one point she mentions that she's the only female comic with a World War 2 bit in her act. Oy. Twitter had some fun with that gem.

But yeah, the reaction from comics is much more insufferable because she's absolutely right (not just about female comics, but comics on the whole). Obviously the comics who are having great success are, more or less, pretty high quality even if they're not one's cup of tea, and you can tell just how much time and energy they spend honing their craft. But for every one of them, there are 100 semi-pro comics (around the level I'm at now) who seemingly have nothing to say, and 1,000 comics doing the same unfunny 5 minutes at the same open mic every night of their lives.

Ugh, I just bummed myself out.

Hey!! Shameless plug: if anyone's in the Nashville area I'm featuring at the Nashville Zanies tomorrow and Friday. Jonathan Kite is the headliner.