Altogether, there are 40 comedians for Just For Laughs Montreal’s 2012 class of the New Faces of Comedy. Divided up into New Faces, New Faces: Characters, and New Faces: Unrepped, we watched all three groups put their best comedic foot forward. For your ease, we’ll give you a quick rundown of highlights of the funniest stuff we saw of what very well might be, as the festival suggests, the future of comedy.
New Faces
Jared Logan-Jared is more than just a really funny high energy comic. The specificity in detail, which is largely personal observations from living in West Virginia made Logan rememberable amongst this incredibly talented pool of New Faces.
David Angelo-David wore his dapper suit quite well, which perfectly accents the cleverness, and sometimes, cheekiness of his jokes along with his hilarious punctuating of jokes with either a waving of his arms or a “what a beautiful crowd”. His act is almost nostalgic of another era of comedy, but, yet, nothing we’ve seen before.
Will Weldon-We love comedians that tell their jokes as if they’ve drawn a crowd in a public square to tell them the most important and funniest thing ever while having the quality material to actually call for such a scenario. Will Weldon proved he was that comedian here in Montreal.
Adam Cayton-Holland-Simply put, Adam Cayton-Holland has great multi-layered jokes and knows how to tell them flawlessly. That’s all Cayton-Holland needs to make people laugh hard, which he did at this New Faces.
Ron Babcock-The presence and stage persona of Ron Babcock were an absolute delight to watch, even if he’s yelling and showing his devil sticks skills off while doing it.
Emily Heller-Managing to defend feminism and poking fun at it, while not losing an ounce of likeability in the process, Emily Heller showed JFL a razor sharp comedic mind.
Joe Wengert-Joe Wengert’s comedy is confessional and vulnerable, but in the most inviting, enjoyable way possible. It’s a unique brand of introspective comedy that’s genuine and isn’t overwhelming in the slightest.
Mike Drucker-One of the best things about Mike Drucker is that he has quite the edge with his humor and knows how to deliver in spite of his unassuming nerdy looks and self-deprecating sensibilities.
Jamie Lee-One of the most clever and saucy comics in this New Faces class, Jamie Lee showed that she is quite skilled in getting away with risqué humor with a smile and fantastic wordplay.
The Lucas Brothers-One could describe the delivery of the Lucas Brothers’ jokes as “baked”, but to relegate them into the label of stoner comedy would be a disservice to the wonderful dynamic and presence of their duo, which is completely absent of a traditional straight man and nicely plays with “white space” between jokes.
New Faces: Characters
Tony Cavalero-Tony’s combination of unbelievable physicality and weirdness in all his characters was hysterical. Not only is he willing to do pratfalls and pull them off, but he knows exactly where to put them.
Tim Baltz-The cleverness and sheer absurdity in Tim’s writing pulled some big laughs from the most unexpected places like being Dracula’s physician giving him a rundown of Dracula’s STDs.
Greg Worswick-Worswick committed to his performance to the point where it was funny just to see him be absolutely in character, no matter if he’s doing angst-ridden spoken word poetry or a clearly in the closet teenage boy giving a speech at his bar mitzvah.
New Faces: Unrepped
Joe Machi-Seemingly tense while on stage, Machi lured everyone in with his brilliant writing and a wonderfully unique cadence that made him one of the best new faces this year.
Ahmed Bharoocha-Undeniable in the craft of his jokes, Ahmed has an uncanny ability to dissect his observations in some of the most original ways we’ve heard.
Nick Mullen-Taking time to build to his punchlines and, at times, self-defeating in his material, Mullen takes a lot of risks with his personal truth-heavy comedy, but definitely made it work here.
Junior Stopka-We can’t get over the well-matched weird look and the sheer strangeness of Junior that makes him incredibly and subversively appealing.