Just for Laughs cancels annual comedy festival in Toronto as organization seeks creditor protection

One of Toronto’s leading comedy festivals won’t return in 2024.

Just for Laughs Toronto, which was to take place in September, has been cancelled after the organization behind the festival announced it is restructuring its business.

In a statement shared on Wednesday afternoon, Groupe Juste pour rire inc. (JPR) clarified that “the 2024 edition of the Just for Laughs Toronto festival will not take place.”

“Once the restructuring of the organization is completed, JPR hopes that the festival will take place in 2025,” the statement added.

On Tuesday, JPR announced it is seeking protection from its creditors as it begins formal restructuring under Canada’s Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and that it was cancelling this summer’s festival in Montreal.

According to a statement, “JPR’s board of directors, after having extensively considered all available alternatives, came to the conclusion that the financial situation of the organization left no other choice than to initiate formal restructuring proceedings.”

Toronto comics weigh in

Hisham Kelati, a Toronto standup comic and comedy writer, says he owes his career to JFL. In 2019, he was included in the festival’s “New Faces” showcase and he took part in a JFL gala hosted by Hannah Gadsby in 2022.

Kelati said the cancellation of JFL, which he hopes is temporary, is “a devastating loss for the Canadian comedy community,” especially in the throes of “showcase season,” during which comics from across the country compete for the chance to perform at the festival.

“It’s like when the Olympics had to be postponed due to COVID-19,” he said. “Imagine an athlete training for years, only to see it snatched away. And if or when it comes back, you might not qualify.”

“JFL was an iconic cultural event,” comedian and writer Leonard Chan said in an interview. “The comedy scene will survive, but it would be very sad if we lost JFL forever. It’d be like if Tim Hortons went under. We’d still find a way to get doughnuts, but it would be a huge loss in terms of our Canadian identity.”

Chan, who was one of Just for Laugh’s “New Faces” in 2019, has performed at the festival as an opener for big name comics like Ronny Chieng and Joel Kim Booster. JFL, he explained, was one of the few opportunities within Canada for comedians to perform at an internationally recognized event.

“There are plenty of other fantastic festivals in this country, but if you tell non-Canadians you performed at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, you might as well say you performed at a comedy fest in Narnia,” he joked.

And though Chan feels for the folks who lost their jobs at JFL, he is not overly concerned about the state of the Canadian comedy scene.

“JFL was only a couple times a year,” he said. “In Canada, there’s great comedy to be found all year round.”

In Toronto specifically, there are a number of great venues — from Comedy Bar to Yuk Yuks and Absolute — but Chan says it’s the indie comedy scene that has really thrived in the “post-pandemic” era.

Many producers for the indie clubs, he said, “are building their audiences and improving compensation for comedians in a way that some of these institutions, with their overhead, could not (or would not).”

Chan also pointed out that, in an age of social media, festivals like JFL are not as critical to finding an audience.

“JFL will always be a key part of Canadian comedy history, but the future for comedians is — as it always has been in this country — difficult, but not impossible if you’re hardworking and adaptable.”