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ARTS&LIFE
❚ ❚ ❚ T H E G A Z E T T E | MONTREAL | MONDAY, JULY 27, 2009 | EDITORS: ARTS, MARK TREMBLAY ■ LIFE, MICHAEL SHENKER | 514 987 2560
arts&life@thegazette.canwest.com
Just for
Laughs
JOHN CLEESE: THE ALL-STAR GALA
OUR “EXPERTS” ON LAST NIGHT’S GALA NO. 7
BILL
BROWNSTEIN
DENISE
DUGUAY
BASEM
BOSHRA
Brownstein is a Gazette
columnist and veteran
of 26 festivals.
Duguay is a Gazette
copy editor who once
hugged Howie Mandel.
Boshra believes all
things in life should be
reviewed in chart form.
OVERALL
Give John Cleese his due.
Coming out of sick bay to
host two shows with
stiffish Brit upper lip – in
jacket and tie, but no
shirt. Still, “all-star gala”
was somewhat of a misnomer. Thank the comedy gods for Louis CK and
Bobcat Goldthwait.
Despite the prop IV-pole
pushed by Andy Nulman,
to make light of John
Cleese’s earlier illness, I
was a little worried about
Cleese. He was funny, but
sounded frail and was
thoroughly failed when an
audio-visual glitch killed
his biggest bit.
Even the mighty Louis
CK’s closing set could
scarcely salvage this utter
misfire. Chalk it up to the
delays brought on by
trooper Cleese’s illness or
whatever, but seeing the
Python legend stuck in
amateurish sketches was
painful to watch.
BEST ACT
Louis CK: Can slay any
room with his surreal
ramblings on the mundane.
Bobcat Goldthwait. His
best joke ended with the
punchline “Fire truck” and
no setup could give
enough context. You had
to be there, and next
time, you should.
Louis CK. The festival’s
MVP riffed on the
overuse of words like
“genius” and “hilarious”
– sorry dude, you’re
guilty of being both.
BEST JOKE
Louis CK: “White people
complain about everything, even that it takes
six hours flying from New
York to Los Angeles. Get
over it! It used to take 30
years and many people
died, some with arrows in
their necks.”
Bobcat Goldthwait: “I had
a woman come up to me
at the airport and say, ‘I
don’t mean to insult you,
but you look just like
Bobcat Goldthwait.”
Bobcat Goldthwait: “I
had a woman come up to
me at the airport and say,
‘I don’t mean to insult
you, but you look just like
Bobcat Goldthwait.”
2ND BEST JOKE
Bobcat Goldthwait: “I
had a woman come up to
me at the airport and say,
‘I don’t mean to insult
you, but you look just like
Bobcat Goldthwait.”
Caroline Rhea: “I am
breastfeeding, so when I
say I’m pumped to do
this, I really mean it.”
John Cleese on celebrities
adopting African babies:
“I know what they’re up
to and Abe Lincoln abolished it in 1862.”
WORST JOKE
Paul Rodriguez: “Been
trying to lose weight with
a different diet. Been
eating only Ethiopian
food.”
Paul Rodriguez: “Ever had
sex with someone so ugly
you had to apologize to
your penis?”
A toss up, given the abundance of clunkers, but I’ll
go with David Alan Grier:
“In 10 years, we had oral
sex two times – and both
times I was holding the
gun.” Because domestic
violence is hilarious.
MORE, MORE
Bobcat Goldthwait: Went
over the edge and survived magnificently. And
props to hometown girl
Caroline Rhea: “I don’t
understand Viagra. I like
pie, but don’t want to eat
that for 41⁄2 hours.”
Bobcat Goldthwait, even
when he’s rambling.
Scratch that: especially
when he’s rambling.
Caroline Rhea.
A Bobcat Goldthwait solo
show, detailing his Hollywood flameout stories –
setting fire to the Tonight
Show stage, getting fired
from Hollywood Squares
– would be a riot.
NO MORE
Seriously. Was the red
stop light on stage broken when Paul Rodriguez
went on and on and on ...
Sets that run overtime,
especially, as with Paul
Rodriguez last night,
when the set is not hitting the mark.
Paul Rodriguez. Ironic that
he would joke about the
stage looking like a terrorist had blown it up, because there was some serious bombing going on.
PHOTOS: JOHN MAHONEY THE GAZETTE
JOHN CLEESE came on stage for the Sunday-night gala at Théàtre St. Denis with Just for Laughs’
Andy Nulman carrying his IV pole, which didn’t seem overly dramatic at all since he’d bowed out of
hosting the Wednesday night gala with a case of prostatitis that put him in a Montreal hospital. The
IV pole was a lark, as were the just-escaped-the-ICU outfit of threadbare jacket and holey pants with
no shirt or socks. But for all the props, the veteran actor, comedian and former member of Monty
Python did look and sound quite frail, though his acid wit can not, apparently, be sidelined. “I wish I
could say I was excited to be here, but I’m not.” He went on to kvetch about his latest divorce and recovered nicely from an audio-visual failure, even though it robbed the early gala’s audience from seeing his biggest bit of the night. Of the comics on the All-Star Gala bill – Louie Anderson, David Alan
Grier, Mike MacDonald, Paul Rodriguez, Caroline Rhea, Bobcat Goldthwait and Louis CK – Goldthwait was the best. Check the chart at left for our review of the show. And for more reviews, photos
and more, go to montrealgazette.com/justforlaughs2009.