Festival is back with global comics including Dara O Briain and Tommy Tiernan

Montreal’s Just For Laughs festival has announced the first names of its 40th anniversary line-up this year – including Dara O Briain and Tommy Tiernan.

O Briain will be on the Brit(ish) showcase of UK-based acts, whose line-up is yet to be announced, while Tiernan will be performing his new stand-up show, Tomfoolery

As always, the festival, returning in person for the first time since the Covid pandemic, is based around a series of huge gala shows, televised around the world.

Hosting these will be Hannah Gadsby, Marc Maron, Patton Oswalt, Chelsea Handler, Jo Koy. Iliza Shlesinger, Russell Peters and Ronny Chieng.

Other concert shows will be John Mulaney: From Scratch; Hasan Minhaj: The King’s Jester; Vir Das: Wanted; Celeste Barber: Fine, Thanks and Neal Brennan: Unacceptable.

Brit(ish) will be joined in the roster of club programming by the return of The Nasty Show, Midnight Surprise and Just For The Culture, the showcase previously known as The Ethnic Show. This year, it will be hosted by Alonzo Boden and feature Dave Merheje, Paul Rabliauskas, Debra DiGiovanni, Jessica Kirson, Sheng Wang.

Today’s announcement follows the previously revealed arena shows from Kevin Hart and Bill Burr.

Just For Laughs is a magnet for the Hollywood and New York comedy industry – as well as an estimated 2million tourists – and has been a launchpad for acts such as Dave Chappelle, Jimmy Fallon and Amy Schumer.

However this year it faces competition for North American dominance from the Netflix Is A Joke festival launching in LA in May.

Just For Laughs president Bruce Hills said: ‘We are overjoyed to be able to bring the preeminent Just For Laughs Festival back to Montreal this summer, for a historic milestone festival.

‘We share in the world's heaviness right now, and as leaders in the comedy industry, we are hopeful that we can provide some much-needed levity and premium quality laughter for all audiences, industry and artists planning to gather in Montreal this July.’

Published: 22 Mar 2022