Just for Laughs review: Sir Patrick Stewart Gala

Sir Patrick Stewart Gala
Place des Arts
July 22, 2015

The Just for Laughs galas are always a bit of a mixed bag, especially when the hosts don’t come from a stand-up background. However, Sir Patrick Stewart was seemingly game for anything last night, embracing his often-embarrassing hosting duties with a nod and a wink that seemed to say, “Yes this is totally silly, but let’s have some fun with it.”

As a true Knight of the Realm, Sir Patrick entered in grandiose fashion, complete with a chintzy-looking suit of armor that he fumbled with during his opening monologue. “This is a long way from the Royal Shakespeare Company,” he mentioned at more than one point, as he plowed through jokes about how he wards off local Star Trek groupies with his weak French (“Ne touchez moi pas!”) and revealed the original “gangsta” stories behind photos from his adorable Instagram feed.

Towards the end of the night, Stewart touched on some political material, including his controversial supporting statements for the Irish cake shop that refused to adorn a gay wedding cake, and even threw in his support in for a free Quebec, just to witness the stunned faces in the crowd, he joked.

Somewhat surprisingly, there were no Star Trek bits referencing Stewart’s role as Captain Picard on The Next Generation, and no elaborate song and dance routines, as are often commonplace at these galas. Instead, the general gist seemed to be to try as hard as possible to get Stewart to break into laughs by forcing him to say the most ridiculous things possible, which often worked to great effect.

Stewart’s gala guests offered up a wide-range of styles, with complemented the anything-goes approach to the night.

Canadian comic Pete Zedlacher performed a hilarious bit about heavy metal roadies, inspired by attending a recent Lamb of God show (“Not a Christian band,” he emphasized to the decidedly non-metal crowd).

Kyle Kinane delivered a great set in his low-key style, emphasizing the differences between his man-boy life and that of Sir Patrick’s.

UK comedian Russell Howard was easily the highlight of the guest comedians, offering up a high-energy set focused on playing pranks on his family, including tricking his mother to ask for crystal meth at the supermarket. Howard received a roaring standing ovation following his brief set—you can bet that he’ll be hosting his own show at Just for Laughs next time around.

Former Saturday Night Live cast member Jim Breuer used his highly elastic face and an array of great sound effects to tell a story about his fears while out on a camping trip in Africa with his family, which also received a standing ovation for his remarkable physical performance.

Montrealer David Acer had a much more traditional stand-up style than most of the comics on the bill, but closed with a great bit about guessing the audience’s age with his apparent psychic powers (which only required their astrological sign—that, and their year of birth).

Fresh off her run on The Ethnic Show, London’s Gina Yashere had a great set about “not being a fan of the penis,” which involved dodging male genitalia in Matrix-like bullet time, as well her lamenting the showing of African countries in the Olympics.

We missed Sebastian Maniscalco’s closing set in order to high-tail it up the street to catch Rhys Darby’s show (check out our review here), but overall, this was a solid gala show, anchored by Sir Patrick’s willingness to have fun and embrace the absurdity of his role as the night’s jester.