Just for Laughs review: Lil Rel Howery and Friends was a diverse mix of under-seen comics

Lil Rel Howery and Friends
Place des Arts – 5ieme Salle
July 28, 2018

Lil Rel Howery might just be the most sincere person in comedy today. In our recent interview, the star of Get Out and Uncle Drew explained that this show would feature young, hungry comics who weren’t often given such a platform at the festival, and he definitely lived up to his word. Given total carte blanche to fill the lineup of this show, Howery used the space to focus almost entirely on under-represented groups at the festival, nearly all of whom were people of colour.

Howery opened the show by bringing out Spencer MacKay, a young Canadian comic in a wheelchair. Making his festival debut, Mackay brought up his condition right off the bat, joking that if the audience heard a large bang following the set it was his chair falling off the ramp and crushing him to death. It was a great introduction to MacKay’s particular brand of humour, and set the tone nicely for the rest of the showcase. MacKay seemed thrilled to finally be performing for a Just for Laughs audience, and his joy at the opportunity to be included on the show was immediately contagious.

The rest of Howery’s show featured a collection of stellar, lesser-known comics (at least in Montreal), including the hilarious Ruben Paul (who like Howery also performed at the Tiffany Haddish gala later that night), Candice Thompson, and many more. Nearly the entire lineup was solid, and you could tell that each performer was handpicked up Howery himself, which made the evening like you were spending time with a collection of his friends that just so happened to also be stand-up comedians.

Apart from some iffy sound at the venue that often muddled the performers, this was one of the most solids bills we saw at Just for Laughs this year.