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So this past weekend, Jorn and I bought Just For Laughs ComicPro passes. For those of you unfamiliar with the pass: fuck you. Seriously though, it’s great. The idea is that you get to go to a few selected shows at night, and during the day you can attend various panels hosted by some of the top names in comedy or something.

Basically, for 100 bucks I got to see Picnicface and Smodcast record live. It was fun, well worth the money and I would honestly recommend it to anybody who wants to be funny ever.

Oh yeah, Ken Motherfucking Jeong as well.

But that’s not the story of this edition of Fuck Mondays, this is.

Jorn and I were looking for a show at the Place des Arts venue: Kenny Hotz’s Triumph of the Will.  We flash our bottom-of-the-barrel passes to the the ticket takers and they wave us right in. A pretty big crowd is forming and we keep hearing things like “standing room only” and “completely sold out.” Ok, we knew these passes might have us standing at some events, they’re the cheapskate passes after all. We talk to the usher and she explains that indeed, the show is sold out, but we can stand at the back. Man, I hope I don’t have to stand for all the shows I’m going to go see for the next few days, but whatever.

We head to the back of the theater, and notice that the seats reserved for the press aren’t full. We sit off to the corner, and I casually pull out a notebook to further fit the bill of being a member of the media. At least we’ve got seats, even if they’re at the back. Who knew Kenny Hotz was so popular?

Sure enough the venue fills right up and I slowly clue in, we are totally not in the correct theater. Place des Arts has multiple stages, there’s no way Kenny Hotz would fill up this nearly 3000 person auditorium. Yep, we are definitely in the wrong place.

Ever heard of Russell Peters? I’m told he’s sort of a big deal in the comedy world.  He announced he was doing two shows for Just For Laughs this year, and they both instantly sold out. The lineup included Sebastian Maniscalco, Dom Irerra, Nick Thune, Jimmy Carr and Jeremy Hotz. He added a third, that sold out too. He added a fourth and guess what? That also sold out.  People were selling floor seats on Craigslist for 150$ a pop with words like “hottest ticket in town” being thrown around.

That’s the show we were in, sitting at the back with members of the media. Like bosses.

Good times.  More on Just for Laughs and my weekend next week.

-K