Alum Bruce Hills gets the last laugh

Yet Hills’ climb to the top of the Just For Laughs (JFL) empire began 30 years ago in 1986 when he joined the still-young festival as a driver.

“That first summer I drove Jerry Lewis and his entourage, including his dog, and then Sandra Bernhard.

A few years earlier they had finished [the 1983 film] The King of Comedy and both wanted to strangle each other!” recalls Hills, who studied marketing at Concordia, although he left just a few credits shy of his degree in 1990.

“It was an entertaining time. I would get in the car with Jerry and someone in his entourage would ask me, ‘How awful is Sandra being?’ Then I would get in the car with Sandra and she would be, ‘Jerry is being an absolute jerk and a bully.’ That was my driving experience.”

Hills would become JFL’s director of programming in 1988, then vice-president of International Television in 1995 before being named COO in 1999, responsible for the daily operation of JFL.

Over the years, while JFL has developed different strategies to grow, the course it has charted the past five years has brought the festival to new heights, commercially and artistically.

“The latest approach I give a lot of credit to Robbie Praw, who felt we should focus on the one thing we are superb at and not try to be too many things,” Hills says of the former VP of programming.

JFL founder and president Gilbert Rozon “wants the festival to be multifaceted — which I don’t disagree with — but we decided to be the best stand-up comedy festival in the world,” he adds.

“We focused on that, making our galas better, increasing our one-person shows dramatically. We focused on our showcases for young talent to give more great talent opportunities,” Hills says.

“If you’re a stand-up comedy star anywhere in the world, if you’re good, there’s a place for you in Montreal. So every great comic in the world feels they have a home in Montreal. We want to be a partner in their growth.”

Hart’s start

As a shining example, Hills points to American comedy superstar Kevin Hart, who returns to JFL in 2016 with Kevin Hart Presents LOL Live. The six-night event runs July 26 to 31 at the intimate Théatre Berri and will showcase some of the best comedians from around the world, being filmed exclusively for Hart’s new digital Laugh Out Loud Network, a video-on-demand service.

“Kevin started at JFL as a new face, then a gala act. He did club shows, he performed his solo show at Metropolis, then he headlined the Bell Centre in 2015, and this year he is producing a six-night series with us,” Hills says proudly.

The Just For Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival is now the world’s largest and most prestigious comedy event, welcoming some 1.35 million visitors to Montreal each summer and generating approximately $80 million for the city’s economy.

The Just For Laughs Group has offices in Montreal, Paris, Los Angeles, Toronto and London, England, and GQ magazine in 2013 named Hills — responsible for over 1,000 JFL television specials broadcast around the world, including on The Comedy Network, HBO and BBC — as “the most powerful man in international comedy.”

“I’m not entirely sure that’s accurate but I was happy with it. I’ve got a big ego!” says Hills.

He credits his studies at Concordia with helping lay the groundwork for his career. “I think it was the first time I felt competent and capable of a career in business because when I did well at Concordia, I felt a level of accomplishment,” he says.

“I also still have a lot of friends from Concordia today, in Montreal and around the world. You can never underestimate the impact of a school on your Rolodex,” he adds. “When you can call important people that you grew up with, it’s very different than making a cold call.”

Alumni performing at Just For Laughs

Many former Concordia students are performing at Just For Laughs, OFF-JFL and JFL’s Zoofest.

Montreal stand-up comics Tranna Wintour, BA 10, and Thomas Leblanc, BA 14, remount their hilarious Sainte Céline: A Dion Cabaret that explores the life and career of pop icon Céline Dion through music, comedy, drag and burlesque performances, at the OFF-JFL from July 21 to 23.

“I hate Céline because she is so uncool,” says Tranna. “It baffles my mind how such a big dork became an international superstar.”

“I adore Céline, almost on a spiritual level,” says Leblanc. “Her music, her family, René, her endearing goofiness...”