Chicago probably has never been more well-represented than this year at the Just For Laughs Montreal International Comedy Festival. That’s the annual laugh-a-thon that celebrated its 13th year of presenting comics, sketch groups, street performers and other forms of comedy from all over the world.
Among those performing here were Margaret Smith, Mark Roberts, Paul Gilmartin and Rondell Sheridan. They all were hobnobbing with nationally known stars such as Rich Jeni, Richard Lewis, David Brenner, Mike MacDonald and Bill Bellamy.
Pop quiz, hotshot: Who at the Montreal festival represented Chicago more than any other act?
Mark Reedy. That’s because of all the Chicago-area natives at Just For Laughs (no relation), Reedy was the only one who still lives in the city. And that’s what made the festival all the sweeter for him.
“That takes on a different flavor,” Reedy was saying in the lobby of the Delta Hotel, which served as home base for the festival. “Once you get in Los Angeles, there’s a big recognition, or when you’re in New York. . . . You’ve reached a certain status once you’re in those geographical areas.”
Reedy added that although “you can be a great comedian in Chicago,” there are some in the industry who think that the best acts, or at least the more successful ones, live in the larger entertainment centers of L.A. or N.Y.
However, “I’m still in Chicago and I’m getting this opportunity,” said Reedy, 33. “It’s like they’re moving me up the ladder.”
Does that mean that Reedy may have to make the big move to either the left or right coast?
“It’s one of those things that, you’ll cross that bridge when you get there,” he answered. “You really don’t know. I think it’s more of, do I want to move, than do I need to move. Because you can just travel back and forth for projects, which a lot of movie stars and entertainers do.”
Reedy, who started as a comic in Chicago 12 years ago, was chosen to participate in Just For Laughs from an audition held at Zanies this year. It was the first time that a Chicago act was selected for the festival out of a Chicago showcase.
He likened his being chosen to “a person coming from the minors who gets a chance to play in the majors, he gets up to bat and hits a home run on the first pitch.”
Reedy performed at the “New Faces” showcase of emerging talent at Just For Laughs, and in the festival’s “Uptown” show of African-American comedians.
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Reedy told an audience during one of his shows, “It’s amazing how your friends (are) the closest ones to you, but they treat you the worst when you’re out partying.
“Like guys–if they’re together and an ugly woman comes toward them, they’ll get out of the way and let the ugly woman talk to the drunk guy.”
Reedy’s set was part of an overall “learning experience” that Just For Laughs meant to him.
“You always have to meet new people, you have to find out how things are run, you have to find out what you have to do, you have to find out who’s important and what they don’t like and what they do like.”
That’s an important factor for any comic working the Montreal fest. Not only is it a fun time and a great opportunity to watch some wonderful comedy, Just For Laughs also serves as a marketplace for television and movie industry types looking to find the next Seinfeld or Roseanne. Tim Allen is just one of a handful of standups who were discovered in Montreal.
It’s also a place where agents, managers and club owners come looking for new talent to make a hookup with.
Reedy learned something even deeper from the festival, a misconception that he realized has cropped up in cities he has performed in all over the country.
“There’s something in the air” in America, he said. “The blue comics don’t like the clean comics, the clean comics think the blue comics aren’t any good. . . . What this is showing me here in Montreal is this boils down to being just business. This is the comedy business. There’s a lot of respect going on, no matter what category you do.
“Some people do blue, some people do a more clean-cut (form of comedy), some people are variety acts. But yet it’s still under one umbrella. You can have all three styles, and NBC might be interested or ABC. It still boils down to who’s the best in their category.”
It’s a safe bet that Reedy’s relationship-friendship-observational type of standup caused his star to shine brighter in the eyes of people who hadn’t seen him before. But if his name had been called three or four years ago to audition, he wouldn’t have been able to answer.
Reedy was the talk of the Chicago comedy scene back then. He had been in a controversial accident that landed him in a Cleveland hospital with his life in danger. Details of the incident are sketchy.
Reedy talked about it here, on the record, for the first time.
Reedy chose his words carefully when saying, “Every comic has a story in this business that it’s easy to get involved with the wrong people. Bad things happened to me. So I had to pay the price.”
Reedy was still a little hesitant about giving all the details. But he did allow that “someone tried to poison me with acid,” resulting in permanent injuries to his stomach and to his neck. The incident happened as Reedy was coming home from a gig at a comedy club in Cleveland.
After the accident, Reedy slowly worked himself back into stage strength. He went on to add appearances on MTV, the A&E Network and HBO to a television resume that already included Showtime. You’ll be able to catch him next month on a new limited-run comedy-variety series on HBO starring Chicago’s Bernie Mac.
Reedy got a chance to work in the big show, but he knows he still has to toil away in the minors for a while longer. But he also realizes that won’t be for long.
“After this festival, I’ll go back to Chicago and it’ll be time to go back to work . . . but one day I want the people of Chicago to say, `Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s Mark Reedy!’ “
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Mark Reedy is landing at Zanies-Vernon Hills (230 Hawthorn Village Commons, Vernon Hills; 708-549-6030), where he’ll be appearing through Sunday.
The standup lineup
Spend this weekend with an original, the Comedy Womb in Lyons (8030 W. Ogden Ave.; 708-442-0200 or 708-447-4485), where Orlando Reyes and other local acts are working on their craft.
Zanies is bringing in John Pinette, the big guy whose material on food works for him as much as angst works as a fodder for laughs for Richard Lewis. Pinette is appearing in Zanies’ Mt. Prospect outlet (2200 S. Elmhurst Rd.; 708-228-6166) Saturday and Sunday.