Comedy
Interviews & Features
JFL Vancouver Interview: Comedian and YouTuber Grace Helbig
Posted by: Matthew Ardill • February 9, 2026 @ 10:03am
If you've been anywhere on the internet, you've probably at some point encountered Grace Helbig, either in the form of her successful YouTube vlogs, her TV Show The Grace Helbig Show, late night appearances, or collaborating with creators like Mamrie Hart and Hannah Hart (no relation) on film
JFL Vancouver Interview: Comic and actor Brent Butt
Posted by: Paul Little • February 2, 2026 @ 5:01pm
Brent Butt is one of the biggest names in Canadian comedy.
Matt Ardill sits down with writer, director, actor, and comedian Breanne Williamson. We talk about how she started in comedy, her inspirations and her current project a web series called Basement 51 which you can catch today.
Photo Credit: Meghan Gipps
JFL Toronto Interview: Scottish comedian John Mostyn
Posted by: Matthew Ardill • October 5, 2025 @ 2:02pm
I got a chance to chat over Zoom with comedian John Mostyn to catch up on storytelling, comedy, and their shared love of Britpop bands.
This is the hardest thing I've ever had to write. I took these tickets with reckless abandon and now here I sit, like a fool caught in a Faustian bargain.
How do you describe a Maria Bamford show? How do you even explain Maria Bamford? For reference, Judd Apatow is currently working on a documentary about her, because even he can't explain it.
Modern improv is a relatively new art form. Birthed from Viola Spolin's Improvisation for the Theatre, it started out as the back bone of performers' acts like Nichols and May, who were part of the Compass Players, an improvisational theatre company including Paul Sils as well as Ted Flicker and Del Close.
Tonight I had the absolute joy of seeing Ava Val and Patti Harrison share a stage, and it was so good the only adjective I have left after leaving the theatre is bananas. It was bananas good. A great big hand o' bananas.
It used to be Ava was a Toronto treat, but in the last couple of years she's been spreading her wings and playing across the country and around the world.
If there is a black belt in comedy, or better yet a Nobel Peace Prize, give it to Chloe Radcliffe.
I know in comedy there's that cliché of "never blame the audience", but wow what a terrible audience. This was especially weird for a festival.
One thing certain about the newly-returned Just for Laughs Toronto is they've branched out into a variety of venues that we would have never seen before, including the Randolph Theatre in the Randolph Centre for the Arts, a Methodist church turned into a community arts space and education centre.
First of all, I want to continue my trend of pointing out under-appreciated Canadian treasures. Nour Hadidi absolutely crushed it as Hari's opener. She was so good that Hari was able to get laughs off of callbacks to her jokes. I've never seen that before.
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