SHECKY! A magazine about standup... treks to Montreal for the second straight year to bring you daily slices of the world's largest comedy festival!

\Squashed Turtle!

\Shut Out Of Globecom!

\Hanging at the Comedy Works!

\Raw Data!

JOEY ELIAS and DAN ROSENBERG of HumorVision.com hang side-by-side downstairs from the Comedy Works.

Last year's Just For Laughs Canadian Comedy Competition DAVID PRYDE (l) and Montrealer DAVID JOHN McCARTHEY flank New Zealand standup comic and Globecom-er ANDREW CLAY

Comedy Central's invitation to their Midnight Lounge Party on Friday is a "Special Lounge Pillow." Is that the cutest thing you ever saw?! It's fuzzy!

RAW DATA--Here's a list of standup comics performing this year:
Orny Adams, Chris Addison, Ted Alexandro, Jeff Allen, Tim Allen, Louie Anderson, Ian Bagg, Carl Barron, Elizabeth Beckwith, Danny Bhoy, Matthew-Leonard Boylan, Jim Breuer, Dave Broadfoot, Bruce Bruce, Brent Butt, Frank Caliendo, John Caponera, Dave Chappelle, Joel Chasnoff, Martha E. Chaves, Andrew Clay, Wali Collins, Dane Cook, Nikki Crosby, Norm Crosby, Sean Cullen, James Cunningham, Jim David, Steeve Diamond, Maripat Donovan, Jenny Eclair, Joey Elias, Susie Essman, Adam Ferrara, Jackie Flynn, Glen Foster, Jim Gaffigan, Zach Galifianakis, Todd Glass, Nick Griffin, Andrew Grose, Rich Hall, Chelsea Handler, James Hanna, Raoul Heertje, Harry Hill, Maryellen Hooper, Eric Idle, Dom Irrera, Kevin James, Ken Jeong, Susan Jeremy, Peter Johansson, Terry Jones, Sarah Kendall, Andy Kindler, Kathy Kinney, Lisa Lampanelli, Mike MacDonald, Steve Marmel, Jackie Martling, Monique Marvez, David John McCarthey, Rick Miller, Jerry Miner, Richie Minervini, John Moloney, Mo'Nique, Jane Morris, Sue Murphy, Allan Murray, Ardal O'Hanlon, Russell Peters, John Pinette, David Pryde, Andy Richter, Kate Rigg, Paul Rodriguez, Joe Rogan, Jeffrey Ross, Jeff Rothpan, Lowell Sanders, Mike Sauro,William Shatner, Shay Shay, Craig Shoemaker, Pauly Shore, Bobby Slayton, Winston Spear, Peter Spruyt, Kim Stockwood, Jason Stuart, Tommy Tiernan, Christopher Titus, Guy Torry, Sheryl Underwood, Mike Uryga, Victor Varnado, Billy Dee Washington, Suzanne Westenhoefer and Ryan Wilner

MONTREAL--We squashed a turtle on Interstate 87...We thought it was a leaf...as we approached it, we saw the details much more clearly...turtle details...the little head emerging from the shell...He was probably straining to see details on our car...then brrump-brrump...awwww ...geeeez... that was a turtle! Says SHECKY! Editor Brian McKim "I had turtles as pets when I was a kid...One of them, the one named Tippy, bit my finger once when I was feeding it bologna... turtles like bologna... or so I was led to believe... perhaps that's why he bit me..."

We arrived mid-afternoon and checked into the le Nouvel. The Comedy Nest is on the first floor of this hotel on Rene Levesque Blvd. Nest proprietor Ernie Butler has upped his Festival profile considerably this year. In addition to being the usual site for the Craven A Just For Laughs Homegrown Comic Competition National Championship (or a variation thereof) and the Comedy Night in Canada All-Star Shows, the Nest will be host to the first annual Mark Rennie Foundation Comedy With A Cause Gala (tonight, Monday) and MTV's The Real World Road Rules Challenge (Sunday night)

A couple of blocks over and a block and a half up is the Comedy Works, which last night was the site of Globecom, which featured the "hottest rising stars on the planet performing English-language standup." Martha E. Chaves hosted and introduced Australia's Carl Barron, Andrew Clay of New Zealand, Raoul Heertje of Holland and Nikki Crosby of Trinidad. We didn't get to see any of it, because, as we were informed by the Just For Laughs Festival's Manager, Development and Alternative Programming Brent Schiess, it was sold out! (Or, as our French friends would say, it was s'ils affichent complet! Which is far worse than place debout uniquement, or standing room only.)

We briefly considered going to Queer Comedy over at the New (Nouveau!) Club Soda to see Suzanne Westenhoefer, Jim David, Susan Jeremy and Jason Stuart but now we were running late and we would probably be shut out of that show as well. So we headed to the Delta bar, figuring we'd meet up and snap some photos of the comics from BOTH shows afterwards. Much to our surprise, the waiter gave us last call at 11! Last call at ELEVEN? In Montreal? He patiently explained that they stayed open late the last two nights and there were sparse crowds--hardly worth staying open for. The real crowds, he predicted, would be here on Monday night.

We picked up our press packet and other goodies and, among the many invites to Industry parties was a sleeve containing the red velvet pillow (see photo at left) engraved with a coupla kicky martini glasses! On the sleeve was printed the invitation to Comedy Central's Midnight Lounge Party, to be held in the Delta Ballroom just before Midnight on Friday. If the pillow is any indication, it oughta be a corker! ("Rest up before and after the party with your Special Lounge Pillow...")

We summoned Friend of SHECKY! and Fastband Global Cast personality Dan Rosenberg to partake with us at the Delta (before we knew of their premature lock down!). Rosenberg is up here in his capacity as the Moderately Big Cheese of Fastband's Humorvision (www.humorvision.com) and, though we've only spoken to Mr. Rosenberg via phone (We did a phoner with his show that was cybercast out of New Orleans last year) we ID'ed him as soon as he parted the Delta's automatic doors. Summoning a shuttle, Rosenberg and pal Burt Teplitzky ("President of the World Famous Improv comedy Traffic Schools" according to his business card) shared our shuttle as we headed back to the scene of our earlier Globecom shutout.

A healthy knot of comics and others gathered. Among them was SHECKY! Interview victim Harland Williams and Comedy Works proprietor Jim "Jimbo" Skormowski, who eventually soothed us all with his karaoke version of a Rosemary Clooney song that Dean Martin had a hit with (We must remember to ask Jimbo what it was called). One of the Globecom fellows engaged in a most bizarre call-and-response Maori war whoop of some kind with a fellow Kiwi (who was an improv specialist) to the delight of most of the sober patrons.

A light schedule was necessary in order to preserve energy for the following nights. There's a lot of comedy to be observed, data to be gathered. And this year, your humble SHECKY! editors will be performing as well. Stay well-tuned.