MONTREAL—Comedian Howie Mandel rejoices that after leaving his native land for a life in entertainment south of the border, his latest career move is a homecoming.

“I have a need to put Canada on a bigger world stage,” he says on the telephone from Los Angeles.

Mandel joined with American talent agency ICM Partners to purchase the Montreal comedy and production company Just For Laughs. He insists it is the perfect vehicle to make Canada shine around the world.

“We could make it bigger and more relevant outside of the industry and outside of the country than it is right now.”

But in discussing his big plans, the Toronto-born Mandel brushes over the sex scandal that erupted last October when multiple women came forward alleging sexual assault and harassment at the hands of Just For Laughs founder Gilbert Rozon.

“Obviously they had their internal issues, but I don’t know that the brand has been stained,” he says.

“For the English-speaking world it is a minor detail, as sad as it might be, because the English-speaking community — and especially the Americans — barely spoke to Gilbert Rozon,” says Christelle Paré, a post-doctoral researcher with Brunel University London’s Centre for Comedy Studies Research.

In the French-speaking world, however, it will take more than Mandel’s assurances to break the association between Rozon and the company he built up over nearly four decades.

“It has been part of the Quebec psyche for the last 30 years. Of course there's a huge part of the public that has been traumatized by this or at least hurt and disappointed,” Paré says.

Read more:

Just for Laughs sold to group led by Howie Mandel, U.S. talent agency ICM Partners

Just for Laughs founder Gilbert Rozon denies all sex abuse allegations against him

Standup comedians take a crack at government funding

The sale of what Quebeckers refer to as a “fleuron”— a corporate jewel — to outsiders also threatens to impose a new linguistic divide on Montreal.

In the wake of the allegations against Rozon, many of Quebec’s leading francophone comedians expressed outrage and betrayal and vowed never again to work with Rozon or to enrich his company. Several went so far as to create the competing Grand Montréal Comédie Fest, with the intention of supplanting the francophone half of the annual Just for Laughs summer festival.

Both comedy festivals are slated to run in July. Both are surrounded by uncertainty.

The upstart festival claims dozens of Quebec’s top French-speaking comics, such as Martin Petit, Adib Alkhalidey, Louis-José Houde, Katherine Levac and Cathy Gauthier. It announced a partnership deal with Vidéotron, the Quebecor-owned cable company, which will help with financing. But three months out from the July opening, it has released dates for just three shows.

The French version of the Just For Laughs festival has promised a full lineup, but has yet to reveal which francophone comedians will take to its stages. Mandel says announcements about a television deal and other francophone partners are coming soon.

Louise Richer, who runs Montreal’s École nationale de l’humour, a 30-year-old institution that was created by Rozon and Just For Laughs, says there are now question marks beside almost every aspect of Quebec’s vibrant comedy industry.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“There will always be an incredible effervescence. There are production companies that are doing projects with artists and comedians and it’s very impressive,” she says. “I don’t think the comedy industry will collapse tomorrow, but it’s possible that the landscape and the ecosystem is transformed significantly.”

Among the things Richer identifies as a “worrying question” is whether Just For Laughs might eventually abandon Quebec's francophone comedy scene altogether and move the festival out of Montreal.

Paré says this is more than just idle sentiment.

“I don't think they're going to do it tomorrow morning, but if five years down the road they say that they've been trying and no one supports us and the (French) Just for Laughs brand anymore, they could cut it,” she says.

“I really do not hope that and I'm pretty sure that all those business people don't want it either because they're used to the bilingual, charming atmosphere that you have in Montreal, that is so Quebecois and typical.

“They might be a little bit sensitive for five minutes but then they'll brush it off and keep on doing their business.”

For his part, Mandel says he views Montreal as the “Mecca for everything comedy” and the “epicentre of laughter.”

But the general uncertainty, the questions without a response, has left people guessing about what they will find on the horizon. Optimists see opportunities. Pessimists see only risks.

François Brouard, a professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business, compares the shakeup in Quebec’s comedy industry to the shuffling of cards in a high-stakes game of poker.

“It's like a new hand has been dealt. The players are different. There are some who were good before and may not be as good now. There may be others who are better, but they're not playing with the same cards,” he says.

There could be changes to average ticket prices, the numbers of shows, television deals and corporate partnerships as well as professional alliances as Just For Laughs and other companies compete for talent, he says.

“At the end there will be winners and losers and maybe there will be more winners than losers. Maybe the two festivals will coexist and maybe they will attract a larger clientele than they had before.”

Read more about: