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TORONTO — Comedian Dave Chappelle warmed up for his astonishing 10-show run at Montreal’s Just For Laughs festival with a surprise set early Monday morning.

The 41-year-old comic arrived in the city late Sunday night on a flight from New York City, where he accepted an award from the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation on Saturday.

Chappelle surprised comedy fans when he slipped into the Théâtre Saint-Catherine, a 100-seat venue, for the Off-JFL Midnight Surprise show and performed for nearly an hour.

READ MORE: Just For Laughs comic Mike Wilmot on Cosby, Ghomeshi

Chappelle is set to begin a four-night run at JFL on Monday night at Théâtre Maisonneuve at Places des Arts, where he is scheduled to do 10 sold out shows (although a limited number of tickets have been released).

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Comedian Mike Ward tweeted that Chappelle was “on top of his game” and Frank Spadone described Chappelle as “so relaxed, so funny.”

Following @DaveChappelle at a surprise #JFLMTL show, crowd is going to be soooo disappointed to see me ;) — Mike Ward (@MikeWardca) July 20, 2015

I left #JFLMTL Midnight Surprise show early, not only did I miss the last Metro, just found out I missed Dave Chappelle — Eric Ravenelle (@Rav_himself) July 20, 2015