Just For Laughs Comedy Conference

JUST FOR LAUGHS COMEDY CONFERENCE
Starts This Thursday!
More Names Added To The Line-Up
(Montreal ­ July 21, 2009) Comedy is generating serious revenue across all media. And Montreal¹s Just For Laughs Comedy Conference has become THE place to follow the ³funny money.²
The high-powered business arm of the legendary Just For Laughs Comedy Festival is the wittiest, most insightful and valuable breakdown of the multi-billion dollar comedy industry anywhere - a must-attend event for talent, execs, industry observers and investors. The prime international gathering for studio executives, broadcasters, agents, managers, writers, filmmakers, and of course, comics, it¹s nothing less than the biggest brainstorming session in the business.
An impressive list of industry heavyweights has been assembled for this year¹s Comedy Conference to track every promising transformational trend affecting comedy revenue. Among them: new delivery technologies, daunting economics, ubiquitous digital platforms, audience fragmentation and citizen comedy.
In the spirit of change, the conference is hosting a panel on "The Web: Comedy's New Wild West" with speakers such as Mike Farah (Funnyordie.com) and Avi Rothman (creator of The Inappropriate Yoga Guy). Moderated by ?Net comedy content pioneer Simon Assaad (Heavy.com), Wild West looks at the most crowded comedy club of them all - the Internet. Also, producers from SuperNews!, the new, web-born kid on the political satire block, will discuss their transition from being a short webcast to a 30-minute broadcast.
Often described as the ?Fringe¹ in television, some of the most talented comedy writers test their skills and push the envelope day after day, week after week, in late night comedy. Join moderator Bill Carter from The New York Times as he gets the answers from Barry Julien, Head Writer, The Colbert Report; Steve Bodow and Tim Carvell, Writers, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; Tom Ruprecht, Writer, Late Show with David Letterman; Meredith Scardino, Writer, The Colbert Report on ³Late Night: In the Writers Room.²
The conference will also take the temperature of traditional comedy streams, with a ³name²-filled Upright Citizens¹ Brigade panel, hosted by Paul Provenza, on launching careers via theatre, and a special series of debates presented by CBC Radio¹s The Debaters, featuring headline comics on everything from the ³bro-mance² phenomenon to digital piracy to the viability of working outside the American market.
The cream of contemporary comedy writing - including Tami Sagher (30 Rock), Etan Cohen (Tropic Thunder), and Dan Sterling (Sarah Silverman Program) - assemble for "Comedy's Next Generation of Writers: A Look Ahead." And "Breaking New Ground: Adult Animation Grows Up," susses out the new rules in animated comedy with Dino Stamatopoulos (Moral Orel), Tommy Blacha (Metalocalypse) and Vernon Chatman (Wonder Showzen and Xavier: Renegade Angel).
Producing Great Comedy: The Secret Sauce features hitmakers like Tendo Nagenda, Vice President of Production, Mandate Pictures; Todd Phillips, Director/Producer, The Hangover; Tom McNulty, President of Production and Producer, 21 Laps Entertainment, Night at the Museum, and the upcoming Date Night starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey.

Other ³name² events include In Conversation with Todd Phillips, Fremantle Media¹s Rob Clark on Taking Comedy Global and the infamous, annual State of The Industry speech in which Andy Kindler eviscerates the powers-that-be.
Finally, the Comedy Conference will fete two of the outstanding talents of the year. Todd Phillips, director of this year's summer hit The Hangover, will receive the Director of the Year Award, and Etan Cohen, writer of the wildly popular Tropic Thunder and Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, will accept the Writer of the Year Award.

"If you can, tell me something happy."
- Marybones