Just For Laughs has earned a global reputation for producing premium quality content from their international festivals to countless hours of television and comedy tours worldwide. Today, Just For Laughs is excited to announce that it is expanding into the audio business with the launch of a Canadian-owned JFL record label. Under the banner “JFL Originals”, this new label will record and promote new original comedy content from Canadian talent.
Founded in 1983, the Just For Laughs Group’s growth is concentrated on three major focal points: festivals (in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Sydney, Australia); television production and stand-up specials (most notably Gags, seen in 150 countries and on 100 airlines); and live shows (Canadian tour dates for Jerry Seinfeld, Trevor Noah, Kevin Hart, Jim Gaffigan, Bill Burr, Sebastian Maniscalco, John Mulaney, Jimmy Carr, Danny Bhoy, Amy Schumer, North American dates for John Cleese & Eric Idle, to name a few). The Montreal Just For Laughs Festival, which celebrated its 37th edition in 2019, is the world’s largest and most prestigious comedy event, welcoming more than 2 million people each summer.
From emerging Canadian comedians who are looking for a distribution outlet to seasoned comics with whom JFL already has a long-standing relationship, to others seeking to work with JFL for the first time, JFL Originals will embrace them all. The new label, featuring multi-comic compilation albums, will be distributed to leading audio suppliers including iHeartRadio Canada, Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM, Apple Music, Google Play and more.
“There is a growing thirst for audio recorded comedy, both here in Canada and internationally. We are always looking to grow the JFL brand in ways that satisfy comedy fans and we want to capture and distribute more Canadian content to meet these demands,” says JFL President, Bruce Hills. “JFL has identified an opportunity within the audio industry to create new, fresh audio content. We intend to reach out to a wide repertoire of artists who have immense comedic talent and appeal. We are looking forward to being a part of the creative process with them.”
The debut albums for this new JFL initiative will be recorded early next year, with additional opportunities to be unveiled in the coming months.
