Brownstein: SNL vet Mikey Day making first appearance at JFL as fest pulls out all the stops

Montreal Gazette

a day ago

Mikey Day has no problem cracking up his Saturday Night Live colleagues during sketch performances on the show — and they've seen and heard pretty much everything. So it's a good bet he'll have no difficulty sending audiences here into hysterics when hosting a Just for Laughs gala July 26 at Théâtre Maisonneuve.
Day has performed and written some of the 50-year-old show's more memorable sketches. Even without opening his mouth, he sent TV viewers — and cast members — into convulsions doing Beavis and Butt-Head at an AI conference, with Ryan Gosling as the former and Day as … well … the butt of the bit.
'I feel I peaked with that one,' Day says in a Zoom interview.
Doubtful. He has also had audiences doubled over in the oft-recurring Eric and Donald Trump Jr. interplay, with his Don Jr. babysitting Alex Moffat's Eric. Or, opposite Tom Hanks, in the haunted David S. Pumpkins routines.
This will mark Day's first-ever appearance at JFL, but he is well aware of the fest and the comics who have played here, including many of his fellow SNL players discovered at the New Faces series.
'I'm an old face now,' he cracks. 'But it's shameful I've never been before. I'm definitely following in some mighty footsteps and just hope to come close to what many have done here in the past.'
The ever-self-effacing Day, 45, got his start in comedy collaborating with the famed Groundlings troupers in L.A. He has been holed up with SNL the last 12 seasons as a performer and writer and has earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series along the way. Yet he has no clue about how many sketches he has penned for the show over the years.
'I know I have written hundreds and hundreds. But I couldn't even guess. It's probably approaching 1,000, but not all, obviously, have made the show. I've definitely had some bombs, but luckily they're usually vetted out at dress rehearsal. Point is you cannot manufacture the magic of something that works.
'It all varies week to week. It's very much peaks and valleys, not taking the victories too seriously and not taking the failures too seriously. There's constant pressure. It's weird because everyone's very supportive of one another and it definitely feels like a family. And yet at the same time, there is only a limited amount of real estate on the show, so there is this kind of underlayer of competition. Thankfully, it doesn't really poison the dynamic.'
Day has no issues about making himself look ridiculous à la Butt-Head. He credits the British version of The Office with Ricky Gervais for inspiring him.
'The comedy in that show is all about the embarrassment and awkwardness. That kind of forms a lot of my sensibilities, like being humiliated on camera,' notes Day, who played Crackle in the Snap, Crackle and Pop trio in the Seinfeld cereal flick Unfrosted.
SNL's 50th anniversary this past season was particularly significant for Day and his longtime writing partner on the show, Streeter Seidell, with whom he is working on a Judd Apatow project.
'That was wild, with everything leading up to it. Luckily, I was in a couple of sketches and myself and Streeter wrote a couple of things, like the Kate McKinnon alien-abduction sketch. The whole thing was just incredibly surreal. ... There were a couple of (former cast members) I had never met, but you kind of instantly have this kinship, because the show pretty much operates the same since 1975. I do look back and can't believe I was part of something like that.
'I remember catching the Coneheads when I was 5, and it just blew my mind,' he adds. 'Now I hope to stay on the show as long as I possibly can. It's the greatest job in the world, so addictive and perfect for my kind of creative ADD mind. I want to stay until I can only play grandfathers — or most Congressmen and senators.'
Festival on the rebound
It turns out the JFL announcement made a month ago was but a soupçon of what was to come for a festival clearly on the rebound. The latest communiqués indicate we will be bombarded with chuckles on a scale the likes of which we haven't seen for years.
Sylvain Parent-Bédard, the JFL president and CEO, took over a year ago amid much tumult and put out a limited program then with very little lead time. This year's 43rd edition, running July 16-27, appears to be pulling out all the stops.
In addition to the previously reported news of Mae Martin, Danny Bhoy, Russell Peters and Brad Williams coming here, it has been announced that satirist supreme Roy Wood Jr. (The Daily Show) will join Day, Michelle Buteau and Fortune Feimster as gala hosts, and up-and-comers Ralph Barbosa, Joe Dombrowski and Carlos Ballarta will do solo shows.
And what would JFL be without its most enduring, most popular series, the Nasty Show? A new collection of filth-mongers are primed to deliver, helmed by viral sensation Che Durena and featuring shock-meisters Jiaoying Summers, Reggie Conquest, Jay Jurden and Amos Gill.
Also up there on the enduring popularity front is the Culture Show (né Ethnic Show). Another new batch of comics will be centre stage here as well. Host is Asif Ali (Deli Boys), and performing will be Frankie Quiñones and Andrea Jin.
Considered can't-miss by comedy aficionados and for which JFL could well be best known is the New Faces series, from which some of this continent's hottest stars have emerged. Getting their big breaks here were once unknowns like Kevin Hart, Amy Schumer, Ali Wong and Jo Koy plus future SNL cast members like Jimmy Fallon, Pete Davidson, Heidi Gardner and Marcello Hernandez.
Not finished yet
Off JFL, considered the fest's edgier sib and also a launching site for stars of tomorrow, returns this year with a veritable army of standups who won't be mincing words or actions. Among those to watch out for are Russell Howard, Emil Wakim, Nish Kumar, K. Trevor Wilson, Celia Pacquola, My Straight Friends, Amos Gill, Jiaoying Summers, Ivan Decker, Jay Jurden and Montrealers Tranna Wintour and Robby Hoffman.
Off JFL is home for Best of the Fest, early editions of the Midnight Surprise, Sunday Night Improv and — yay — the Montreal Series: The Montreal Show.
In keeping with the pattern being set in the Nasty Show and Culture Show series, the much-loved Montreal shows, taking place July 18 at 8:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. at Café Cléopâtre, will also showcase a different breed of local talents. To wit: host of the 8 p.m. performance is Eva Alexopoulous and appearing will be Kyra Carleton, Tom Murphy, Joanna Selvarajah, Mike Carrozza and Wassim El-Mounzer, a bright light who is certainly going places. At the helm of the 10 p.m. show is Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall and featured will be Claudine Napoleon, George Assily, Raajiee Chelliah, Olivia Benaroche and Arthur Sim Jr.
This year's JFL won't be confused for festivals of yore. It is definitely moving on with a dynamic coterie of standups ready to take their place.