Just for Laughs heats up with the just-launched Nasty Show. Helmed by New Yorker Ari Shaffir (who was raised as an Orthodox Jew, and lost his religion to comedy), the lineup includes: Yamaneika Saunders (who talks about sweating it out at the gym), Robert Kelly (who discusses the miracle of potty training your kid) and Godfrey (who explains how he survives crowded metro cars). My big laugh of the night went to the studious Brit Jimmy Carr, who prepared a thoughtful litany of Montreal jokes and also eviscerated a heckler Thursday night.
Several local comedy shows are getting the OFF-JFL|Zoofest treatment this weekend like Crazy Sexy 90s, Joketown, The Sketch Republic and Life Lessons.
Repercussion Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park has launched this summer's feature, Much Ado About Nothing, and you can catch it either Friday at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in downtown Montreal, or at Westmount Park Saturday and Sunday. There's a two-hour intro to Shakespeare workshop offered before Sunday's show for kids, too!
Getting a new tattoo? The International Tattoo Show showcases dozens of artists at the Rialto St James Theatre in Old Montreal, with artists like Mathieu Varga of France and Krusty Cola of Brussels setting up booths for tattoo-philes.
A French company is on the weekend slot for the Feux Loto Quebec : the spectacle, entitled The Evolution of Music, promises a 'genealogical trip' through the history of music. Saturday at 10pm.
The city's street theatre festival, We're Acting Out, includes a performance of The Color of Time, a live dance performance that draws inspiration from the Hindu holiday of colour, Holi. Spectators who come to Beaudry metro at 4pm on Saturday and Sunday can expect to be covered by bursts of colourful powders. (Made from 'non-toxic' flour, I might add.)
The excellent and busy Montreal Completement Cirque continues. Check out a ticketed show like Vice & Vertu at the SAT, or grab a free seat on the grass at ROUGE, a 30-minute show at the Jardins Gamelin where dancers and tightrope walkers scramble all over a three-storey pyramid of shipping containers. There are also free daytime circus workshops for kids and adults at the Jardins. Full lineup here.
Speaking of workshops... Got a great idea for a puppet? Reserve a spot at the Puppetry Summer Camp for ADULTS, held at a spot on St Laurent Blvd below des Pins. You spend Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 6pm, creating a puppet from scratch. No experience necessary - and no kids allowed!
Get a taste for Osheaga (the music weekend is only two weeks away!) with a 375th birthday block party on Saturday, starting at 3pm at the Van Horne Viaduct in Mile End. The BADDER Band presents the history of hip hop, and there’s also a Vinyl Bar Pop Up, where you can hear vinyl tracks of acts coming to Osehaga. Food is furnished by, what else, a YUL Eat flotilla of food trucks.