Crave Delivers Homegrown Canadian Comedy with Seven New Original Stand-Up Specials
– Produced in partnership with Just For Laughs, a new batch of Crave Original specials to launch with PAUL RABLIAUSKAS: UNCLE, premiering April 15 – – Additional specials featuring Canadian comics Kyle Brownrigg, Sophie Buddle, Chris Locke, Dave Merheje, Chris Robinson, and DeAnne Smith, land on Crave in the coming months –
TORONTO (March 23, 2022) – Crave’s roster of original stand-up specials expands this spring with the premiere of seven new comedy specials! Crave’s largest order of stand-up comedy specials to date is kicking off Friday, April 15 with a one-hour special from the co-creator and star of CTV Comedy Channel’s upcoming comedy series ACTING GOOD, Paul Rabliauskas.
Filmed in front of a live audience during the 2021 Just For Laughs Festival in Montréal, a new special premieres every month on Crave, including: CHRIS LOCKE:CAPTAIN BONES; CHRIS ROBINSON: PANNING FOR GOLD; DAVE MERHEJE: I LOVE YOU HABIBI; KYLE BROWNRIGG: INTRODUCING LYLE; SOPHIE BUDDLE: SMILE, BABY; and THE DEANNE SMITH EXPERIENCE.
With the addition of the seven titles announced today, Crave has produced 17 original stand-up specials with Just For Laughs since 2017. Featured comics have included Mark Forward, Graham Chittenden, Debra DiGiovanni, Aisha Brown, Graham Kay, The El-Salomons, Tom Henry, and more. All specials are available for streaming in the Crave Originals Collection.
Crave’s ongoing partnership with Just For Laughs also includes the Just For Laughs Collection. With more than 60 titles, the collection features some of the best comics to have walked the JFL stage, and includes titles such as Michael Che @ JFL, BO BURNHAM & FRIENDS, HOWIE MANDEL’S 5TH ANNUAL ALL-STAR COMEDY GALA, and more.
Loglines for Crave’s newest stand-up specials are available below. Program assets including images are available for media download on The Lede.
PAUL RABLIAUSKAS: UNCLE (Premiering April 15)
Poplar River First Nation comedian Paul Rabliauskas brings his observational humour to Montréal where he talks everything from white people and land acknowledgements, to being single during the pandemic in this uproariously funny half-hour comedy special.
CHRIS LOCKE: CAPTAIN BONES
Chris Locke brings his personal brand of offbeat humour to the stages of Montréal for one night of laugh-out-loud comedy. From chip flavours and sausage rolls, to kids’ brains and vasectomies, nothing is off the table in this new half-hour stand-up special.
CHRIS ROBINSON: PANNING FOR GOLD
From puppies and four-year olds, to porn ads and fishnets, nothing, and no-one, is off-limits for Chris Robinson in this hilarious new, half-hour stand-up comedy special.
DAVE MERHEJE: I LOVE YOU HABIBI
Dave Merheje talks family, therapy, and his Dad’s porn watching habits, in this new one-hour comedy special.
KYLE BROWNRIGG: INTRODUCING LYLE
Kyle Brownrigg takes the stage in this hilarious half-hour stand-up special where he laments gender reveal parties, talks about his Irish boyfriend, and introduces the world to his drunk persona, Lyle.
SOPHIE BUDDLE: SMILE, BABY
Nothing is off limits for Sophie Buddle in this sidesplittingly funny half-hour comedy special. From sexual fantasies and vibrators, to edibles and nanny fever, Sophie Buddle skewers stereotypes in this stand-up special that can’t be missed.
THE DEANNE SMITH EXPERIENCE
With five exes in the audience, DeAnne Smith talks dating, break-ups, 4000 unread emails, and confronts their relationship history head-on in this hilarious new half-hour stand-up special.
All seven new Crave Original stand-up specials are produced by Just For Laughs Television, in association with Bell Media’s Crave. Bruce Hills is Executive Producer and President, Just For Laughs. Anton Leo is Supervising Producer, with consulting producer Zoe Rabnett. The specials are directed by Mathieu Baer. For Bell Media, Chris Kelley is Production Executive; Rachel Goldstein-Couto is Head of Development; Sarah Fowlie is Director, Original Programming; Carlyn Klebuc is General Manager, Original Programming. Justin Stockman is Vice-President, Content Development & Programming, Bell Media. Karine Moses is Senior Vice-President, Content Development & News, Bell Media.
About Crave
Delivering more Oscar®-nominated and Emmy® Award-winning programming than any other service, Crave is Canada’s prestige entertainment offering, with HBO, HBO Max Originals, SHOWTIME®, STARZ, Hollywood-hit movies, is the exclusive Canadian streaming home of FRIENDS, and boasts a robust slate of English and French original series. Crave is a major supporter of Canada’s production industry, helping to fund numerous film projects, and features acclaimed selections from some of Canada’s prestigious film festivals including Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, HOT DOCS, ImagineNATIVE, and Inside Out LGBT Film Festival.
Crave is a bilingual TV and streaming service with thousands of hours of exclusive French-language content. Crave is available directly to all Canadians with access to the Internet at Crave.ca, via iOS and Android, and other platforms such as Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, select LG Smart TVs, PlayStation, Roku, select Samsung Smart TVs, and Xbox One. It’s also available through participating service providers across ten, 24-hour High Definition linear and on demand channels. Crave is from Bell Media, Canada’s leading content company, providing Canada’s most-watched and most-acclaimed television programming on network, specialty, pay and digital platforms. Visit our website at Crave.ca.
About Just For Laughs Television
Just For Laughs Television is one of the world’s leading producers of stand-up comedy and variety and platforms (CTV Comedy, CTV, CTV 2, The Movie Network, HBO Canada, Crave TV and Snackable), and internationally on Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, FOX, ABC, programming. JFL’s television productions have been seen in Canada on CBC and an array of Bell networks MTV, Kevin Hart’s LOL Network, TBS, IFC, The CW, TF1, Comedy Central. Showtime, Hulu, BBC America and TEN Australia. Beyond stand-up, the TV franchise Just For Laughs Gags has also become a household name worldwide, being seen in 150 countries and on 100 airlines, in addition to its own JFL YouTube channel which has over 9 billion views. Just For Laughs Television is part of Just For Laughs Group, with growth concentrated on four major focal points: festivals (in Montréal, Toronto, Vancouver; Sydney, Australia and London, U.K.); television production; and live tours. It’s inaugural Montréal’s Just For Laughs Festival will be celebrating its 40th edition in 2022, and is the world’s largest and most prestigious comedy event, welcoming more than 2 million people each summer.