review

Montreal, July 26: What a great second year for Zoofest! The last 14 days were filled with 35 shows, 136 representations and 113 local and international artists. From the July 12 until the 25th, all those events were held in 8 different venues in the heart of Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles.

People’s Choice Award

The competition was tight, but this year people’s choice award goes to Noel Fielding!

International Quality

The international talent that came to Zoofest was brutal. Noel Fielding, Jim Jefferies, Bill Burr and Bo Burnham had sold out runs. Furthermore, Jim Jefferies went double encore at Katacombes and Donald Glover was a crowd’s favourite.

The excitement created by these international comedy talents proved that Zoofest targeted the proper market: Montrealers - part of the 18-35 age group - in quest of new and exciting groundbreaking comedy.

Hate it or love it, Kim Noble will Die was one of the biggest buzz show at Zoofest. Word of mouth even brought Francophone medias at La Chapelle. International industry professionals and artists alike, such as Jimmy Carr, also dropped in Montreal for his very special performance.

At the box office

Last year, 13 000 comedy fans attended Zoofest. This year, it was double the trouble with 30 000 spectators attending Zoofest performances. Lesson learned ? There’s a huge niche market for out of the box provocative shows in Montreal's busy festival season.

Zoofest used an innovative approach to promote its shows: a blog was used to publish all important information and news, original content was created and published on YouTube and Flickr, Facebook and Twitter were used to reach out and connect with fans and artists.

35 000 visitors landed on zoofest.com as a result of this campaign during the event.

Zoofest also offered an incredible tool to the Iphone community. On July 8, the Zoofest Iphone application, featuring full schedule, geo-targeting of venues and artist profiles was launched. The application was downloaded by Montrealer's, tourist ans artists alike to further facilitate their Zoofest experience.

On the first day of the festival, the web numbers went bezerk! Thanks to every single media who helped shape the buzz. Big up to the Twitter addicts and independent bloggers for giving us a push and for your support.

We want to sincerely thank everyone who attended Zoofest, joined the Facebook page, tweeted about an artist, recommended a show to a friend or work colleague and downloaded the Iphone application. But most and foremost, thanks for buying tickets, thus making this event possible.

Finally, a very special word of appreciation to Tourism Québec for making Zoofest possible.

The Montreal Gazette made a mash-up of events to attend this weekend. Kim Noble will Die is featured on that list. Here's what they think of the show.

Kim Noble Will Die - But not yet. He still has a few more shows to perform. This wit from across the pond sets out his plans for his eventual departure and spells out his last will and testament. Be warned, Kim Noble does live to shock. http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Best+Bets/3317615/story.html

About Mister Noble, he's fully enjoying Montreal and its culture. I think he's in love with Celine Dion. Check out his blog post here.http://kimnoble.wordpress.com/2010/07/23/say-a-prayer-for-celine-dion/

And in case you did not know, Jimmy Carr had a wonderful evening at Kim Noble's show. He wrote it on Twitter. http://twitter.com/JIMMYCARR

Remember, tonight, at 10pm, is your last chance to see Kim Noble will Die. Grab your 15$ ticket here.
http://zoofest.com/en/program/kim-noble-will-die

Jim Jefferies is so popular that we’ve decided to add two additional dates for his Alcoholocaust show. Hurry up and grab your ticket. Those two shows will sell out. July 16 at 10pm and July 17 at 8:30pm. Both shows are at Katacombes.
http://zoofest.com/fr/node/401

About the picture above, I must give credits to our photographer, Mathieu Couture, for snapping a moment when Jim Jefferies is not holding a beer. It doesn’t happen often when he’s on stage…

I love his monologue on religion.

Finally, I highly recommend the Montreal Gazette review to those who want know a few lines of Jefferies’ brutal spectacle.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/entertainment/Jefferies+makes+them+laugh+until+they+cringe/3279997/story.html