At various venues from February 13 to 16

When it rains, it pours. We know that, of course, in Vancouver. Same holds true for comedy during the JFL NorthWest comedy fest. There’s no way you can get to all the shows you want, so you gotta make tough choices.

I managed to get to seven shows in the festival’s first five days, starting with Justin Willman at the Vogue on February 13. Best-known for his Netflix series Magic for Humans, Willman also provided topnotch comedy for humans. His patter was not of the strained variety you often get with magicians, but natural and hilarious. The tricks were mind-blowing, too, which is what you want from an illusionist. And he proved with his last feat that in magic, like in comedy, timing is everything.

Ahead of every touring headliner was a Vancouver comic, and each one warmed up the crowds beautifully. February 14 at the Biltmore, before Todd Barry, local Yumi Nagashima expressed her love for manbuns, owing to her samurai background. Barry is one comic I never tire of seeing. Whether it’s prepared material about stealing a hotel bedspread, unscripted asides, or even slides of his cat, he never fails to hit me. My only complaint is that he doesn’t repeat audience answers during his crowd work, so unless you’re sitting nearby, you’ve got to fill in the blanks yourself.

A few blocks away was Saturday Night Live star Melissa Villaseñor, at Yuk Yuk’s. James Kennedy got things rolling with a local-heavy act, hitting all the Lower Mainland hotspots, like Surrey, Commercial Drive, and New West. Middler Jane Stanton proved with her psychotic and cocky characterizations that she should be on SNL or some other show herself. Villaseñor wasn’t in tiptop shape, as she kept telling us, having not at standup for a few weeks while she was shooting her show. But she was a delightful presence on-stage. Known for her impressions, she did Pee-wee Herman, Billie Eilish, JLo, Owen Wilson, Steve Buscemi, Anthony Kiedis, and Gandalf.

At the Rio on February 15, former local act now living in Los Angeles Ivan Decker impressed as he always does. It was almost unfair to put him on before Bobcat Goldthwait. Or anyone, for that matter. He should be headlining somewhere. The less-structured Bobscratch Goldfarb, as he liked to call himself, told stories as they came to him, some new, some dating back to the ’80s. He also got in some slags on his nemesis Jerry Seinfeld, who ranted about Goldthwait on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. “He finally has an opinion and it’s about me,” Goldthwait quipped.

At the Lower Mainland’s newest venue on the same night, Rick Bronson’s House of Comedy, Seattle’s Joe Dombrowski headlined, a teacher/standup comic who bills himself as Mr. D… Hmm… But as he says, referring to Canada’s Mr. Dee, “Has your class ever had two Rebeccas in it at once?” The crowd of mostly educators ate him up, even the ’90s-era big musical finish. Emcee Ryan Paterson, a Prairie transplant, and middle act Larke Miller, who talked about dating a flat-earther and adopting a cat, got the full house in the right mood.

The highlight of the week for me was New York’s Sam Morril at the Biltmore on February 16. It was also great seeing former—and future, he tells me—Vancouver resident Kevin Banner again on-stage with new material about earthquakes and his recent divorce. Morril is a joke machine who has a way with similes (a “relationship is like a TV show where the writing gets progressively worse”). Just last week he released a special on YouTube and it’s better than any Netflix special in a long time.

My comedy week ended on February 17 at the Biltmore with Sam Tonning opening for “lesbian magician” Jessica Kirson. (She’s not one of those things—despite what she said her grandma’s friend thinks.) Tonning is all about the joke, too. You can’t take him literally or else you’d weep for him, what with his debauched topics. Kirson’s silliness and confidence was infectious. When a joke didn’t land, she’d turn her back on the audience and give herself a little pep talk. But they all landed with the hot crowd. If you missed her, she’ll be back playing the House of Comedy in early May.

There’s one more week and a ton of shows. Get out there and catch some.