The annual Brantford Comedy Festival returned for its 13th year, with headlining shows from Brent Butt on Friday, November 7 and Shaun Majumder on Saturday, November 8, 2024.
While previous iterations of the event have been held at the Sanderson Centre, which seats 1,100, the festival took a different approach this year with shows throughout the week held at various smaller venues in Brantford.
Brent Butt did two intimate shows on Friday night at The Rope Factory. The Canadian actor and comedian, best known for his role as Brent Leroy on the CTV Sitcom Corner Gas, last performed in Brantford in September 2022 for a show at the Sanderson Centre.
Due to a mix-up with the ticket information, tickets purchased through Eventbrite incorrectly read that the start time of the show was actually the doors time, leading some ticket holders to arrive overly early on Friday night.
Shaun Majumder, a Gemini-award winning comedian best known for his role on This Hour Has 22 Minutes, kept the festival going on Saturday night. He also did two evening shows at The Rope Factory, with the second show stretching to nearly two hours long.
The festival also included smaller ‘club’ shows, hosted on November 6, 7, and 8 at Hudon Public, Manny’s Place, ShackBar, and The Rope Factory. According to the event organizers, 100% of the proceeds from the club shows will go to support the Brant County SPCA.
The Brantford Comedy Festival was founded in 2010 by entrepreneur Jamie Stephens, aka “Mr. Brantford,” s long-time Brantford resident, who owns The Rope Factory Event Hall and Spool Takeout. He also organizes the annual music festival, CrewFest, which has been rebranded as the Call Home Musical Festival for 2025.
In a Facebook post shared on Saturday night, Stephens called the comedy festival “a dream come true.”
“When we first bought this place, I dreamed of doing comedy shows here; bringing some of the biggest names in comedy through here,” Stephens wrote.
Since its beginnings, the Brantford Comedy Festival has seen headliners including Tom Green, Harland Williams, Mike Rita, and Jeremy Hotz.
“It’s been a dream come true and I’ll never stop dreaming,” Stephens wrote.
