Only for Laffs: Bigger, better, more amusing

TORONTO -- The king of comedy festivals, Only for Laughs Montreal, wrapped its 29th edition Sunday boasting more shows (1,762 British and French combined), more sell-outs, more talent (3,695 artists and participants) and much more tapings for broadcast than previous years.The Gala series offered out four shows -- over 10,000 tickets -- located by Russell Peters.Fest's comedy person of the season, Louis CK, together with Daniel Tosh of Comedy Central's "Tosh." and worldwide funnymen Eddie Izzard and Danny Bhoy were among many hot tickets.Almost 1,000 industryites attended the fest, with 400 executives in the film, TV, digital and live entertainment biz striking the JFL Comedy Conference, having a keynote from Marc Maron along with a Q&An Expert Class with JFL comedy director of the season Paul Feig.Two new groups -- Figures (for sketch artists) and Unrepresented (functions without any agents) -- became a member of fest's New Faces strand, as the sophomore edition from the Associates Series saw several hits including Colin Quinn's Broadway show "Lengthy Story Short" and Funny or Die's "What Are You Doing? With Mike Mitchell."Live comedy podcasts made their first appearance and came capacity auds, but TV cameras were probably the most ubiquitous tech presence.JFL created an archive quantity of recorded TV special offers this season. Montreal roster includes two one-hour "Funny as Hall" special offers for BBC America four one-hour special offers located by John Oliver, Russell Peters, Craig Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet for Canuck pubcaster CBC two one-hrs -- Strange Al's "Amp'd" musical special and JFL live hit "A Tribute to Brainiacs" located by "Large Bang Theory's" Kunal Nayyar and Simon Helberg -- for Canada's The Comedy Network and special offers for GNWTV (Australia), Vital The country, Germany's TBC and Comedy Central channels within the Netherlands and Sweden. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com