Last week marked the 20th anniversary of Andy Kindler’s State of the Industry address, a keynote speech at the annual Just for Laughs Montreal festival that skewers everything from late night to politics (and always, always Jay Leno).
On Friday, a few hundred of the comedy industry’s top agents, bookers, and buyers, plus fans including Anthony Jeselnik and Emo Philips, crowded into a conference room to listen to Kindler – a calculatedly self-destructing, charmingly neurotic comic who’s been on the standup circuit for years and is well known for his roles on Dr. Katz, Maron, and Bob’s Burgers – deliver an hour-long speech billed as a no-hold-barred takedown of the comedy industry and its darlings. In reality, the hour usually ends up being equal parts self-deprecating jokes on the self-proclaimed decline of Kindler’s career, peppered with jabs at perennial targets like Jay Leno, Bill Maher, Louis CK, Ricky Gervais, and Jeff Dunham, plus topical hits at 2016-specific stuff like Trump, whether anyone’s actually watching web series, and the inanity of Carpool Karaoke. Oh, and Hitler – there was a lot of Hitler, too. Nobody’s safe when Kindler’s onstage!
You can hear the entire thing below via Paste Magazine:
