Stage/Comedy

Who: “Safari Time” with Mark Forward
Where: The Garrison
When: Thurs., Sept. 21
Vibe: A feisty takedown of the festival crowd
Highlight: Forward stepping out to reassure the crowd he wasn’t actually furious with them
Rating: NNNNN (out of 5)

THE CREDIT SYSTEM of the Just for Laughs Toronto festival pass makes it possible to see as many or as few shows as you want, which naturally means festivalgoers looking to get the best value for their money end up booking as many shows as they can — even if they aren’t familiar with the acts they’re spending credits to see.

The good news is that casual comedy fans, who have only bought passes to see the famous American acts in town for the festival, end up being introduced to some of the smartest and funniest stars of Canadian stand-up. The downside, though, is that those stars occasionally end up performing in front of crowds unfamiliar with their brand of comedy.

It’s an occasionally frustrating dynamic for the Canadian acts at the festival, which Letterkenny’s Mark Forward delves into right away while kicking off the festival at The Garrison on Thursday night.

He hilariously compares the festival credit system to having an endless supply of hamburgers, calling out the casual fans for simply using up credits on less-famous Canadian acts before getting to see the “one American” their pass allows. It’s a self-deprecating bit, but Forward doesn’t let on that he, himself, is one of the biggest names at the festival. Plus, his masterful ability to relentlessly play off the crowd’s energy for a full hour demonstrates why he’s such a draw and why he deservingly inherited the role of hosting the “Alternative Show” from the legendary Andy Kindler. They’re big shoes to fill, but Forward has Kindler’s same virtuoso ability to both let the silences hang for just long enough while also doggedly chasing the crowd’s reactions at every turn, taking small, innocuous moments and making them huge, killer punchlines.

There’s a combativeness to his set, but the clearly simulated nature of it means Forward never veers into actual hostility or uncomfortable tension — though, at one point during the show, he stops and reassures the audience that he’s not actually furious with them, perhaps sensing some sensitivity from the early, 7 pm crowd.

One quirk of comedy shows at The Garrison is that the bright stage lights make it impossible for the performer to see most of the audience from the stage, except for a handful of individual faces in the back rows, lit up by small, overhead lights along the aisles. Forward deftly uses this, exasperatedly calling out that the lone, solitary faces he can see are not laughing much. He calls out one person, in particular (as it turns out, my partner) and compares her bespectacled reactions to being watched by his stern, disapproving mother. For most of the show, though, it’s Forward who is disapproving of the Just for Laughs crowd he claims must have no idea who he is. Even if that were true (it wasn’t), it would be hard for anyone in attendance to say Forward did not comfortably establish himself as one of the festival’s top highlights on its opening night.

Having opened in a robot costume — threatening the audience with a three-hour, one-man show about a post-apocalyptic future — he closes with “improv” in a safari outfit before sending the crowd rushing off to other shows; one audience member tells Forward he’s seeing three more that evening alone.