The Toronto Just For Laughs Festival officially kicked off this past Wednesday with a ceremony  featuring The Honourable Lisa Raitt, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources and The Honourable Monique Smith, Ontario’s Minister of Tourism and the musical — though as he (ironically) insisted, “not funny” — Gregory Charles. The performance consisted of Charles singing, playing piano, and taking audience suggestions (a crowd member would yell out a number, and Charles and his bandmate would play a hit song from a year ending in that number. This included a range of tunes from “Hound Dog” to “Hotel California” to the 2005 dance hit “Hung Up” by Madonna. The show ended strong with a slightly cliche and definitely rambunctious performance of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, for which Charles received a standing ovation.

This year is the third for the now-annual Toronto Just For Laughs Festival, whose Montreal counterpart has been running for nearly three decades. This week, some of the biggest names in comedy will be performing, mostly grouped together in galas. On Friday, the coy-yet-boundry-pushing leading lady of comedy Sarah Silverman hosts a gala with David Cross (Arrested Development), Louis C.K., and Arj Barker (Flight of the Conchords), among others. On Saturday, legendary Monty Python and Fawlty Towers comedian John Cleese hosts a special “Britcom” gala featuring only U.K. comedians, including one of the best kept secrets in comedy: Jimmy Carr (former host of the offbeat game show Distraction). Not least, hometown star Russell Peters will be performing a free show at Yonge-Dundas Square along with Charles on Saturday night.

For a full concert schedule and ticket information, please visit the Toronto Just For Laughs website.

Silverman and Cleese images adapted from featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com and pythonline.com, respectively.