Sacha Baron Cohen may have caught the world’s attention with his surprise Showtime series Who Is America?, but Netflix’s grasp on comedy remains intact. In fact, the streaming giant — which just released Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and The Comedy Lineup last week, and Hannah Gadsby’s phenomenal special Nanette a few weeks prior — just announced a new stand-up comedy event series that is about to begin filming at this summer’s Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. It doesn’t have a title yet, but it does have a target audience: the entire planet.
Comedians Chris D’Elia, Neal Brennan, Nicole Byer and Nick Swardson will lead the American contingent announced thus far, but they are by no means the only ones to be included. Per Netflix, the global program “will bring together 47 comedians from 13 regions.” Each performer will tape “a half-hour stand-up special” for the series, with some happening at Just For Laughs, and others taking place “in Brazil, Mexico, India, Germany and The Netherlands.” All episodes will be released simultaneously to Netflix subscribers all over the globe sometime in 2019.
“Wait a minute,” you’re probably thinking. “Netflix has already released French-language specials from the likes of Gad Elmaleh, and comedy hours from South American, Mexican and Southeast Asian comedians. How does this mean they’re going global?” The untitled series’ comedians, who are “diverse in style, gender, and ethnicity,” will tape their specials in at least seven different languages: French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Dutch, German and English. As more names are announced, the linguistic and regional diversity may also increase.
More names will be revealed soon. Until then, here are the comedians who’ve signed on to participate:
United Kingdom:
Nish Kumar
Joel Dommett
Mae Martin
Ellie Taylor
France:
Shirley Souagnon
Jason Brokerss
Two additional comedians to be announced
Africa:
Loyiso Gola
Loyiso Madinga
Tumi Morake
Riaad Moosa
Australia:
Joel Creasey
Nazeem Hussain
New Zealand:
Urzila Carlson
Cal Wilson
Canada:
Adib Alkhalidey
François Bellefeuille
Ivan Decker
Louis-José Houde
Katherine Levac
Dave Merheje
Deanne Smith
K. Trevor Wilson
Middle East:
Moayad Alnefaie
Adi Khalefa
Rawsan Hallak
Ibraheem Alkhairallah
