Movers & Shakers: Just For Laughs co-founder Andy Nulman on making moves in Montreal

Andy Nulman is the consummate Montrealer. He's been making waves since the mid 80s when he introduced English programming to the Just for Laughs festival, which had previously been a two day French-language event. It ultimately turned the festival into an international juggernaut of entertainment for years to come. He went on to be involved in many successful enterprises, author three books and regularly give speeches and seminars.

Throughout all of it, he's travelled extensively. And yet, his relocations for the most part have been limited to moving in Montreal, the city he loves. We chatted with Andy recently about some of those experiences, the horror of seeing a vintage jukebox get mishandled, and why there are more important things in life than possessions.

Where was the first place you lived after moving out of your parents’ home?

“I was 25, I believe, or 24 or 25.”

Andy got married pretty young so when he moved out of his parents' place for the first time, he went straight to living with his wife.

“Every place I liked. It was actually a walk-up in an old building. I’ve always been partial to old buildings. It was beautiful. I found the place had character, charm. It was old school. It had those gorgeous hot water radiators that looked like they were out of a movie.”

Although Any had started out as a newspaper reporter, he had recently been let go and was looking to start a new chapter in his life.

“I had been fired from the newspaper I was working at, so I started a marketing and promotions company that luckily was within walking distance of where I lived. Despite the fact that I had a car, I was able to walk to work.”

Did you ever have the classic roommate experience?

“My roommate was my first-born son.”

There were a few sleepless nights along the way.

“Every gurgle, I would flip out and make sure he was okay, but it was great. It was actually a whole lot of fun.”

Is there anything from your first place that you’d be embarrassed to own now?

“I had a four-poster bed and I had a really cool antique kitchen table and a dinette set, one may call it. It was really Art Deco.”

“I gotta say that there was absolutely zero I was embarrassed about, to the point where I miss some of those things.”

Is there something you’ve kept through all your moves?

Something of an audiophile, one of Andy's prized possessions is an oak gramophone from the 1920s.

“I still have it. It’s in my office right now. I’m looking at it.”

He also came about owning a 1960 Wurlitzer jukebox, which he obtained in a unique way.

“I got it as part of a payment of a gig I did for somebody, and he didn’t have a lot of money to pay me, so he paid me in stuff. He gave me the option of a round bed or this jukebox.”

Did you ever have a move from hell?

“When we moved to Pierrefonds, it was kind of a disaster because it was an insane snowstorm the day we moved. So I didn’t think that the trucks were ever going to get there. That was wild.”

Andy used to try and tackle moves on his own.

“I did a lot of the moves myself. I had cars with hatchbacks, so I was able to move a lot of my stuff myself. I had, you know, 10,000 albums and stuff like that. Still have a lot of books. So I did a lot of the boxes and moved myself.”

And that jukebox he loves so much? It almost met its demise at the hands of less-than-stellar movers.

“They turned it upside down and all the records were falling out. I freaked out. I said, ‘Downstairs! Downstairs! Bring it back!’”

Eventually it all worked out.

“I made sure that these guys, even though unfortunately they were breaking their backs, treated this with pride.”

Was there ever a move that was difficult for reasons other than moving day itself?

At one point, Andy moved from The Boulevard to the posh Montreal neighbourhood of Westmount where he had found an apartment. But the actual move wasn’t the problem.

“It took me 14 months to sell the house, so that was a drag, having an empty house for 14 months that I was paying for.”

When he finally did move into a place on his own many years later, it wasn't under the best circumstances.

“The move after the divorce, that was kind of weird. I was like, ‘Okay, this is very strange.’”

“I’m moving into my first place at the age of 63.”

Have you ever moved because of a relationship?

It's an awkward question to ask after the mention of the divorce.

“I guess it was because of a relationship. Luckily, I found an interesting place to live in Old Montreal. It was kind of weird being at that time in your life, like at that age, but I managed to get through it.”

The place was gorgeous but there was an issue once it got colder.

“It was nine minutes to walk to Marché Bonsecours. So I would call it the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.”

“In the winter it was desolate.”

Of all the places you’ve lived, which felt most like home?

“The Linton.”

Part of the appeal of this upscale apartment building went back to a childhood dream.

“When I was a kid, I always wanted to live in a hotel because I had a friend who lived in a hotel. A guy named Rick Groom. His father was the head of the hotels. He lived at the top of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.”

Andy remembers visiting and thinking hotel living looked pretty good.

“I said, ‘I can get used to this.’ Walking in and calling downstairs, have somebody bring me up food. I can get used to this.”

“My dream almost is to live in a hotel.”

The Linton gave him some of that feeling, as does his current home at the Majestic.

But ultimately, Andy says the building matters less than what you put into it.

“You make your own home by surrounding yourself with things and people that make you feel right.”

“Even my apartment now, it’s very home to me. I walk in, and it’s who I am.”

If you had 10 minutes to pack one box that represented your life, what would go in it?

Andy started with the essentials.

“My phone. My passport.”

Then come the records of a life he has been keeping since he was a teenager.

“My journals, because I’ve been keeping journals since I was 16. Just to be able to look back on life, I guess I would throw those into a box real fast.”

He’d also make room for pictures of his parents.

But the exercise also highlights something that has changed for Andy over the years.

“As you get older, you realize most of the stuff is... the stuff that’s irreplaceable is few and far between.”

“All the things you thought were irreplaceable, you realize that...”

What does home mean to you now compared to when you were 20?

“The concept is comfort.”

“I’m comfortable being there. I’m comfortable waking up there and going to bed there.”

Home is also about the simple things.

“Being comfortable sitting on the balcony and overlooking. There’s privacy. There’s quiet.”

For someone who has spent decades working in fast-moving worlds of entertainment, business and entrepreneurship, that sense of comfort may ultimately be the most important luxury of all.

What are you working on now?

Andy is currently involved with PACT! — The Power to Act, a project he has been working on with Stephen Bronfman for the past couple of years.

“PACT stands for The Power to Act. P-A-C-T, exclamation point. That’s the project.”

“It’s an anti-hate project, anti-hate, pro-goodness project.”

The initiative has a North American focus and aims to encourage people to take positive action against hate.

For more information, visit https://thepowertoact.org/