With the summer now in full swing, it may feel as though perhaps the winds of change are finally sweeping through the arts in Montreal.

Back in February, Director and CEO of Canada Council for the Arts - a governmental entity which supports the arts and literary scene in Canada through grants, services, prizes and payments - issued a letter to the community in which it announced that the Council will be lowering its spending incrementally over three years, as part of the federal government’s Refocusing Government Spending initiative, for a grand total decrease of $9.88 million.

It’s September 2022, and I’m standing at the back of the Diving Bell Social Club, leaning up against the bar. The house lights have been dimmed, and the coloured stage lights flash with precise coordination, making for an ambiance that is at once intimate and exciting.

If you’ve been living through the past however long now, you might’ve felt that collectively, we’re in need of a good laugh. A little something to take the edge off, a thing to smile and chuckle at to forget momentarily where we are or what we’re doing, a moment of levity in the sea of almost constant turmoil that is the current moment.