by MATTHEW WOODLEY

Funny how it’s a lot easier to laugh at regular folk put on the spot than at so much of the stock stand-up comedy out there. NYC-based comedienne Colette Hawley agrees. “The whole format is pretty worn out,” she says. “People get into a rut by doing the same stuff over and over again and it loses some sort of genuine being-in-the-room feeling.”

Her solution: involve the people-next-door in the audience and bring in a few more comedians to round things off. Sharp-tongued Hawley is moderating two shows at JFL that play on the reality craze and people’s inherent enjoyment of watching others sweat under the spotlight: the tell-all Confessing It! and speed-matchmaking Dating It!.

Here’s how it works. Confessing It! has six or so comedians on stage—the line-up is still being solidified, but Colin Quinn, Louis CK and Jackie Kashian are in for sure. Hawley opens with a true, no-doubt-scandalous confession, followed by a round of self-deprecating disclosures from the other comedians.

“Mark Merrin told a confession where he was with a hooker,” Hawley recalls. “It was his first time with a hooker, and it wasn’t going very well, and he wasn’t able to get aroused, and he was, like, ‘Maybe if you take your shirt off…’ And she was like, “Okay and you know that’s an extra 10 bucks and he’s like ‘Fine, here you go, and then he was feelin’ her breasts or whatever and she stops and she put his hand on her left breast and goes, ‘Excuse me do you feel a lump? I think I might have breast cancer.’ That was a nice one.”

If things go the right way, Hawley says, she’ll involve the audience in the confess-fest. Dating It!, on the other hand, is audience-heavy. The point of the game is to pair up people in the crowd with comedians on stage to test the waters of adoration and awkwardness. After the exercises in public affection, the pair with the most chemistry wins a romantic evening at Java U Lounge in the Old Port.

The audience shows up before the show, loosens up over a few drinks and gets nametags. “If you’re single you’ll have a green name,” explains Hawley. “If you’re married, seeing someone, taken, you’ll have red—so everyone kind of knows. And if you don’t want to tell, maybe you’re cheating, you’ll have a yellow tag.” When the show starts, Hawley sifts through the crowd, picks out audience members and matches them with comedians for three-minute speed dates on stage.

Of course, anyone with a healthy amount of cynicism would be suspicious that the audience will be chock-full of cougars with little green tags pinned above their push-up bras. “What is a cougar?” Hawley asks. She’s filled in on the species of done-up middle-age females, their natural habitat at the bar, and affinity for younger male prey. “I have not yet had a cougar.” Hawley proclaims. “But I am open to cougars. And if the male comic has done something to anger me I perhaps will choose a cougar to date him on stage. I’ll try to throw that in, ‘I’m now bringing you a cougar.’”

Dating It! July 16, 7pm, $22.50, and Confessing It! July 17, midnight, $15. Both shows, part of Just For Laughs, are at the Cabaret (2111 St-Laurent)