MONTREAL — Filmmaker and (who knew?) occasional stand-up comic Judd Apatow closed out industry confab Just Comedy on Friday, taking the first Comedy Person of the Year prize from the business-minded spin-off of Just for Laughs.

‘It’s a generally vague term, but I like it,’ said Seth Rogen, a regular of Apatow’s productions — starring in Knocked Up and the new Pineapple Express, and cowriter on Superbad — during the presentation. ‘It doesn’t say what you’ve done exactly but that you’re a ‘comedy person.”

Rogen was joined on stage by Apatow actors Bill Hader and Craig Robinson and Superbad‘s other writer Evan Goldberg, cheering the director/producer/writer for what has seemed like an overnight success on the strength of recent theatrical comedies including The 40 Year Old Virgin, which he wrote, produced and directed, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which he produced.

Not so, Apatow noted, taking the stage after a highlight reel had shown off some of his funnier moments. ‘I notice you didn’t include Celtic Pride in that,’ he said, pointing to the screen, referring to the forgettable basketball comedy he exec produced in 1996.

‘I love montages like that because they give me credit for what everyone else has done,’ he added.

Apatow — who also performed stand-up for the first time in many years during the Montreal festival, doing five sets on Thursday night — stayed on stage just long enough to crack a few more jokes at his own expense, noting that the conference room under the Hyatt Regency hotel had already almost emptied out. It had been full during the previous event, a take-no-prisoners set by comic Andy Kindler.

‘I can’t even fill the room,’ he said, noting the absence of Montreal’s Jay Baruchel, seen in Knocked Up and his Fox series Undeclared. Baruchel had apparently told Apatow earlier that day he ‘might have to cut out’ on the award presentation in order to see the new Batman movie.

‘How many jobs do you have to give a fucking guy?’ Apatow joked, getting a laugh.

He hurried off the stage after a few more words about not realizing until recently that he could work in comedy and be happy at the same time.

‘I know if I talk from my heart I’ll just bawl,’ he grinned, ‘and Andy Kindler will go on next year about what a pussy I am.’