Courtesy of Montreal Gazette

Last Thursday, I went to my first press conference and I couldn’t of asked for anyone chiller than Jay Baruchel. Like many, I’ve heard he’s from NDG and he comes from a poor background and he’s just a kid and blablabla. I have to say that when I saw him and heard him talk, he is nothing what people have described to me. (I gotta stop hanging out with haters.) He comes off as this dude who just happens to be really successful and good at what he does. When I heard that he was hosting a Gala, I thought ” I’ve never seen him do stand-up before!” I learned that back in the day when the Comedy Nest was in the hotel, he and his buddy would go to open mics and do this bit where he would stand on stage with a box that looked like a robot. His buddy would stand off stage, doing the voice of the robot. Yes, take a moment to picture this. You gotta start somewhere! But from this experience, he realized that stand-up wasn’t really his thing and acting was the route he took. He never planned on being the c0medy actor that he has turned out to be. He went with the flow and it hasn’t steered him wrong yet.

Goon 2 is in the process of being written by Jay and his writing buddy Jesse Chabot. The two have a writing bond and often collaborate on writing jobs. Like his Gala, Jesse and him have come up with some great bits so be on the look out for this at his show! Having co-written, co-produced and starred in Goon, I have full faith in this man!

 “Being conceited was never an option…”

Jay will be the 4th Montrealer to host a Gala at JFL. Yep that’s it. Michel Courtemanche, André-Phillipe Gagnon and William Shatner are his predecessors. To say the least, the pressure is on to give his hometown what they deserve and he accords a great deal of importance to it. ” It’s the God’s honest truth, this is the only place in the world where I care what people think about me, so I really don’t want to mess up.”
As opposed to many upcoming stars that leave for bigger and what they believe to be better dreams, Jay has always made Montreal his home. Moving away to LA has never been his goal. Unlike so many of us, Baruchel has always know what he wanted in life.  He has never seen it as making a sacrifice when it comes to his career. He can probably be way more famous if he lived in LA but it wasn’t his goal. He wants to be happy and live the way he seems fit. He has done so with great success so far.

Now, we only had a half an hour to talk question Jay, so I had to ask him the smart question vs the funny one. I asked him how he kept himself grounded. But I really wanted to ask him: “What does NDG really stand for?”

He grew up very poor and his mom, who sounds a lot like my mom, ” she didn’t suffer fools”  he says and has always been there to teach him the value of things and smack him in the back of the head. “Being conceited was never an option”. He says that she saved him in his career. “If it all goes away tomorrow, we’ll be fine. We do poor very well.” Seriously the more he kept talking, the more I wanted to listen. He is totally grounded and appreciates his fame and success. You can tell by his humble demeanor.

I love it when my misconceptions are just that. Missed!

Check out this video too!

You can catch Jay at his Just For Laughs Gala on July 25th, 7pm at Place des Arts. Buy your tickets here! You can also catch him in the summer hit movie, This is the End starring alongside real friends Seth Rogen, James Franco and Jonah Hill.

It was great “meeting” you Jay and when I bump into during the festival, you can be damn sure I will ask my question!

See you at the Hyatt!

Jo

No he will not be running for mayor.