July 4, 2013 | by Evelyn Reid – Note that select sections of the interview have been modified for grammar and clarity.

It’s one thing to catch the diminutive six-foot-tall thespian, who got his big break as Almost Famous fanboy Vic Munoz, on screen in 2D. But it’s yet another to watch him in his tridimensional glory shooting the breeze, unscripted and uncensored, in the most entertaining/endearing press conference I’ve been to in a long time, leaving your humble interlocutor disarmed, charmed, and tickled pink by his complete and absolute adorableness, he who is the Canadian success story who made it in Hollywood only to wish he was back home, here, in Montreal.

Poised to be the fourth Montreal-bred host of a Just for Laughs English language comedy gala in the history of the festival, Baruchel is about to share fellow Montrealer William Shatner’s fate as he leads the way for gala comedians Moshe Kasher, Bo Burnham, Hannibal Buress, and Amy Schumer.

And he’s scared stiff about it, at least he jokingly alluded to such on the subject. So I sat down with the Montreal luminary to find out if self-inflicted misery has its perks.

Above: Jay Baruchel in Almost Famous (2000). Top header photo: Jay Baruchel answering questions at a Just for Laughs press conference on July 4, 2013 in Montreal (photo © Clint Lewis).

Evelyn Reid: First of all, NDG represent! That’s been my hood too for almost all of my life! Well, at least since I got kicked out of home.

Jay Baruchel: Ah right!

Evelyn Reid: I want to get to the NDG talk afterwards [and find out your favorite spots in the neighborhood]. But first, the topic of you wanting to direct horror movies in Montreal and such… I overheard you saying that you want to do for Montreal what Fellini did for Rome.

Jay Baruchel: Yeah… [chuckles].

Evelyn Reid: You’re laughing! But I wanted the same thing. I wrote up a lengthy piece in 2009 on how I think Montreal has the makings of a Hollywood North. Within 100 square kilometres, we’ve got mountains, we’ve got plains, four distinct seasons, we’ve got lakes, urban centers, old Europe backdrops, I mean, this place is a location scout’s dream.

Jay Baruchel: Yeah! Very much so.

Evelyn Reid: And we’ve got the studios (Mel’s Cité du Cinéma), the post-production facilities, the…

Jay Baruchel: Yeah! And people have been making movies here as long as they’ve been making them anywhere else. Yeah, I agree.

Evelyn Reid: So what’s the problem? What’s holding back Hollywood from filming here more often?

Above from left to right: film director Federico Fellini and actors Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren on the set of 8 1/2 in Rome circa 1962.

Jay Baruchel: Temperature and taxation, I suspect. And also, it’s something they deal with in L.A. all the time, like [with my latest movie] This is the End. The whole movie takes place in L.A. But we shot the entire thing in New Orleans because the state of New Orleans was offering tax incentives that California couldn’t match. Unfortunately, that’s how the decisions are made. And that’s how we ended up making Goon in Manitoba. Not to take anything away from Manitoba, but none of us were from there, so none of us would have been like, “you know what? F**k it! Let’s make it in Winnipeg!” But we’re all from Montreal, so like, wouldn’t it be cool to make the movie in Montreal?

Evelyn Reid: No kidding.

Jay Baruchel: But we we went to Manitoba. Hopefully that’s changing. Hopefully the [local and provincial powers that be] want to stay somewhat competitive and I just know that when Montreal has one foot in the rest of the world, the city is better off. When it becomes isolated and closed off like when I was in high school in the ’90s, it’s not a fun place to be. It deserves to be better than a provincial backwater because it isn’t one. [Montreal] is a cosmopolitan city that has some backwater impulses in it.

Evelyn Reid: We had spoongate, pastagate, and turbangate in the span of what, six months?

Jay Baruchel: It’s depressing. We’re a laughing stock.

Evelyn Reid: Do you think we’re regressing?

Jay Baruchel: Oh yeah. I unfortunately think we probably are regressing. I think Canada, in the past ten years, has regressed. The Harper government has taken us back, [they] undid everything. We’re back in the Mulroney era. And I think in Quebec, it’s the same thing. Thereare  a few people who make a good living pissing people off. I mean, have you seen Pauline Marois’ house?* You know. She makes a very good living pitting neighbor against neighbor.

Evelyn Reid: From what I understand, Pauline Marois* had a lifelong career in politics [much like her ex-financier-turned public servant husband]. I’ll admit it was a little shocking to find out that her house sold for close to $7 million. When you talk to people from L.A. or in the U.S. overall about the pastagates and turbangates, what do they say?

Above from left to right: Seth Rogen with Jay Baruchel in The Is the End (2013).

Jay Baruchel: They’re just blown away that this is Canada. And that this is 2013. When I tell people in the States that if you’re a business owner and you rent a storefront and you pay your taxes and you pay your rent and abide by the law, you can’t put whatever sign you want in your window. This is anathema to Americans and [and keep in mind] I’m a Canadian patriot, but there’s some stuff we don’t do right. You go to Los Angeles. You drive through a whole neighborhood called Koreatown. You won’t see English anywhere. Every storefront, every restaurant, it’s all just Korean. And there’s not a single white boy in America who’s pissed off or up in arms about it. Why? Because it’s Koreatown! You go there for Korean food. Why would you expect it to be in English? Also, it’s non of our goddamn business. Are they paying their taxes? Are they paying their rent? Who gives a shit if the sign is in Korean? So most of my friends outside of here and the rest of Canada too are just blown away that in 2013, we deal with these things. In Canada.

Evelyn Reid: Seems a little crazy from outside looking in.

Jay Baruchel: It is crazy.

Evelyn Reid: But now that we talked about what L.A. thinks of us, let’s turn things around. It’s no secret that you’re not [exactly] thrilled with Hollywood, with L.A.

Jay Baruchel: No, not my favorite place.

Evelyn Reid: I’ve seen you say that in interviews, like on Jimmy Kimmel Live. What is it about L.A. that is so off-putting?

“L.A. is a city that just doesn’t make sense to me. Too hot. Too much traffic. There’s a lot of smog. It’s f**king really big. You can’t walk anywhere. There’s no real community.”

Jay Baruchel: Well, you know, there are some genres of music are not meant for me. I can’t say they’re crap. They’re just not made for me. And L.A. is a city that just doesn’t make sense to me. Too hot. Too much traffic. There’s a lot of smog. It’s f**king really big. You can’t walk anywhere. There’s no real community. And also, in my line of work out there, it’s a pretty shitty industry to be constantly inundated with and to be surrounded by these people. So it’s just kind of ridiculous but there are times when I can stomach it a lot more than I can stomach a lot of other cities. That being said, there’s a wall. On my last trip, I was out there for ten days, and at Day 9 it was like “okay, enough is enough. Time to go home.”

Evelyn Reid: Is it that there’s a lack of authenticity in terms of interpersonal relationships?

Jay Baruchel: Well, there’s gotta be something to that because in the film business, in California, in Los Angeles, I was first blown away by how nice everyone was. Or I thought they were nice. Then I eventually realized it’s not that they’re nice. They’re chatty. Everyone out there is a good talker and the cliché that it’s a means to an end [comes into play]. They want to see what you can do for them. So all the clichés you’ve heard about are completely true. But there’s a lot of wonderful people there too, obviously, like any place. But all these things collude, all these things combine to make it a place that, if I don’t have to spend time there, I won’t.

Evelyn Reid: And yet in the midst of this rough, you found a diamond. Seth Rogen.

Jay Baruchel: I did! I found a few diamonds. I was lucky enough to make some of my best friends in the world down there and you know? I’ve been going down there for, whatever it is, 12-13 years at this point, on and off, and if I haven’t found a decent place to eat and some people to hang out with, I’d be doing something wrong. A lot of my life is there. A lot of great stuff is there. But if it were up to me, I just wouldn’t have to fly there ever again.

Evelyn Reid: Wow. To that point. I can kind of relate in a way, actually.

Jay Baruchel: Yeah?

Evelyn Reid: Yeah. [Long story]. Now I want to talk about the Just for Laughs gala you’re hosting this July 25. I had never heard of you doing standup before and then you said during the Just for Laughs press conference that, in fact, you did do a few stints in the clubs, at the Comedy Nest and Comedyworkss but you were saying that it wasn’t really your thing. Yet here you are about to host a gala and you’re terrified. How did they rope you in to do this???

Jay Baruchel: It’s just because my manager used to work for Just for Laughs and used to work for Gilbert [Rozon] and kept an affiliation with them the whole time and we thought it just might be the summer to do it. It’s something that we had entertained the idea of, I had talked about it before. I figured that at some point, years down the line, it might be a cool thing to eventually do. And “eventually” came this summer. So it was just like [the idea of doing this] one night in my city and Montreal in the summer at night is the best thing on Earth. It was just like, I dunno, just a special thing… the numbers all added up. It all seemed to make sense. It seemed like it was just the right time. It wasn’t a financial thing when I said “numbers.” It’s a symbological thing. The fates dictated that this was the right summer.

Evelyn Reid: And the lineup… Bo Burnham, Hannibal Buress, Amy Schumer… this isn’t exactly a lineup for the Muppets crowd.

Above: Evelyn Reid with Jay Baruchel at Mainline Theatre on July 4, 2013 in Montreal (photo ©  Clint Lewis).

Jay Baruchel: No no no.

Evelyn Reid: It’s pretty hardcore.

Jay Baruchel: It is. It’s a youngish lineup and I think because I’m a weird, awkward guy, they knew the couldn’t f**king have Jeff Foxworthy. It had to be something at least a little weird but I’m also blown away that we got people that amazing and that talented. It’s a f**king great lineup.

Evelyn Reid: It is. Okay. We’re running out time…last question. Montreal. NDG. Represent. Us NDGers are constantly ignored or made fun of by the Plateau and Mile End people. Let’s prove them wrong! NDG. Must eats. Shoot.

Jay Baruchel: Yeah! Oh f**k, the best restaurants in the city are in NDG. But here’s the thing. I want to stop advertising because NDG will stop being NDG if people start showing up. But. I would say Old Orchard.

Evelyn Reid: The café? Serious? They’re so eccentric there. [Laughter]

Jay Baruchel: [Laughter]. So I’ll go to Old Orchard for sausage and mashed potatoes, I’ll go to Pasta Casareccia for my veal parmesan, and the first place I ever really got drunk was Honey Martin’s, [the neighborhood Irish pub]. And Tchiang Kiang is my favorite chinese [restaurant] in the whole world.

Evelyn Reid: Yeah?

Jay Baruchel: Yeah. I could talk NDG forever. But they’re cutting the balls off our poor neighborhood. Every day. Every day. Every day the super hospital gets closer to being finished, it gets a bit more gentrified and every day, more busloads of kids from Victoria show up annnnnnd… they’re turning it into the Plateau.

Evelyn Reid: You have a point there. What about Hwang Kum? The best Korean in Montreal. Or how about Jean’s?

Jay Baruchel: Oh yeah, sure! Hwang Kum is [by] the street I grew up on. Clifton. That’s the street I grew up on.

Evelyn Reid: Ohhh. We’re really neighbors. Okay. Must avoids. Where must you never set foot in NDG?

Jay Baruchel: The Melrose underpass! Vendôme Metro and Girouard Park past a certain time.

Evelyn Reid: What about Maz Bar?

Jay Baruchel: Oh f**k. We’ve all done time in there. You have to. You f**king have to. It’s the best air hockey, wait, the only air hockey on Sherbrooke Street.

Evelyn Reid: If someone doesn’t beat you up while you’re trying to play it.

Jay Baruchel: Exactly.