“Just be Garry. » American comedian Garry Shandling punctuated each page of his notebooks with this sentence. And Jay Du Temple, too, writes it all over his notebooks. Not “Just Be Jay.” “Just Be Garry. »
“That means be yourself, obviously. It’s a phrase that I often repeat to myself,” confides the 32-year-old comedian. “And yes, as a joke, I still write “Just Be Garry”. »
Learning to be himself, without constantly trying to offer what he imagines others expect from him: such is the quest that drives Jay Du Temple in life as in his second show, Fin.
The fact is that beneath his big boyish smile, Jay Du Temple is a dormant volcano of anxieties and questions. He confides, laughing even if it’s not so funny, that he has welcomed eczema back into his life since he knows that he will host the Québec Cinéma gala on December 10, which had almost been shelved forever . “It’s an ideal context because the expectations are low,” Jay says half-jokingly. There almost never was a gala again. It takes the pressure off. »
The great paradox that inhabits him, he knows it himself, is that no one seems as worried as he is that his ego will one day take on stratospheric proportions, but that he is, in all of Quebec showbiz, one of the people least threatened by this danger. Jay Du Temple being the epitome of what should be called a “true ending”, which offers little to make us hate him (unless nail polish is a source of hatred for you).
I had imagined this interview without mention of Jay’s six years at the helm of the popular reality show Occupation double, which would not have been entirely possible, even if it is the Jay Du Temple disciple of the comic thing and eternal student of the masters of the funny who stands out the most.
The comedian’s eye is never more sparkling than when he talks about the courage instilled in him by Jerrod Carmichael’s razor-edge performances, his admiration for Mike Birbiglia’s most recent show (The Old Man and The Pool), which capsized him, or his dream of one day meeting Yvon Deschamps.
“What I find fascinating is that yes, what makes him Yvon Deschamps is the quality of his writing, but above all it is the human that he is,” observes he about the father of Quebec humor, a phrase which also seems to encapsulate his own aspirations.
And even if his role as host has sometimes overshadowed that of comedian, his primary identity remains that of joke seeker. His tour is far from over, but he is already presenting crowd work shows in small venues, based on his interactions with the crowd, in order to generate new material.
Stand-up comedy, a spiritual practice? I ask, assuming hyperbole. “Yes, really,” replies the man who particularly likes artists who bare themselves on stage, who show off their all.
It was during one of these recent crowd work shows that Jay denied a strange rumor spread by certain gossip sites the day after his appearance on Tout le monde entalk. On his neck, that Sunday: a rosacea mark having all the appearance of a lollipop, on the basis of which some of these sites had concluded, according to the established formula, that the boy’s heart was no longer up for grabs.
The real cause of this lollipop was, in reality, the wetsuit he wears during his Ironman training. Its velcro, more precisely. Plate the same.
By chance, our meeting took place the day after a vast movement denouncing the practices of the QC Scoop site, which had published very personal, and above all false, information about the singer Rafaëlle Roy.
“We have already sent a formal notice to QC Scoop,” confides Jay. And now, are there going to be articles about me talking to you about this? That’s what’s absurd, it’s endless. »
“What is difficult with these sites,” he continues, “is that there is no rigor, no value line. And what I don’t like is that sometimes I keep my mouth shut [in relation to certain subjects, in an interview, for fear that it will be taken out of context]. »
Jay is surprised that a society that works so hard to combat bullying in schools tolerates such a lack of empathy. “In high school, rumors made me suffer,” he remembers. And as an adult, this is still the case. I’m trying not to feed the beast, but it’s weird, because that’s what I’m doing by telling you about it. »
Don’t feed the beast and concentrate on the essential, therefore: stand-up. “My job is an avenue that helps me so much to work on the human that I am. I find that humor brings out the best in me. I can easily find myself not good and, thanks to humor, I remain light, I remain optimistic, I remain hopeful. »
