Interview with Jon Lajoie  
by Matt McKechnie

(originally published at webcitybeat.com)

Sometimes known to his fans as the physically awkward but incredibly crass rapper MC Vagina, Jon Lajoie was firing on all comedic cylinders at the Bronson Centre on Wednesday November the 9th.


The Montreal-born comedian is currently embarking an Ontario-wide tour and stopped in the nation’s capital for some mid-week punchlines. Lajoie’s act combined some normal stand-up along with some lively but deadpan songs, including his massive internet chart-topper Everyday Normal Guy.

After recently landing a role on the FX network comedy sitcom The League, Lajoie re-located to California as a career move, and to sharpen his acting chops, but he still has a deep affection for his native country.


“I live there a lot most of the year. If it was up to me, though, I wouldn’t stay there.

It’s for the work. For show biz, everything’s there. I lucked out. I landed a role on The League. It was pretty lucky. The producers kinda saw me and said ‘Hey – let’s grab this guy,” said Lajoie.

Lajoie gained a substantial amount of success through YouTube as he began making off-beat comedy videos and character-based skits in 2007. Since then, his following has become somewhat cult-like as his zany and inventively coarse humour has caught many eyes.


The show featured an array of caricatures as he began as MC Vagina – a Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts wearing, machine-gun toting rapper who is socially awkward but incredibly forward in a sexual sense. Thrusting his pelvis in a robotic fashion, while repeating the chorus ‘show me your genitals – your genitals’, Lajoie had the audience laughing and unable to look away from the get go.
Lajoie even conversed with the crowd and sang a birthday song to a few audience members who coyly admitted that it was.


One of the most interesting segments of the night happened when Lajoie launched into a phony business-based seminar entitled ‘How To Act Good’. The presentation explained, in a farcical sense, how to get famous in Hollywood. Citing various acting techniques of iconic figures like Bruce Willis (who, according to Lajoie, acts his best due to a shaved head and carrying a gun), Lajoie made light of an industry that takes itself a little too seriously. Lajoie’s cynical but often underhandedly witty delivery shows that he definitely has an intelligent side underneath all of the silly crudity.


Overall, Lajoie is an interesting enigma of a modern comedian who can sing, rap and deliver standard jokes when he needs to do so. Although he has gained some notoriety in Tinseltown, Lajoie’s first love is making videos for the internet; something he insists that he will never give up.


“If I wasn’t on that show, living in L.A., I hate auditioning and I hate the city. I mean I love the weather and I love working when I have work. But if I wasn’t working on the show, I’d just be making online videos and recording my own music. I work on The League and I live there because of it and if that ends and nothing else comes out of it, I’ll be happy to move back,” says Lajoie.