Jus Reign aka Jasmeet Singh Raina, a popular Canadian YouTuber, actor, screenwriter, comedian and musician, stars in Late Bloomer. Now streaming on Lionsgate Play, the show has him playing Jasmeet Dutta, a turban-wearing millennial version of himself, struggling to balance his ambitions for success with his commitment to his family, community, and culture. A t2 chat with Jus Reign.
What has the feedback to Late Bloomer been like?
I was walking around Toronto one day and there was an Uber Eats bike delivery guy who saw me and stopped immediately. He spoke to me, but in Russian... he didn't speak much English at all. He had watched Late Bloomer and he used Google Translate to tell me how much the show meant to him, which was such a beautiful experience. Though I got to only hear the computer version of what he was saying, it really stuck on with me. He told me about his falling out with his dad and how watching the show made it feel so real and surreal for him. He had called his dad right after he watched the show and it was wonderful to see him so excited. It was a very wholesome moment because despite being so far removed from my community, experiences or culture and from a completely different part of the world, he felt that it was a relatable story concerning immigrants. It was a very profound moment that I experienced of the show hitting people of different backgrounds on different levels.
That has always been the nature of your work — rooted but global. Has that been largely organic?
Yes. That is the ease of the Internet — you can upload anything and have it hit anywhere. With whatever I have created, the more specific and nuanced I got, the bigger the chances that it would globally hit a bunch of different people.
What led to the creation of Late Bloomer?
One of the reasons was that I really wanted to make something that would challenge me artistically, creatively and personally. Also, it was a time of going through changes in my personal life. It was about having my own growth and doing therapy, which allowed me to holistically understand who I was, why I was the way I was and why my family is the way it is. I felt very excited to have that understanding and realisation. And anytime I get excited by something, I want to be able to share it. I wanted to create a medium that would offer the space to express a lot of those ideas and realisations. That is what the show is.
It would have been hard to be able to show some of these stories just on YouTube. And so Late Bloomer became a place where I could explore topics that felt a little more heavy or deeper or more taboo. It was like a form of therapy, I think. After each season, I have unlocked a new realisation, learnt new things and worked past a lot of other things. I am actively doing therapy as well as creating the show.
Has it been liberating for you to talk freely about undergoing therapy, which is still so taboo in so many parts of the world?
Yes. I don't look at it as taboo, but I know it is for many people. There is a huge sense of healing that comes with doing therapy. The family gets better, people get better, my relationship with my parents is better. I have understood them better... I know who they are as people, not just as parental figures.
With Late Bloomer, I wanted to bridge the gap between generations and create a dialogue because I had already done that in my personal life. Seeing people that have gone through the same struggles mentally that I have and that I am still going through, made me feel that the show would allow for those conversations to happen, without it being hush-hush or taboo. That is why I am so drawn to things that feel a little bit more sensitive in our (Sikh) community or feel hushed up and put under the rug. I want to rip the rug apart and say: "Look at this, let's clean it up". That is how I like to operate... not being scared, even though it is scary to be vulnerable. I want people to experience the good things that come out of being able to pinpoint and tackle.
Over the years, has your sense of identity as a Sikh person born and brought up in Canada changed or evolved?
Totally. I feel I am always evolving. I am specifically an artiste and I want to tap into culture and community. But I understand that wearing a turban means everyone is going to look at me as a Sikh man first because it is such a visual identity. So I had to define what being a Sikh means to me and I have done so in my own sense. I now understand being a Sikh from an artistic lens. There is such an artistry to our culture and community. There is a warrior element and also the stoic, the preacher, the scholarly side. I really gravitate towards the art element of it. There is so much emphasis on the arts, music, singing and storytelling. I don't define myself by a specific version of somebody else's understanding of what being a Sikh is. When I explored my ancestry, I found playwrights, writers and others that worked in many artistic fields, and it feels natural that I gravitate towards this.
What made you first realise you could be funny on stage/ screen?
I always wanted to create, I wanted to have a sketch comedy show. That was my big goal. In school, I was always the funny guy, but I wouldn't be obnoxious. I was always graceful with my comedy. My high-school friends would tell me that I would do great with a sketch comedy show or a late-night show.
I wanted to go to university to learn filmmaking but my family wasn't keen. But when YouTube came around, I just did it by myself because I wanted to learn how to edit. I would shoot videos on my MacBook and then I just built it that way. This is honest and truthful for me and I really enjoy doing it.
Are there any contemporary comedy creators that you admire?
Vince Staples is doing a really cool thing with his show (The Vince Staples Show). It is such a break from format. He is so unapologetically himself and I really admire that. I also like Zakir Khan. I didn't know much about him, I went into his show a little blind. It was a huge show in one of the biggest arenas here. I remember laughing the whole time, even though it was in Hindi, which is not my first language. I don't speak Hindi well, but I understand it because I grew up on Bollywood films. It was cool to see Zakir Khan doing comedy that was so specific to him growing up in India and the experiences that he had with his dad and mom. But there was a global feel to it.