Podcast: Play in new window
| Download
| Embed

Back in April 2010 it was announced that I was one of the Featured acts in the CBC TELEVISION/RADIO GALA RECORDING of, “Welcome To Turtle Island Too – A Celebration of Aboriginal Comedy.” It took place at the beautiful Arden Theatre in St. Albert, Alberta (a suburb of Edmonton). It was a night of comedy that I’ll never forget.  It featured Canada’s best Aboriginal standup comedians – Don Kelly, Howie Miller, Dawn Dumont, Lars Cailleou, Don Burnstick and Ryan McMahon (me).

If you’ve never heard me do standup then this will be your intro to what I do. Of course, it’s “clean” and there is no swearing and some of the content is a bit toned down – but all the same – you’ll get a flavour … Read More »

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

In 2005 my life changed when I attended the 2005 CBC Comedy Festival Gala, “Welcome to Turtle Island.” It was a night of standup comedy featuring Indian Country’s finest comedians. It was hosted by Grahame Greene and it featured Don Burnstick, Howie Miller, Art Napolean, Don Kelly, Gerry Barrett, David McLeod and the legendary Charlie Hill. It was taped for television and if you google it you’ll be sure to be able to youtube most of the clips from that night.

I was in the audience that night and I can honestly say it changed my life. Seeing/hearing comedy from “our own perspective” is something that I’d only heard of. I was working with Tonto’s Nephews (All Aboriginal Improv/Sketch comedy troupe) and we didn’t really delve into our “Native-ness” onstage other than us BEING Native and … Read More »

Podcast: Play in new window
| Download

Last night I performed at the 2010 CBC WINNIPEG COMEDY FESTIVAL and I had a blast.  This is my first major comedy festival as a standup comic (I’ve performed in numerous Improv and Sketch comedy fests) and I’ll admit that yesterday morning was a rough morning for me.  The CBC WINNIPEG COMEDY FESTIVAL is one of Canada’s premiere comedy festivals.  Every comedian I know wants a shot to play at the festival because of the crowds, the camera’s and the general awesomeness of Winnipeg and the amazing crew of people that host the festival every year.  I’ve heard it said that it’s “a performers festival,” which simply put, your treated well, the crowds are amazing and the shows are top notch for the comics.

But yesterday, something happened.  Suddenly, … Read More »

The other day I got a phone call from a First Nation in Saskatchewan  that was interested in bringing me out to do youth workshops with a newly formed Youth Council.  The man on the other end of the phone kept repeating the words, “…youth are the leaders of tomorrow, we need to do something for them now to get them ready.” I mostly listened to him speak and when he was done, I politely shared that I felt that YOUTH ARE THE LEADERS OF TODAY, not the leaders of tomorrow, and in fact, I feel like “us adults” need to get out of their way and listen to them more.  I’m not sure he really knew what to say back to me.  We agreed to disagree.  He felt like the youth weren’t ready for  that kind of … Read More »

In my comedy and moreover, in my life, I always think to myself, “What would Kookum (grandma) think?”  It’s a bit of a weird thing.  It’s not something I did when she was with us on earth – but now that she’s playing “Bingo in the Sky” I’m always checking in with that thought.

The other day I pulled out my beadwork and it’s always an emotional thing for me since she passed.  My gramma was well known for her beadwork, moccassins, and other leather works and it’s one of the things she really wanted to pass down to me – working with my hands.  She spoke of the danger of losing the skills, the stories, the iconography (she didn’t use the word iconography, think she just said, “stuff”) that she grew up with and when I … Read More »

First of all – I’m a comedian.  Do NOT read this for an academic take on the socio-political impacts of the blah blah blah – cuz I can’t do that/write that/say that for I am far too “unlearned” to fake it.  So, I won’t.  With that said, here’s my take on what’s shaking out with the Olympics here in Canada and how I see it.

Where do I start with this blog post? I could start with how “inclusionary” the Opening Ceremonies were, we could talk about the protests and the general temperature of those “on the outside” of the games, but I suppose I should start at the beginning – in July 2003 the 2010 Winter Olympics were awarded to Vancouver.

Canada celebrated, South Korea and Austria didn’t, and construction began. Problems with … Read More »

Podcast: Play in new window
| Download
| Embed

I make no secret about my goal of breaking into Indian Country down in the US to spread the good work of my comedy.  I’m doing well in Canada (in relative terms anyway), but, I’ve not yet broken into the market down in the States.  I want to – badly.  I have a decent following in Canada and most of my web traffic comes from Canada.  Over the past few months, after joining twitter, my comedy has become more accessible and I’ve been getting increasing numbers of emails/messages from people in the US that really dig my stuff.

I think the time will come when I’ll break through in Indian Country in the US.  I’ve done some big things here in Canada and I’ve been looking for … Read More »

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

One of the oldest cliche’s in the book – laughter is good medicine.  We as Indian People pride ourselves on not taking ourselves too seriously, about being able to laugh when we’re down, and about how laughter has gotten us through some pretty lean times.  I’d agree with all of those things – but it led me to thinking: WHERE ARE OUR INDIAN COMEDY FESTIVALS?

Week after week in the summer time I see ad’s, facebook invites, tweets about all of the amazing music festivals/gatherings that are taking place across Indian Country.  No doubt, the music scene is “older” and more established than an Indian Comedy scene, but i think that a comedy festival would be a good first step to raising the profile of “our comedy” in Indian Country (not to mention getting it out into the mainstream).

There have been … Read More »

I start my day the same way everyday.  Once the kids are fed and well on their way to destroying the house for the day I make a pot of coffee, open up my laptop, and I start reading the news of the day, I empty out my email box, and I “tweet” something incredibly boring about things that don’t really matter.

It was on twitter that I heard about the announcement Hockey Canada was preparing to make – the new jersey design.  It was also on twitter where I read that there was some type of backlash against the new Team Canada Hockey Jersey logo design.   The logo, designed by Musqueam artist Debra Sparrow, with help from Nike, is the standard maple leaf but does feature some iconography (a Thunderbird, an Eagle, among other animals that us Neechies adore) that … Read More »

I’ve been lucky enough to have done a bunch of voice work on Darrel Dennis’ CBC Radio Series, “Revision Quest”, this past couple of weeks and I’ve really been impressed by not only the staff working on it, the writing and comedy found therein, but mostly by what the series IS SAYING.  Many of the sketches are political and social in nature – taking strong stands against the system, fighting against stereotypes, and shining a bright light on the positives and the contributions Indian Peoples bring/give to the mainstream on a daily basis.

There is a poignant piece that I voiced on Friday that started with a couple of old friends that “play catch up” as they hadn’t seen each other in a long time.  The sketch opens with a line about the Native character, “becoming a lawyer, NOT a real … Read More »