FOURTH Indigenous Female Comedian to be featured in a Winnipeg Comedy Festival Mega Show!!

This is a huge milestone for me, not just to be selected for this show – but to be the fourth Indigenous woman performing in it! I would like to recognize the Indigenous women who’ve graced these stages before me: Isabel Zaw-Tun, Meg McKay, and Dawn Dumont. Thanks for paving the way! The Mega Show was formerly known as a Gala Show, and reflects the televised portion of the WCF. To get onto this show, comedians must write a brand new ten minute set based on one of the six themes given by the WCF. Out of all the submissions across Canada, 30 comedians are chosen. I’ve applied last year, but I didn’t put as much effort into that set as I’ve done this year – and it’s paid off. Indigenous Peoples were underrepresented in these spaces for a long time, but that is all changing with the resurgence of Indigenous culture and, subsequently, our humour.

Some like to say that we are funny due to the trauma, but that’s not true – humour has been embedded in Indigenous cultures since before contact. Since we come from such large oral storytelling traditions, it makes sense that humour would be a part of that. Humour and storytelling are ways to teach societal norms, share creation stories, teach history, and entertain. I began comedy because of the Indigenous representation I witnessed at my local university’s live event, and I hope to be the inspiration for anext generation of Indigenous People and Women in these spaces. Ekosi! Stoodis.