Comedy offers insight into Afro-Canadian experience
Celebrates Black History Month while making history of its own
Underground Comedy Railroad Tour When: Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Where: The Comic Strip, West Edmonton Mall Tickets: $20 at comicstrip.ca
The Underground Comedy Railroad Tour will entertain audiences with both high comedy and insights into the Afro-Canadian experience.
The Montreal-based troupe is touring the country for Black History Month.
The original Underground Railroad was neither underground nor a railroad. Abolitionists, through a network of routes, were able to move tens of thousands of AfroAmerican slaves in the late 19th century from the U.S. South to free states in the North and Canada.
And so it was that comics Rodney Ramsey and Andrew Searles, based in Montreal, came up with the Underground Comedy Railroad Tour as a means to introduce “the voice of black Canadian comedians” to a Canadian audience. The duo, along with Keesha Brownie and Daniel Woodrow, will be centre stage for the presentation.
“When people ask us the connection between our comedy and Black History Month in this country, we point out that mostly what we see here on TV or in movies is black American comedy,” says Searles, 29.
“But black Canadian comics have our own perspective, which is quite a bit different.
“Our task is to find something relevant to black history, but with a decidedly Canadian comic spin on it. So this show delivers on both those channels.”
He notes that his and his fellow comics’ upbringing is quite distinct from that of most of their Afro-American counterparts.
“I’ll watch some American black comedians where they talk about growing up in the ’hood and where white people do this and that. And I go: ‘No, I don’t get it, because I live in Canada.’ We may look the same, but we don’t come across at all the same.
“A lot of us grew up in the Caribbean, so when it comes to living in a place where it goes down to -30, we start questioning our parents. On days like that I ask my parents — who come from Barbados — why are we here? You came from a tropical paradise!”
Searles says that while the show celebrates black history in Canada, it is also making history. It offers a rare showcase for Afro-Canadian comics who are often left out of the limelight in this county.
“As a comedy collective, we are showing club-owners and producers that we’re out there, doing it on our own and we’re succeeding, making an impact on audiences around the country,” he says.
“If clubs or festivals aren’t going to put us on their main stages, then we’ll create our own mainstage. There are times when I feel that I have to work 10 times harder than the average white comic to get the same kind of recognition.
“But what’s most satisfying about our show is that it has been embraced not just by the black community, but by all — black, white, Asian, Indian, Jewish, Muslim.
“In the end, it’s about ethnic humour that everyone can relate to. Comedy is comedy, and you have to make people laugh to succeed, regardless of colour.”