by Gowlene SelvavijayanComedy 3 - Anasimone George2

“White people like camping so much because they like sleeping on land that isn’t theirs.”

This was one of many jokes host Anasimone George, the host of the show, told cracking up the crowd at Black Squirrel Books on Friday Sept. 8. Four other women of colour took the stage with her in an effort to reclaim space, break taboos and question stereotypes through comedy.

To start off the school year, the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) at Carleton University organized the comedy show to gather students who are interested in supporting their efforts to research, educate and provide action on social and environmental justice. The OPIRG featured the work of three comics in SHADE, a live stand-up comedy collective from Toronto priding itself on showcasing and celebrating marginalized voices in the city’s comedy scene.

George created SHADE eight months ago after three years of feeling subordinated in a white-, male-dominated scene.

“I wanted to make a space that I felt welcomed in. My own space where I wouldn’t have to feel small — where we could all feel appreciated,” George said.

According to George, virtually all SHADE shows have sold out since it began.

Samiha Rayeda, the volunteer, outreach, and programming coordinator at OPIRG Carleton, heard about SHADE’s desire to reach out to schools with a varsity tour and thought it would be a perfect fit to start the year.

“I knew it would be funny, a little political, but very relatable to the crowd of people who come to OPIRG events,” Rayeda said, adding her expectations were exceeded.

Rayeda affirmed that women of colour, queer and racialized individuals oftentimes have no one to look up to or relate to in the Canadian comedy scene because “there isn’t a big space for [them].”

According to George, the audience at comedy clubs are mostly made up of people who can relate to the material and the comics. In a white-, male-dominated scene, the crowd looks much the same.
“People who don’t normally go to comedy shows come to see SHADE,” George said. Rather than making space within the pre-existing comedy scene, SHADE created an entirely new space to eliminate the norm as a whole, she said.

Earlier this year, a white, male comic was shouted down from an Ottawa venue for telling jokes at the expense of Black women. George says these tasteless jokes are not uncommon in a scene where not enough racialized and queer people are given the platform to “speak their truth,” from their own experience.

Ottawa comic Shelina Merani, who was also invited to perform at the OPIRG event, describes the Ottawa scene as “white, male and very cliquey.”

“It doesn’t seem as though a lot of thought goes into promoting diversity in the comedy scene. But recently, more people are becoming more aware of it,” Merani said.

Merani, who has been a comedian for four years alongside her day job at the Public Service Alliance of Canada, stumbled upon comedy unintentionally.

Since then, she has taken comedy more seriously, and has performed at interfaith events and an event featuring American activist Angela Davis. Earlier this year, she was invited to audition for America’s Got Talent.

“People want to hear what I have to say as a Muslim woman,” Merani said.

Merani says through her comedy she intends to address taboos around Muslim women that people are thinking but not necessarily vocalizing. At the event, she cracked jokes about questions she usually gets when wearing a hijab, her modesty and even what airports think about terrorism.

“I guess what I’m trying to do is humanize Muslims,” she said.

“Many Muslim girls came up to me saying that they were very happy to see a Muslim woman on stage, speaking to their experience.”

Rayeda said many audience members said they enjoyed spending their Friday night listening to comedy they related to. This included a few first years who said they were happy they skipped the frosh concert to come to the show.

“It is so important to support women of colour, queer and racialized folks because they are always the groups under-supported by mainstream organizations,” Rayeda said.

Merani said she was happy to hear the diversity of voices and overwhelmed by the response at the event.

“Diversity is really important, especially for the Ottawa scene. And I think people need to be a bit more cognizant of that — that there are a lot of different voices, and ask, how do we bring those voices out if they’re not coming? How do we reach out to get those voices into the mainstream, into comedy clubs?” Merani said.

“And that’s important to consider, whether it is for the audience or the comedians who are doing the shows.”

This article first appeared in the Leveller Vol. 10, No. 1 (Sept/Oct 2017).