welcome back to the show as i said just before the break we can all use some humor right now and the good news is not only are we gonna have humor live streaming but we can actually go and see some comedy in person isn't that wonderful to hear i am joined by storyteller drew hayden taylor drew welcome to the show great to have you here and you've got your white water rafting down the river of indigenous humor coming up at the shankman center but before we get to that drew uh tell us a little bit about yourself your background and comedy well um i've only actually been a stand-up comedian once and i got to do that at the kennedy center in washington dc and once you've done that the idea of doing the x and flin flan sort of disappears but more than anything i mean humorous right humorous i write humor i write about comedy i don't really get up and do it a lot plus the fact i'm a storyteller um i've talked now from the first nation born raised and lived and so a lot of my humor comes from my upbringing um the storytelling i heard and the funny stories i heard so a lot of that comes into um uh the work i do the writing i do and um i've written i've written about humor i've written humor i've done documentaries on humor so uh i like to think i practice it but i explore it and celebrate it well let's talk about the importance of it and especially when it comes to to indigenous culture and and i think it's a great way for people to learn about indigenous culture and be entertained and and have some fun at the same time drew oh definitely i've been very fortunate to have traveled to over 150 first nation communities in canada and the united states and everywhere i've been with a laugh a smile and a joke and i mean that's one of the great things about the indigenous community the power the um the presence and just the sheer quality of indigenous humor um and the thing is it it's my opinion for whatever that's worth that it's been our sense of humor that's allowed us to die 400 years of colonization i remember talking to an elder on the reserve uh who said who told me that in his opinion for native people and all people humor is the wd-40 of healing so i keep that in mind on days that there's bad news that come up or some of the trials and tribulations of being indigenous in canada just the fact that how our how our sense of humor allows us to heal and survive drew you mentioned some of those stories you know that that you grew up with and hearing some of the you know the humorous side of things when it comes to indigenous stories can you share one of those stories with us oh well i mean a lot of these stories are are not just here they're all across the country here's where i sort of learned um learned about well okay sure i mean i learned about how to do comedy just from talking to people here um one of my favorite stories was when i went to india i was in india uh touring across the country actually going to a multicultural conference on humor in kerala india and it was my mother's birthday here and missed my mother's birthday and um i managed to find a cyber cafe where i could send her and sent my aunt an email who works at the band office and i sent her an email saying hi auntie julia um i'm having a great time in here in india it's fascinating it's amazing i'm walking down the streets here and i'm seeing like camels and elephants it's it's really cool um get my i tell my mother i'll bring her something wonderful i wish her happy birthday for me and then about two days later i got an email back from my aunt saying oh your mother's glad you're having a good time and she had a pretty good uh birthday we went out to dinner and then we went to the dump to watch the bears [Laughter] hey it's just sort of a different view of exoticism yeah i would find that entertaining i would find that entertaining listen we've actually had quite a few storytellers on daytime ottawa over the years and i'm talking recent years drew do you think there's been a a growth in storytelling in in recent years and if so why do you think that is it was actually a shock to me to when i when i discovered when i when i see i'm i always consider myself a writer because i write for television i i write novels short stories i write a lot of plays i do documentaries i wrote a graphic novel i have articles and essays and magazines and newspapers etc i consider myself more of a writer who lectures and then i remember just having a conversation with some people and they just sort of said the way i lecture i lecture through stories that i'm a i'm what i refer to as a contemporary storyteller a person who tells stories through all the different ways of telling stories because it used to be all oral but in today's society even even um video games have deep and detailed narratives woven into the story so i'm just i just like to consider myself somebody who tells interesting and funny and moving stories about life today in all the different forms that are out that are available to tell stories including just standing up in front of an audience and um sharing some of my adventures in this uh bizarre world well i'm sure our audience watching right now is looking forward to it drew thanks so much for joining us a reminder that's happening thursday february the 24th 7 30 p.m shankman arts center and live streamed you can go to ottawa storytellers.ca for more information we'll be right back [Music]