After watching Bernie Mac perform a set at Def Comedy Jam, Rodney Ramsey said he wondered why Canada didn’t have its own black comedy tour. So he took it upon himself to produce one.
After meeting different comedians over the past few years, Ramsey is manning the Underground Comedy Tour, which will be stopping at Carleton March 1.
“Our mission is to showcase established and upcoming black Canadian comedians with the hope of giving a voice to one of Canada’s smallest visible ethnic minorities,” the producer said in an email.
The show presents the perspective of black Canadians, whose history and identity is often confused or conflated with African Americans from the United States, Ramsey added.
Ramsay will be joined on stage by comedians Andrew Searles, Patrick Haye, Keesha Brownie and Daniel Woodrow, whose calls-it-as-he-sees-it style made him a hit on Much Music’s Video on Trial.
The group will be mostly performing routines centered on humorous observations but Searles said he’ll certainly be throwing a few ethnic jokes into the mix considering he grew up with West Indian parents.
His jokes will include “stuff [he’s] come across [and] experienced in life, and differences between West Indian mentalities and Canadian mentalities,” he said. They touch on everything from his childhood, to romance, to moving from the Caribbean to Canada.
Ramsay said one of his routines will focus on funny encounters of reverse racism he’s run into when people are overly polite to the point of hilarity.
While the Underground Comedy Tour bills itself as the first all-Canadian Black comedy tour, it’s not just about being black. Searles said there’s a “black” style of comedy which typically centres on high energy, fast talking and an aggressive presence.
However, when it comes down to it, everyone draws from their culture and roots whether they’re doing comedy or not.
“I think my style leads more to me being a comedian who’s black,” Haye said in an email. “My comedy’s all over the place and touches all kinds of subjects.”
Haye, a newcomer to the Canadian comedy scene, said some of his biggest role models are black comedians like Eddie Murphy Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle and Bernie Mac.
Searles said he idolizes comedians like Chappelle because of their ability to tackle bigger issues. In Chappelle’s “Killing them softly” tour, the comedian talked about how women killed chivalry is one of the most intellectual pieces he’s ever seen. These kinds of routines, which build discussion on touchy subjects, allow people to expose the truth about things like racial stereotypes.
“People are more likely to accept a hard truth, if that truth also makes them pee from laughing so hard,” Ramsay said.
