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WE HAD A LITTLE REAL ESTATE PROBLEM by Kliph Nesteroff

WE HAD A LITTLE REAL ESTATE PROBLEM

The Unheralded Story of Native Americans & Comedy

by Kliph Nesteroff

Pub Date: Feb. 16th, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982103-06-4
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Humor is a form of resistance—one reason why Native American performers have contributed strongly to the comic tradition.

The modern Native comic movement owes to several influences, including Bob Newhart, Richard Pryor, and the Canadian TV special Welcome to Turtle Island, which inspired numerous performers north of the border. Don’t forget Rodney Dangerfield, one inspiration for an Ojibwe social worker and part-time comedian to drive the many miles to Minneapolis to deliver lines such as, “I think it’s great that Bruce Jenner transitioned to Caitlyn Jenner…but I don’t think she should have picked a young woman’s name. I mean—she’s seventy years old….Her name should be Gladys.” Says another stand-up who’s been at it long enough to see another generation or two rise behind him, “We’re like the Columbus of Native comedians.” Nesteroff, well known for his 2015 history The Comedians, takes a long view of the Native comic tradition, looking at the hundreds of performers who toured with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show as a means of escaping an oppressive reservation system, a motivation that’s still operative. The author also examines historical humorists. Some are well known—e.g., Will Rogers, who, though often identified as White, was born and died on Native land and who quipped, “I’m not one of those Americans whose ancestors came over on the Mayflower, but we met them at the boat when they landed.” Others will be new to most readers, including Muscogee Creek writer Alexander Posey, broadly popular in the early 1900s but almost unknown today. Their descendants continue to work the comedy scene today, and most deserve wider attention, such as Marc Yaffee, founder of the Pow Wow Comedy Jam; and Vaughn Eaglebear, author of lines such as, “I donated some blood a couple weeks ago. One of the nurses asked me if I was a full-blooded Indian. I said, ‘Not anymore.’ ”

A welcome introduction to an aspect of Native American life that merits broader exposure.