All-Indigenous comedy show comes to Algonquin

The lights at the Observatory dim as the booming sound of the beating drums bring attention to the stage. Four figures stand tall and start to sing. The stage lights shone on them as their song continued.

The “Strong Women Song” brought the Got Land? comedy show to a start at the Algonquin College Observatory Nov. 21.

The all-Indigenous comedy show hosted by Don Kelly starred Mike Bombay, Lisa Jane, Chris Lapointe, Janelle Niles, Andrew Wambolt and Ev O’Driscoll as the headliner.

Janelle Niles, a second-year massage therapy student, helped organize the event at the Observatory after the event took off at Eddy’s diner, downtown.

“I decided to take this program because I want to learn as much as I can to relieve some stress from people back at my reserve,” said Niles. “Situations may not always be ‘laughable’ back there, so I want to do all I can.”

“I saw some of the other shows that hosted only African American comedians or Jewish comedians. I just thought why don’t we do something like that?” said Niles. “It felt like we needed something like this here in Canada.”

Chris Lapointe is one of the comedians that shared the stage with Janelle Niles.

“Tragedy and comedy go hand in hand,” said Lapointe, right after the show. “We have to learn to laugh at our past to live our future.”

Got land? debuted at Eddy’s diner on bank street and Algonquin was their second stop. Janelle is in talks to get the event bigger as time goes on.