Street roots., March 20, 2015, Page 7, Image 7

Street Roots • March 20-26, 2015
News
Page 7
Colorful language
The Curious Comedy Theater’s M inority Retort is
drawing a diverse new audience to laugh -a n d learn
BY SARAH HANSELL
. Hallal started Curious Comedy Theater in
2008, a nonprofit with the mission to
“improve the lives of kids, adults, and
T t was nearing 9:30 p.m. on a Friday and
I Jeremy Eli’s brainchild, monthly comedy seniors through the art of comedy.” The
JLshow Minority Retort, was about to
theater has specific outreach programs for
debut at Curious Comedy Theater on Martin kids in school and for seniors living in
retirement homes. She believes in
Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Eli and
diversifying both the lineups and the
co-founder Jason Lamb were afraid to steal a
audiences of her shows, and was excited by
glance from backstage and find a sea of
the opportunity Minority Retort presented.
empty seats.
“When you just have one black person in
Or a sea of exclusively white faces.
a lineup they become ‘the black person,’ but
Minority Retort is a platform for
comedians of color, and Eli wanted the show when you have many people of color you
hear all the voices,” Hallal said. “When
to reach further than the typical majority
you’re not the only one in the lineup, you
white, older audience he was accustomed to
don’t have the pressure of representing your
at comedy shows.
“We were super tense, are we going to get community.”
And with such a diverse lineup as last
a turnout at all?” Eli said.
month’s show, which featured black
And they did.
performers, but also Latino, Native
“We immediately found out, yeah,” Eli
American and queer performers, comedians
said. “And then it’s like, is it going to be the
are freer from that pressure. The
diverse audience we want? And Jason and I
performers got big laughs from the audience
peeked our heads out from the green room
with jokes about gentrifying vegetables in
and there was a 65-year-old black dude with
the grocery store, Caucasian spirituals, hip
white hair wearing a cap. And it was just,
hop, and interracial relationships, just to
yeah, that’s exactly who we want. We want
name a few.
this Bagger Vance character. We want old
“I think we’re seeing comedians of color
black people to want to be involved. That it-
share their perspectives on race but also
didn’t ju s t reach com edy fans o r young
just speak independently as themselves and
people. It reached super hip old black
talk about their
dudes.”
experience,” Eli
And since that
said. “It doesn’t have
success, Minority
we sll©'
should do what we can
to be hinged on that.
Retort’s lineups and
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is filling the seats
C U R IO U S C O M E D Y T H E A T E R from that and not
with more people of
just relying on what
color and more
you would think a
people who may
black person would be or something like
never have seen live comedy before.
that.”
“We want people who don’t necessarily
But despite this success, there still are
already go to comedy shows, who don’t
many challenges. For example, Eli said that
maybe think that it’s for them, to know that
he’s had trouble finding women of color to
this is something we can share,” Eli said.
participate in Minority Retort.
“And it was the most diverse audience I’ve
“Part of it is, comedy is kind of gross,”
performed for. It’s for people who relate to
said Bri Pruett, Portland comedian and
what we’re saying and people who want to
headliner of Minority Retort’s March show.
know more to come out and see what’s
“There are a lot of white dudes doing
going on.”
comedy, and their perspective is
Eli, a transplant from upstate New York,
overwhelming at times, and it’s also
moved to Portland two years ago and
oppressive and widely unchallenged. And
immediately began thinking about the seed
when it is challenged, here are people whose
that would grow into Minority Retort. He
job it is to stand on stage and talk, so they’re
partnered with Jason Lamb, co-host of the
veiy comfortable retorting. They’re very
Karl Show! on the Funemployment Radio
comfortable being like, you can’t tell me this
Network, and brought the show to life at
is racist, you can’t tell me what to say.”
Curious.
And Portland is well-known for its
Stacey Hallal, founder of Curious, had
overwhelming whiteness. Most of the
been looking to showcase people of color at
audiences Eli had performed for in Portland
the theater, which already had events and
were mainly white and often older, people
shows to showcase women and queer folks.
who couldn’t relate to the experiences Eli
“I think it’s important, so important, for
was talking about
everyone to hear each other, to have a
“The show comes from a frustration I had
conversation, have a discussion, to
performing for liberal white audiences that
understand each other’s differences and also
would more respond ió buzzwords and be
our commonalities,” Hallal said.
STAFF W R IT E R
P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F C U R IO U S C O M E D Y T H E A T E R
Baron Vaughn performing in Minority Retort, a comedy show featuring a cast o f minority
stand-ups now playing a t the Curious Comedy Theater.
turned off by certain, just, words,” Eli said.
“It’s hard to make people laugh if they think
that they’re being called an oppressor or
something.”
Pruett, a part-Asian woman who often
passes for white, has felt the frustration of
coming up against people who are
uncomfortable broaching the subject of race
at all.
“I think that people don’t know how to
talk about race in Portland, so if a
conversation comes up, it’s conflict, and
people in Portland are uncomfortable with
conflict,” Pruett said. “It’s very kumbayah.”
Many of the people of color who grew up
in Portland have been gentrified out of their
neighborhoods, making it even easier for
white Portlanders to ignore race altogether.
“I feel like there are a couple of types of
people in color in Portland,” Pruett said.
“There are people that are from here and
have been gentrified out of the
neighborhoods, that have been traditionally
people of color, and then there are people
who have just moved here. So the folks of
color who have just moved here, they don’t
have a feeling like, I resent this community,
because they haven’t been pushed out of i t
And the folks who have been pushed out of
it, they sort of do their own thing a lot of the
time.”
For Eli, Minority Retort is about more
than a comedy show, more than visibility for
the black community in Portland, even more
than creating meaningful conversations
about race. It’s also making black voices
heard in a climate when black life is
devalued.
“Honestly, we always want representation,
we always want that community thing, but
so much of it toward the end of 2014 was all
of the police brutality cases,” he said.
“Honestly, when we were hungriest to get
this started, it was so much more about,
let’s have our presence* known before we get
killed, before we get pushed to the side.
People don’t take our issues seriously — life
and death, seriously. We need to make this
happen immediately.
“Yes, (Minority Retort is) nice for the
community, and, yeah, it’s good for me as a
comedian to Eave this, but it just became
more than the value of entertainment,” Eli
said. “We should do what we can while we
can and let people know what’s important to
us. Yeah, we want to relate to black and
brown people, but it’s a good opportunity for
white people to listen — just listen.”
Just as Curious Comedy Theater is trying
to diversify its audience through Minority
Retort and welcome people of color in a
neighborhood where black people have been
pushed out, Eli hopes the show itself will
encourage conversations and more comfort
around race in Portland.
“That’s what Portlanders need to learn.
It’s personal responsibility — for
gentrification, for racism, for micro­
aggressions — and just how to have
conversations and not be Portland polite, to
just talk like humans,” Pruett said. “I’m
really excited that this is happening to this
city and people are starting to have these
conversations.”