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Street Roots • Jan. 8-1 4,2 01 6
Street Roots • Jan. 8-14,2016
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of open mics that night. If I hadn’t received that list
from them, I might not have started comedy.
BY SUE ZALOKAR
STAFF WRITER
TL "Yathan Brannon has. a comedy career spanning
I ^ 1 a little less than a decade, but to hear him
X 1 describe it, it’s been “long enough.”
S.Z.:
worked as a youth zoo animal presenter, a
program that still exists at the Oregon Zoo today.
Long enough, indeed, to make a mark on the
Northwest comedy scene. Brannon won the Seattle
International Comedy Competition in 2014, made
Willamette Week’s “Portland’s Funniest 5” for 2013,
and won Helium Comedy Club’s “Portland’s Funniest
Person Comedy Competition” in 2012.
Brannon - who released his first comedy album, “I
Black Out,” in 2013 - has opened
for the likes of Dave Chappelle,
Damon Wayans and Maria
Bamford.
This month, Brannon will
record his second album,
“Because,” after joining the
roster of talent at Kill Rock
Stars, a Portland and Olympia,
Wash., independent record label.
The recording will happen at
two Jan. 22 shows at the Alberta
Street Pub, 1036 NE Alberta S t
- at 7:30 ánd 10:30 p.m. Tickets
are available online and at the
door, but it’s a small venue and
tickets are selling fast.
Nathan Brannon
talks about his city -
from programs that
helped him in his
youth to the housing
market today — and
how he tackles
serious issues
N.B.: The ZAP Team was my very first job. It
taught me everything from better time management
to a love for nature and conservation. It was also the
first real exposure to public speaking for me. I was
fortunate to have a job, right out of the gate, that I
loved doing. I even came back and became outreach
supervisor of teens in the program after college for a
while.
S.Z.: You did that through the Prospective Gents Club.
Tell me about that.
N.B.: It was here in the ’90s to mid-2000s. It was
started by a group of adults here called the Bridge
Builders.
It was a program that took inner-city, young black
boys through a rite of passage program similar to the
rite of passage that you would go through tribally in
Africa. With that as a background, it focused on
scholarship and community service. It is basically to
teach young black boys how to be men.
I owe so much to that program, it’s not even funny.
I don’t think I would have gone to college if they
hadn’t prepared me the way they did. Sadly, it’s no
longer operating in Portland. The director, he moved
out of state. He started similar programs throughout
the country.
Brannon, a lifelong Portland
resident, says much of his
understanding of the city has
changed since his childhood.
For starters, many of the people he grew up with in
his Northeast Portland neighborhood are no longer
there, he said. “The scenery is definitely different.”
S.Z.: I have a few friends who left the city this year
because their income was far overshadowed by their
expenses.
N.B.: It’s pretty obvious. At this point, in Portland,
if you can’t afford to keep up with how fast the prices
are rising, then you leave the city. People who have
S.Z.: W/zaf do you think about Tamir Rice (the
12-year-old in Cleveland who was fatally shot by police)?
N.B.: It makes it hard to tell jokes sometimes; I’ll
be honest.
I forget who said it - I think it was Chapelle - that
the position that we have as comedians and
performers is an obligation to address the things that
other people can’t express or articulate.
At some point you have to speak your mind. I wish
it wasn’t happening. And I feel like I’m doing a
disservice if I don’t bring it up in an atmosphere like
recording an album.
Now that I have a son, these thoughts cap weigh on
me daily.
S.Z.: I ’ll bet. Or the whole non-race issue of just taking
your son to school.
N.B.: Yeah. This morning I was looking up
bulletproof backpacks. You take a step back and it’s
like, “This is what we’re doing now?”
I love being a comedian because you can address
stuff like that through comedy.
S.Z.: B ill Cosby has been charged with the rape o f one
woman and is accused of raping many more. I don’t even
know what to say.
S.Z.: You have a podcast called “The Hamster Village. ”
N.B.: I started this podcast to start to understand
what it means to be in an interracial relationship in a
country that weights race so heavily.
The idea came from the experiences that my wife
and I have. How you can go through things that are
normal couple experiences, but they are all framed in
race because of the weight that we give race in this
country? When really, they just have a different
preference.
I thought about other couples out there where
situations like that can lead to rifts when there doesn’t
need to be. They just need to be able to voice their
concerns with other couples who are going through
the same thing. It’s a normal thing when you are in an
interracial relationship.
It’s meant to be more of a societal commentary
podcast. A lot of the couples who have been on the
podcast are involved in comedy, in some form or
fashion. So, it can be funny.
Sue Zalokar: Do you live in the same neighborhood
now?
Nathan Brannon: I live in Southeast now. I got
chickens in my yard and everything. I try to go back
and visit my old neighborhood. You try to get nostalgic
about it, but there’s not really much to be nostalgic
about anymore.
My dad passed away last year. That left my mom (to
cover expenses). They had a house, and she couldn’t
handle the payments on her own. She had to move
out.
We looked and we looked, and there’s nothing for
people who are on the lower end of the income scale.
It’s impossible. Now, she lives up in Longview (Wash.).
That was the closest place we found that was safe and
affordable for her. She raised my sister and me. She
gave a big part of her life to this city, and it was like
when she needed it, the city turned its back on her. It
turned its back on us.
It wasn’t like she just stopped paying bills. It was a
traumatic experience, and it felt like the city said,
“Tough. We couldn’t care less about where you live.”
It really left a bad taste in my mouth. After living
here for so many years and then the priority goes to
the people who can afford it now. Time spent in
connection to this city doesn’t mean anything.
would be proud of.
S.Z.: I can’t think of a comedian who doesn’t have a
podcast.
PH O TO COURTESY OF N A T H A N B R A N N O N
77z/s month, Portland comedian Nathan Brannon is recording his second album, “Because. ” His first album, “I Black Out, ’’ was released in 2013.
been here for 20, 30 years. Simply because somebody
thought the price should go up.
It’s arbitrary to a large degree. This summer, I
know of a whole apartment complex that was
evacuated, pretty much. Their rent got hiked at once,
and it was just a fleet of moving trucks moving people
out.
In our neighborhood, there were vans camped out
around the small park that we live near, for like a
week or two. You see families (living in a vehicle), and
you know there might be some (questionable
behavior) in the neighborhood, but you don’t call the
cops because you’re not going to call the cops on a
family being tossed out
It’s sad that it is this city, of all cities, you know?
The rest of the country looks at us as open-minded,
and we make sure everyone is taken care of.
Meanwhile there are people with little kids living out
of cars.
S.Z.: How did you come to comedy?
N.B.: After college, I moved back to Portland, and
when I started, the scene wasn’t that huge at all.
You’re talking 40 to 50 comedians tops. Today, the
number of comedians is in the hundreds.
I didn’t know there was a comedy scene here (in
early 2007). That’s how small it was. I went to
Harvey’s Comedy Club with some friends, and the
headliner and the feature act were both from
Portland. I asked them how they got started, because
there was no comedy scene here. They gave me a list
N.B.: I held off for the longest time. But this has
something that people can take away - whether it’s
challenging a stereotype you might have or a situation
that you can relate to. If they find it funny, that?s a
bonus.
S.Z.: You’re a father now. Has that had an effect on
your work?
N.B.: My son is 9 months old. I thought about him
a lot, and somewhere down the road he’s going to
listen to this (new album), and so I wanted something
that was going to be honest and was more insightful.
If he chooses to listen to it, it would be something he
N.B.: For me, as a black man, it’s extra hard. Seeing
a role model of yours growing up could be accused of
something like this. You want to think, “Say it ain’t
so!”
In entertainment, people are accustomed to seeing
a person’s body of work and then associating them
completely with that body of work. That performer’s
actual personality isn’t (the same as the characters he
plays).
In this case, Cosby’s character may be quite
different from (Cliff Huxtable’s) character. Just
because he made this wonderful body of work, it
doesn’t mean he’s not capable of terrible things.
He was a hero to the black community. Now we
have to think a different way. At some point you have
to be real. He’s capable of it and if he did it, then
that’s i t He deserves what he gets.
In our society, we are too quick to dismiss the
woman’s point of view. I’m not going down that route.
I have (a family member) who was a assaulted way
before I was on the planet. I naturally have a soft spot
(on this issue).
S.Z.: What will this new year bring for you?
N.B.: This album, for sure.
I’d like (to develop) the podcast I’d like it to
encompass all aspects of interracial society. I’d like to
put a lot more focus into that and try to get guests like
history professors or sociologists or hairdressers -
whoever - to address these issues (of race).
(Laughs) At the top of the lis t taking care of my
son. And try to get him walking.