Ryan McMahon (comedian)

Ryan McMahon is an Anishinaabe comedian, podcaster and writer from the Couchiching First Nation.[1][2] McMahon was born in Fort Frances, Ontario, the oldest of three siblings. McMahon was the first in his family to graduate from high school. He attended the University of Minnesota on a full hockey scholarship and graduated from the Second City Training Center.[3]

Ryan McMahon
Medium
  • Podcast
  • stand-up
  • television
NationalityAnishinaabe
Education
  • Bachelors in Theatre
  • Associates in Theatre
Years active2006 - present
Websitehttps://www.redmanlaughing.com/

Early life

In his September 20, 2018 The Walrus Talks Success presentation in the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto, McMahon said that he was the oldest of four children and that he was the first person in his family to graduate from high school.[4] McMahon completed his degree in theatre at the University of Minnesota.[3] He then completed a two-year program at the Second City Conservatory in Toronto, Ontario, with a full scholarship granted by the Toronto Theatre Alliance.[3]

Comedy, Television and Writing Career

By 2008, McMahon had begun his standup comedy routines. In May 2010, his live performance of Welcome To Turtle Island Too was filmed in St. Albert, Alberta for a CBC television comedy special.[5] According to CBC, in 2012, McMahon became the first indigenous Canadian to record an hour-long CBC TV comedy special, UnReserved.[6][4] In the same year he was included in the New Faces of the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal.[7] He has worked in both Canada and the United States as a comedian. His YouTube channel describes his comedic personae, Clarence Two Toes, as "a Half Ojibway-Half Metis guy that struggles everyday on whether to listen to the 'brown guy' or the 'not quite brown guy' that lives in his head".[8][9] In February 2015, CBC Radio 1 national aired an hour-long comedy special of Red Man Laughing , that had been recorded live in 2014 in Edmonton, Alberta. Guests on the show included author Joseph Boyden.

For his 2017 documentary entitled Colonization Road, which aired as an episode of CBC Television's Firsthand series, in response to the 150th anniversary of Canada, McMahon visited communities in Ontario to "gain insight into colonization and reconciliation".[10][11] McMahon called the network of roads crucial to Canada's nation-building and constructed by early settlers, "colonization roads". He drew attention to the way in which the process of road building had ignored the concerns of the indigenous people.[10] The program won the Yorkton Film Festival’s Golden Sheaf Award for Best Documentary – Historical/Biography, and was nominated for a 2018 Canadian Screen Award.[12]

In 2018, McMahon published his first book of short stories, The Great NDN Paradox, with Arsenal Pulp Press.[13]

In June 2019, CBC Comedy included McMahon on their list of "15 Canadian comedians to watch in 2019".[6]

Podcasts

McMahon, who began podcasting in 2008,[14] founded Indian & Cowboy, an Indigenous multimedia network in October 2014.[15][16] In its first year, he hosted seven podcasts, including Metis in Space,' featuring two Metis women discussing sci-fi;[17][18] Stories from the Land featuring stories from indigenous communities;[19] The Henceforward featuring Eve tuck and Sefanit Habtom discussing colonialism and it's effects on indigenous and black people;[20] and The Cuts featuring the indigenous filmaker Sterlin Harjo.[21] In 2016, McMahon expanded his projects into Makoons Media, a multimedia company that aims to create content by and for Indigenous people worldwide.[22] A 2017 article in Financial Post said that McMahon was "representative of an important trend in Canada".[23]

McMahon relaunched Indian & Cowboy Indigenous Media Network on July 1, 2017, featuring ten podcasts and other web content—supported by members.[15] By 2017, while audiences for McMahon and other indigenous media was growing, there was a lack of advertising revenue.[23] The article said that McMahon's Indian & Cowboy Podcast Network was popular but producing his shows remained financially challenging.[23]

His 40-minute podcast, Red Man Laughing is his most popular podcast, with a listening audience of about 10,000 by 2017.[23] In it he uses humor to tackle such heavy subjects as settler colonialism and racism,[24]:164 including Season 5, which was devoted entirely to the topic of Canadian reconciliation.[25] McMahon did an hour-long comedy special called Reconcili-Nation that toured in 2015.[26] In her 2017 book entitled As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson cited an episode in McMahon's podcast series. She described how she had been reminded of his show as she drove home from an interview with Naomi Klein about Klein’s book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate where Klein had focused on "extractivism".[25][27] Simpson recalled the words of Nipissing elders on Red Man Laughing describing how the word creation—a source of respect—was transformed into resources to be exploited, changing the people into capitalists "even with our fishing and hunting" and changing the education into a process to "move our people into the middle class, away from Nishnaabewin".[25][27] In 2017, CBC aired Red Man Laughing's podcast on reconciliation in a series of podcasts for Canada 150.[28][29] McMahon went on tour for his ninth season early in 2020 and focused on the topics of "laughter as medicine" and using comedy to "deconstruct stereotypes".[30]

In 2016, McMahon began to co-host Canadaland's political show, The Commons.[31] In response to a youth suicide prevention summit held in Thunder Bay in 2014 where McMahon learned that Thunder Bay was one of the "most dangerous places in the world" for the Indigenous youth who come there to attend high school from isolated northern communities,[31] McMahon proposed a series on Thunder Bay to Jesse Brown (journalist), Canadaland founder. The series was intended to resemble the American National Public Radio (NPR) "longform storytelling model". They launched a fundraiser and surpassed their goal of about C$27,800 a month from supporters.[32] McMahon spent six months interviewing people in Thunder Bay for the story.[33] The first episode of the five part series, Thunder Bay, " There Is A Town In North Ontario" was aired on October 22, 2018.[34][35] Thunder Bay was informed in part by Toronto Star reporter Tanya Talaga's award-winning book Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City, which investigated the deaths of seven Indigenous youths in Thunder Bay, Ontario.[36][37][38]

According to a Canadian Press article, by July 2019, McMahon, Jesse Brown, and Northwood Entertainment's Miranda de Pencier were working together to develop the Thunder Bay podcast into a television drama series.[39]

Articles

McMahon has written articles for Vice News,[40][41][42][43][44] and The Globe and Mail.[45] The speech that McMahon presented at The Walrus Talks Success event on September 20, 2018 in Toronto, was published as an article in Walrus magazine.[4]

Activism

In a 2015 interview with Rabble, McMahon said that the Idle No More movement was a turning point for him. By that time, he had 20,000 listeners to his Red Man Laughing podcasts, and he decided to use his platform to support Idle No More[1]—a grassroots movement for indigenous rights founded in December 2012 by three First Nations women and one non-Native ally,[46] In December 2012, McMahon was a guest on Revolutions Per Minute—a music platform that supports Indigenous musicians—McMahon described the role of the round dances that had surfaced in numerous public spaces in Canada and the United States in support of the protest.[1] In a 2013 podcast shortly after the Idle No More movement had been launched, McMahon said that, for Anishinaabe, everything you do is political.[47]

A 2015 article in the Canadian Journal of Communication described McMahon as a powerful cultural influencer. Researchers at the University of British Columbia who analyzed Twitter discussions of the Idle No More movement found that, at its peak—in December 2012 and January 2013—McMahon was the tenth most-retweeted celebrity.[48] Since 2015 he has been an occasional columnist for Vice magazine, writing about Canadian-First Nations politics.

On May 26, 2017, as Canada prepared for its sesquicentennial, McMahon's series, entitled 2 Steps to Decolonizing Canada, aired on CBC Radio' Day 6. In it, McMahon charted a "course for the next 150 years" to avoid the mistakes of the previous 150 years in terms of Canada's relationship to indigenous people.[49] The show received the Sam Ross award for Opinion and Commentary at the 2018 RTDNA awards. He also refused to attend any of the celebrations surrounding the 150th anniversary, according to the non-fiction book 150 Years of Canada: Grappling with Diversity since 1867.[50]

In a June 7, 2019 CBC radio interview, McMahon discussed the June 3 release of the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls[51][52] and the disappointing response to the report by the media.[53]

In June 2020, CBC recommended McMahon's "Colonization Road", as one of ten documentaries by Indigenous "activists" who are "advocating for change."[54]

References
  1. "The Round Dance Revolution: Idle No More". Revolutions Per Minute. December 20, 2012. Retrieved October 2, 2020. "Ryan McMahon is an Ojibwe/Métis comedian, actor and writer hailing from Couchiching First Nation.
  2. Daubs, Katie (October 1, 2020). "The man behind the satirical Walking Eagle News finally says the things he never could as a journalist". The Toronto Star. Retrieved October 2, 2020. s Ryan McMahon, a comedian, podcaster and writer who is Anishinaabe
  3. Carleton, Sean (March 22, 2016). "Changing the world with comedy". Canadian Dimension. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  4. McMahon, Ryan (September 25, 2018). "Success". The Walrus. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
  5. Ryan McMahon (comedian) (May 2010). Welcome To Turtle Island Too. CBC Television & Radio, Corkscrew Media, and Story Ark Productions. St. Albert, Alberta. Event occurs at 9:04. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  6. "15 Canadian comedians to watch in 2019". CBC. June 28, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2020. McMahon is an "seasoned" "Anishinaabe comedian, writer, media maker & community activator based out of Treaty #1 territory (Winnipeg, MB)"whose delightful storytelling style examines Indian Country & the mainstream."
  7. Blackburn, Mark (July 26, 2012). "Rising star comedian Ryan McMahon in Montreal just for laughs". APTN News. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  8. "Clarence Two Toes YouTube channel". Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  9. "Ryan McMahon aka Clarence Two Toes' New Comedy Album". RPM: Revolutions per Minute. October 25, 2011.
  10. Wheeler, Brad (January 12, 2017). "What comedian Ryan McMahon is hearing, reading and looking forward to". The Globe And Mail. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  11. "Colonization Road". CBC Firsthand. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. June 17, 2019.
  12. Nîtôtemtik, Tansi (October 17, 2019). "In the Media: Thunder Bay Podcast's Ryan McMahon Talks Canada's Reaction to the National Inquiry". Faculty Blog. University of Alberta. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  13. Carleton University Featured speakers. Indigenous Research Ethics Institute
  14. Nair, Roshini (October 6, 2015). "Indian and Cowboy lays the foundation for an Indigenous media revolution". Rabble. Retrieved May 28, 2020. Ryan McMahon is an Anishinaabe comedian and writer and founder of Indian and Cowboy, an Indigenous multimedia network. The network, which features some of the most creative podcasts on the web, has its one-year anniversary on October 6, 2015.
  15. "How Red Man Laughing Got Serious About Reconciliation". CBC Radio. July 10, 2017. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  16. Gillmore, Meagan (2017-06-30). "Ryan McMahon has big plans for his Indigenous media platform Indian & Cowboy". JSource. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  17. "9 Great Podcasts Hosted By Indigenous Women - FLARE". www.flare.com. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  18. "Welcome to Paste's New Home for Coverage of All Things Podcast: The Pod People". pastemagazine.com. 2017-01-13. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  19. "Podcasting From The Land". _EDGE. 2015-12-15. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  20. "Podcasting goes to school". University Affairs. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  21. Vansynghel, Margo. "New Tacoma-based podcast turns the volume up on Native voices | Crosscut". crosscut.com. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  22. Romaniuk, Colleen (November 6, 2019). "Indigenous media company aims to tell traditional stories". Northern Ontario Business. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
  23. Craig, Sean (January 6, 2017). "Indigenous media audiences are bigger than ever, but profits remain elusive". The Financial Post. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  24. Brady, Miranda J.; Kelly, John M. H. (2017). We Interrupt This Program: Indigenous Media Tactics in Canadian Culture. UBC Press. ISBN 978-0774835084. Back cover: "We Interrupt This Program highlights the urgent need to centre Indigenous voices in Canada. For too long, Canada’s settler myths have gone unchecked. It’s time to hear Indigenous people say, from the top of our lungs, “We’re still here! We’ve always been here! We’ll always be here! ... And these are our stories. Ryan McMahon, comedian, writer, media maker, and community activator
  25. Simpson, Leanna Betasamosake (2017). As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance. U of Minnesota P.
  26. "Ryan McMahon's storytelling uses humour to build awareness". March 6, 2015.
  27. MacRae, Gavin (April 23, 2019). "As We Have Always Done: Nishnaabeg Anticapitalism". Watershed Sentinel. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  28. "Made in Canada: podcasts for Canada 150". CBC Radio. June 30, 2017. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  29. How Red Man Laughing Got Serious About Reconciliation. CBC Radio. July 10, 2017. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  30. MacIntyre, Chris (2020-01-31). "'Laughter is medicine': Ryan McMahon on using comedy to deconstruct stereotypes". APTN News. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  31. Salmi, Kirsti (December 31, 2017). "Canadaland Turns Podcasting Perspective to TBay". Thunder Bay, Ontario: The Walleye Magazine. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  32. McIntosh, Emma (February 15, 2018). "What's next for Canadaland's Thunder Bay podcast?". Ryerson Review of Journalism. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  33. Dennis Ward (interviewer), Ryan McMahon (guest) (January 8, 2019). Fighting for Indigenous youth, shining a light on a broken system. APTN News. Face to Face. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  34. McMahon, Ryan (October 22, 2018). "Chapter 1: There Is A Town In North Ontario". Thunder Bay. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  35. "Thunder Bay". October 22, 2018. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  36. Patrick, Ryan (January 8, 2018). "Why Tanya Talaga wrote a book about the lives and deaths of 7 Indigenous students in Thunder Bay". CBC.
  37. Wilson, Kim. "Murder Bay: Investigations into the deaths of Indigenous youth". Canadian Dimension.
  38. "Chapter 2: Clowns". www.canadalandshow.com. Retrieved 2019-12-12.
  39. Bresge, Adina (July 11, 2019). "Canadaland's 'Thunder Bay' podcast about deaths of Indigenous youth to be adapted for TV". The Canadian Press via Global News. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  40. McMahon, Ryan (October 23, 2015). "Here's Why, as an Indigenous Person, I Voted for Trudeau in the Canadian Election". Vice.
  41. McMahon, Ryan (January 11, 2016). "Indigenous People's Stories Need More than Just Leonardo DiCaprio's Speech". Vice. Ryan is an Anishinaabe/Metis comedian and writer based out of Treaty #1 territory (Winnipeg, Canada).
  42. "A message for Leonardo DiCaprio: indigenous actors need more than just a shout-out". The 180. January 15, 2016. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  43. McMahon, Ryan (January 29, 2017). "Happy Birthday, Canada. Sorry, We're Still Here". Vice.
  44. McMahon, Ryan (March 9, 2017). "Here's What Indigenous Nationhood Could Look Like in Canada--in the Year 2167". Vice.
  45. McMahon, Ryan (December 14, 2018). "It all happened in the shadow of the death of Braiden Jacob". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  46. Aulakh, Raveena (December 25, 2012). "Chief Theresa Spence's liquid diet has full backing of Attawapiskat residents". Toronto: theStar.com. Retrieved December 27, 2012.
  47. McMahon, Ryan (January 1, 2013). "Everything you do is political, you're Anishinaabe. OR, What Idle No More is to me". Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  48. Callison, Candis; Hermida, Alfred (2015). "Dissent and Resonance: #IdleNoMore as an Emergent Ground". Canadian Journal of Communication. 40: 695–715.
  49. Vermes, Jason (June 23, 2018). "Ryan McMahon's 12-step guide to decolonizing Canada". CBC Radio. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  50. Lehmkuhl, Ursula; Tutschek, Elisabeth (2020). 150 Years of Canada: Grappling with Diversity since 1867. Waxman Verlag. p. 124. ISBN 9783830991243.
  51. Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (PDF) (Report). 1a. p. 728. ISBN 978-0-660-29274-8. CP32-163/2-1-2019E-PDF
  52. Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (PDF) (Report). 1b. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-660-30489-2. CP32-163/2-2-2019E
  53. New report, same old response: Ryan McMahon confronts Canada’s reaction to the MMIWG inquiry. CBC Radio. June 7, 2019.
  54. "10 docs on Indigenous life in Canada: these Indigenous activists are advocating for change". CBC News. CBC Documentaries. June 11, 2020. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
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