Vanessa Finney: In a renowned book called Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto, the historian Vine Deloria Jr. included an essay titled 鈥淚ndian Humor.鈥� In the essay, Deloria - who was a Standing Rock Sioux - talks about the so-called Indian jokes canon and wrote, 鈥淥ne of the best ways to understand a people is to know what makes them laugh. In humor, life is redefined and accepted. Irony and satire provide much keener insights into a group鈥檚 collective psyche and values than years of research do.鈥�
On August 30, the Ross Ragland Theater in Klamath Falls will offer insights into Native American culture and humor, when they present 鈥淣ative Comedy Allstars鈥� with three stand-up comics: Vaughn Eaglebear, Gilbert Brown, and my guest today: California resident Marc Yaffee. I鈥檒l let him introduce himself with this clip from his act.
[Clip of 鈥淏argain Hunter Gatherer鈥漖
I was an embarrassingly big baby at birth, I weighed 11 pounds, five ounces. Worst part was: 11 pound head, five ounce body. I was a globe on a Qtip. But my mom had an easy delivery because I'm adopted. Navajo, adopted by a Mexican mother and a Jewish father. I'm a bargain-hunter-gatherer.
VF: So Mark, welcome to The Creative way.
MARC YAFFEE: Vanessa, thank you for having me, and hello Southern Oregon, Northern California, everyone out in your radio audience. Good to be on the show.
VF: So let's start with the fact that you were 25 when you learned about your Native American heritage. How did that affect you?
MY: Well, everyone always said, 鈥淥h, you must be native. You鈥檙e a little dark-skinned kid.鈥� They suspected, but I wasn't surprised, I was pretty excited. And it was kind of melancholy, if that's the right word, because my birth mother was a teen mother who gave me up for adoption. And my birth father's family, she tried to reach out to them, and they were not interested in sharing any information because of his criminal activities and incarceration, things like that. So it was kind of a bittersweet thing, but it was pretty fulfilling to know that and to connect with the native culture and have this journey.
VF: Did you embark on this whole learning journey?
MY: Well, I would say 鈥渆mbark鈥� was probably not the right term. I'm not that organized or focused, unfortunately. But, you know, I did start asking questions, and I got to go down to the Navajo reservation where my relatives are from and meet a lot of natives - especially when it all kind of melded together, when comedy happened. I鈥檇 say that鈥檚 how that transpired. And I met Vaughn Eaglebear, one of our other comedians on the show in Spokane, and we just hit it off. Vaughn is Colville Lakota, and we started talking like, 鈥淥h, we should do a native comedy tour. And, you know, and I've always been a little bit of the fish out of water since I wasn't raised in the tradition, but sheesh, 22, 23 years later on the road doing reservations and casinos and tribal events - you learn a lot by osmosis. You certainly learn a lot by just the humor on the ground in Indian country, because it's true what Vine Deloria said, that you learn a lot about the culture from the way the humor is presented and shared, and the ability to laugh through hard times and difficulties.
VF: And you weren't just a late comer to your own heritage. You were sort of a late comer to comedy. I think I read that you attended a workshop in your late 30s. Were you about 38 when you went to this workshop in Sacramento? What drew you to that in the first place?
MY: Basically what happened was, the short version is, I was a DMV driving examiner in California. I used to give driving tests to new drivers, and I opened a driving school. I wanted to get out of the government work, and I started teaching defensive driver classes. And people all said, 鈥淵ou're really funny.鈥� They liked my sense of humor. So I went to try to hire some comedians to teach some more of my classes. It鈥檚 a way to increase the student base and I ended up taking this course and ended up getting on stage one night, and just took off from there. I鈥檇 always thought about doing comedy, but I didn't really think it would morph into this. You know, doing this full time for - not the full 25 years, but for the last 19, 20 years.
VF: So what's your process for coming up with jokes? You're sort of an observational style.
MY: I am. I'm not a storyteller, that's for sure. I just think I was raised in that kind of, that one-liner, premise, setup, punchline. I try to pretty much just listen, just to run them out in public, and just kind of spend some quiet time with my thoughts, to try to let things percolate, especially after I've done a week at a comedy club or a casino. Usually, stuff will just start popping up. But I wouldn't say I have the Jerry Seinfeld method, where you're sitting down writing five hours a day, although that would probably be nice if I did spend some more time, but I think it's a little more organic. I do try to write something every day, just free hand - just freestyle with whatever comes up the page. But it's pretty much that I just try to be a little bit of a sponge and let it come to me, because I know what's out there.
VF: And looking at the big picture, comedy is a great way to sort of process your own experiences. But just to zoom out a little bit, how do you see the role of comedy in general, and also native comedy in particular. What's that role in society today?
MY: Well, in general, I think comedy's been good overall, has been a positive. You know, we have some controversy over certain comics and topics and trends in comedy that have sparked a lot of friction, but overall, I think comedy's been a great unifier. And that's why I love doing stand-up, especially when it's a native theme show and non-natives show up. There's still that stereotype that persists of the stoic natives, and they think people like Indians don't have a sense of humor and they're serious. And man, collectively as a group, I've been around a lot of different ethnicities and cultures in my life. I have been fortunate to travel and stuff, and I think natives have the ability to just have fun and not take things too seriously. Or take things seriously, but at the same time, put a lighter perspective on these things, to kind of get through it. So I think that I look at comedy as unifying. Some people say it's divisive, and it depends on the comic. But my goal is to get everyone to see at the end of the day that we all have that need to laugh. We all have that need to connect as human beings, no matter what our background is and our cultures. And I think laughter, I can't think of a better way to do it, at least for me, personally.
VF: Wonderful. Why don't you tell us about your podcast?
MY: Well my podcast has been on a little bit of a hiatus. It was called, 鈥淗ow Does That happen?鈥� I've been interviewing these unusual record holders. I interviewed Sammy Obeid, who was a stand-up comic who did 1,003 consecutive nights of comedy in a row. So just people who will pursue unusual avenues and what their process is. I've always enjoyed that. Right now, a friend of mine and I - she's a ship comedian who goes by Just June as her stage name - we're working on a podcast about Alzheimer's and dementia, because we both have parents that are dealing with that. And again, people might say, 鈥淲ell, that doesn't sound right.鈥� But we want to put a little bit of a comedic look at what's going on with such a serious subject, where pain leads to comedy, and how you get through such a debilitating disease for a loved one. And how you have to try to find some humor in it when you can, and share the adversity that you're going through and hopefully help other people process that.
VF: So, your upcoming show this month at the Ross Ragland theater is in Klamath Falls, and like a lot of Oregon, they've been having very smoky weather. Do you have any jokes prepared on wildfire smoke?
MY: You know what? I need to work on something. I just did a show in Chinook Winds. I drove up from Reno to Lincoln City, and you do that diagonal cut across the state, and I pretty much needed a respirator and night goggles to get through some of that smoke. It was rough. I know you guys are going through it this summer. And yeah, hopefully, we get a little clearer weather when I get there. I don't want to drive by the theater!
VF: So, speaking of touring, you got into comedy late, but since you started, you've performed in 43 states and 11 countries. What are some standout experiences you've had on the road?
MY: Wow, yeah, I don't know if this is probably not an official record, but I think I'm the only comic that's got air, land and sea credits performing. Like you said, 43 states, 11 countries. I do cruise lines - Holland America, Carnival - and then I did a show at 30,000 feet for some Alaska Airlines passengers. Gilbert Brown and I were going to Alaska, and we were able to promote our show on the flight. He went up there and asked if we could mention it. And then they said, 鈥淲ell, tell your friend to come up and tell some jokes.鈥� I think some people thought the pilot had been drinking when they listened to some of my material.
VF: That's fun. What's the best response you've ever gotten?
MY: There's probably the best versus the most gratifying. I'd say probably the best response to me was I got to do an Armed Forces entertainment tour in Iraq on the back of a flatbed out in the middle of the Al Anbar Province in the desert for some Marines at a Florida operating base. That's all they had was the big truck spotlights and some small speakers. And then when I was up there, I shaved my head off, my hair off when I was hope I didn't shave my head off. Yeah, I shaved my hair off for the Marines there. They'd had some difficulties there. So, oh yeah, we'll try to boost some morale. And that was, that was a surreal experience. So I think that was probably the most memorable moment I had in comedy, for sure.
VF: Oh, that does sound memorable. Great. And when you perform in Oregon, in Klamath Falls on August 30, you're going to be performing with two other comics, Vaughn Eagle, bear and Gilbert brown. So what could we expect from that show? I gather you perform together.
MY: Yeah, we're all friends. We've done a number of shows together. Vaughn and I have toured together probably since 2004 on and off, pretty consistently. We had a tour Pow Wow Comedy Jam for a number of years. We did a Showtime special called Going Native together with some other indigenous comics. And then I met Gilbert at a comedy club in Portland. That was 20 years ago, and we've done shows ever since. So it's fun just getting together, the camaraderie you're working with your friends. A lot of times you're just sent to a comedy club or go to a cruise ship. You don't know who you're going to work with. It's just kind of comedy roulette. So here we were able to, thanks to Jimmy Turner of Retro Records. Shout out to Jimmy! Spoke with Curtis at Ross Ragland, and helped put the show together and let us pick our lineup.
So Vaughn: super funny one-liners. I don't know if you're familiar with the comedian Stephen Wright, or Mitch Hedberg, some older style comics. Very funny guy. Gilbert, more of a storyteller, big personality. So I like that. And also, from Chiloquin originally. So he's, I think he's enrolled in Modoc down there. So he's got a lot of family and friends down there, which is going to be fun for him. But I like it because it's three different, very distinct styles, but we got that, you know, this the same undercurrent of, hey, let's, let's, let's have some fun. Let's, let's do a little bit of a Native perspective on comedy and maybe something people don't get to see every day, yeah, especially in a comedy club setting or theater setting.
VF: Well, it's a funny trio, for sure. Tell us how we can get tickets.
MY: Well, folks can go in person to Retro Room Records in Klamath Falls and buy their tickets there or online at ragland.org.
VF: Terrific. Thanks for joining me today. Mark Yaffee, it was a pleasure.
MY: Thank you so much, Vanessa.
