Ben Seabrook

Comedian Janelle Niles brings Indigenous comedians together to form Got Land? which has gone from a pub in Ottawa to touring the country in five years’ time 

With a lack of diversity in the comedy scene, there weren’t many Indigenous comedians getting stage time in Ottawa. Janelle Niles, a Black and Mi’kmaq comedian from Nova Scotia, was inspired to bring people together and founded Got Land?, an Indigenous comedy group, to spread the word of Indigenous comedians in Canada. 

Got Land? started as a smaller group of comics who premiered at Eddy’s Diner on Bank Street in 2019. They have since travelled across Canada and gone up from eight comedians to about 35, according to Niles. 

Got Land? did a show at Algonquin College in the Observatory on Jan. 22 for Bell Let’s Talk Day. They tackled some tough topics, including trauma-related stories, while carefully balancing it with humour. 

“There’s a line, and as comedians we dance on that line but what we want to do is create that tension and break it,” Niles said. “When we do that sometimes it actually is healing, and it alleviates some trauma.” 

Comedians who performed at the show include Hezron Muckpaloo and the Aboriginal Outlaws podcast group; Wil SUGARBEAR, Joshua Sargent and John Bigtree, at different times. 

“What does an Inuit man and a plumber have in common? They both like a tight seal,” said Muckpaloo on stage. 

Jenn Hayward, Metis comedian of 30 years, hosted the show. She’s been a mentor of Niles since the beginning and helped her with little things, including how to incorporate and how to market. 

“I’d like to see her [Niles] break out into full-time world travelling with ASN, that she can hire someone to actually run the Got Land? brand for her, and that she’s just there doing what she does,” Hayward said. “That would be my ideal but, in the end, it’s Janelle’s baby.” 

Niles said Indigenous comedians face lateral violence from what Hayward called “white, fragile egos” who have this defeatist mentality and will tear people down because they are succeeding in different ways than they are. 

“Our progress isn’t their failure, and we want to inspire the youth, be able to become business owners or comedians or entertainers or whatever,” Niles said. 

The most important thing about being a comedian according to Niles is to do it as yourself. She says this from experience as she tried too hard to be what she thought the audience would want from her at first. 

Niles recalled Canadian comedian John Wing Jr. at a Got Land? show in Iqaluit a couple years after its inception, saying: “I want to see Janelle up there. I don’t see Janelle; I see this weird character.” This moment taught her a valuable lesson which has stuck with her in her comedy routine ever since. 

“Don’t wear the wig,” Niles said. “Be your authentic self.”