![\"\"](\"https:\/\/seattle2018.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/savannah_photos_edited-3-1024x682.jpg\")
Pawnee comic Howie Echo-Hawk calls his comedy confrontational and antagonistic and many of his jokes focus on Native trauma and genocide. \u201cI think it\u2019s funny to see these people get so uncomfortable about something that did not happen to them.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n
The basement lounge he\u2019s performing in has been dubbed \u201cThe Grotto,\u201d and it feels like one. It\u2019s cramped. The air is stale. The audience members, made up mostly of white people, shift in their seats.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery morning when I wake up and go outside, I recognize that this might as well be the zombie apocalypse for Native people,\u201d Echo-Hawk says. \u201cY\u2019all might as well be zombies.\u201d<\/p>\n
One woman close to the stage lets out a laugh, but quickly stifles it. Her friend turns her attention towards her phone, then her drink. Most comics would call this a bomb. On stage, Echo-Hawk is beaming.<\/p>\n
A citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, Howie Echo-Hawk, 28, has been making people laugh all his life. But after the 2016 election, he was compelled to confront what he calls white liberal audiences with his \u201cpunishment comedy.\u201d Set after set, he seeks to agitate and even irritate with jokes, stories, and dispatches from life as an Indigenous man in America.<\/p>\n
Reactions range from anxious laughter to full-blown crying, and that\u2019s exactly what Echo-Hawk wants.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fun for me to see them squirm,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause in mainstream colonizer-America, I\u2019m pretty much constantly squirming, so to put that back on them for a couple of minutes is just fine for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/seattle2018.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/savannah_photos_edited-1-1024x682.jpg\")
Howie Echo-Hawk waits with other stand-up comedians to perform his set at The Rendezvous in Seattle, Washington.<\/p><\/div>\n
Echo-Hawk says he knows of maybe two Indigenous comics, including himself, who perform in Seattle \u2014\u00a0 a scene dominated primarily by white comics. But he doesn\u2019t think audiences should be surprised to see Native people on an open-mic stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not an illusion, folks, this is another Indigenous comedian,\u201d says Danny Littlejohn<\/a> as he steps up to the mic.<\/p>\n After the show, Echo-Hawk and Littlejohn workshop the joke.<\/p>\n \u201cYou should have said that we\u2019re not brothers,\u201d says Echo-Hawk. \u201cThey probably assume that we\u2019re related.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMan, we probably are related,\u201d Littlejohn says.<\/p>\n Indigenous communities boast vibrant storytelling traditions that use humor as a tool of teaching and resilience. Take, for example, the story of Maushop, the Wampanoag giant who created the islands currently known as Martha\u2019s Vineyard and Nantucket by dumping his sandy moccasins out into the ocean. Or the Kiowa anti-hero Saynday who enlisted a cohort of plains animals to help him steal the sun.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a part of who we are,\u201d Echo-Hawk says. \u201cWe\u2019re very funny people.\u201d<\/p>\n Howie Echo-Hawk and Danny Littlejohn, another Indigenous comic in Seattle, chat between sets.<\/p><\/div>\n Adrianne Chalepah<\/a> is a Kiowa-Apache comic, and part of a touring stand-up act called Ladies of Native Comedy<\/a>. For her, telling jokes on stage is an inherently Kiowa act.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one of our favorite things to do,\u201d Chalepah says. \u201cWe sit around and we crack each other up.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s inspired by the stories women in her family told around the kitchen table, weaving in and out of English and Kiowa, when she was a little girl. She says those women could turn something tragic or somber into a cartoon \u2014 something to be laughed at and learned from.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can feel sometimes like our communities are in a constant state of mourning, like there aren\u2019t enough tears to cry about every single tragedy,\u201d Chalepah says. \u201cNative humor is part of why we survived genocide. It\u2019s allowing yourself to feel a little bit of joy in a moment that might otherwise break you.\u201d<\/p>\n Chalepah\u2019s material can be dark, like Echo-Hawk\u2019s, but never as confronting or antagonistic. Still, she says, some non-Native audiences aren\u2019t quite sure how to react. That uneasiness, she says, is a form of erasure. That\u2019s why she likes Echo-Hawk\u2019s delivery style.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s using his talent to confront subjects like our genocide, what most Americans would otherwise be complicit to forget and deny,\u201d Chalepah says.<\/p>\n Comedian Danny Littlejohn prepares for his set at The Rendezvous in downtown Seattle, Washington.<\/p><\/div>\n Echo-Hawk says his relationship with comedy is complicated. It\u2019s a release for him \u2014 a way to keep painful emotions and experiences from festering in his head. But it\u2019s also a source of frustration. He says the role can be tokenizing and taxing. He\u2019s only been at it for a year and a half, but he feels jaded already and says he thinks about leaving comedy.<\/p>\n Littlejohn can relate.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing an urban Indian comedian is rough,\u201d Littlejohn says. \u201cSo I\u2019m with Howie on that.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes, Littlejohn says he\u2019s frustrated that audiences need a history lesson just to understand his jokes. Sometimes, Littlejohn feels pitted against the handful of other Native comics trying to break into the industry.<\/p>\n Tonight, though, he and Echo-Hawk say they feel inspired by each-other\u2019s sets.<\/p>\n \u201cI would have killed to see a Native comedian on TV as a kid. I would\u2019ve loved that,\u201d Echo-Hawk says. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019m gonna get there, I don\u2019t even know if I wanna get there. But the idea that I could make that happen for somebody is great.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][et_pb_team_member _builder_version=”3.6″ name=”By Savannah Maher” image_url=”https:\/\/seattle2018.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/Savannah_Mehler-e1531244672125.jpg” \/][et_pb_audio _builder_version=”3.6″ title=”Listen to Howie Echo-Hawk perform his comedy” image_url=”https:\/\/seattle2018.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/savannah_photos_edited-5-1.jpg” audio=”https:\/\/seattle2018.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/Savannah_Howie.mp3″ \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.6″ disabled=”off” disabled_on=”||on”][et_pb_column type=”3_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.6″]<\/p>\n by Savannah Maher<\/em><\/p>\n Howie Echo-Hawk is halfway through his five-minute set at the Rendezvous bar in downtown Seattle. He has used the word \u201cgenocide\u201d six times.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a joke I keep telling because nobody laughs,\u201d he tells the crowd.<\/p>\n Pawnee comic Howie Echo-Hawk calls his comedy confrontational and antagonistic and many of his jokes focus on Native trauma and genocide. \u201cI think it\u2019s funny to see these people get so uncomfortable about something that did not happen to them.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n The basement lounge he\u2019s performing in has been dubbed \u201cThe Grotto,\u201d and it feels like one. It\u2019s cramped. The air is stale. The audience members, made up mostly of white people, shift in their seats.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery morning when I wake up and go outside, I recognize that this might as well be the zombie apocalypse for Native people,\u201d Echo-Hawk says. \u201cY\u2019all might as well be zombies.\u201d<\/p>\n One woman close to the stage lets out a laugh, but quickly stifles it. Her friend turns her attention towards her phone, then her drink. Most comics would call this a bomb. On stage, Echo-Hawk is beaming.<\/p>\n A citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, Howie Echo-Hawk, 28, has been making people laugh all his life. But after the 2016 election, he was compelled to confront what he calls white liberal audiences with his \u201cpunishment comedy.\u201d Set after set, he seeks to agitate and even irritate with jokes, stories, and dispatches from life as an Indigenous man in America.<\/p>\n Reactions range from anxious laughter to full-blown crying, and that\u2019s exactly what Echo-Hawk wants.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fun for me to see them squirm,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause in mainstream colonizer-America, I\u2019m pretty much constantly squirming, so to put that back on them for a couple of minutes is just fine for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Howie Echo-Hawk waits with other stand-up comedians to perform his set at The Rendezvous in Seattle, Washington.<\/p><\/div>\n Echo-Hawk says he knows of maybe two Indigenous comics, including himself, who perform in Seattle \u2014\u00a0 a scene dominated primarily by white comics. But he doesn\u2019t think audiences should be surprised to see Native people on an open-mic stage.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not an illusion, folks, this is another Indigenous comedian,\u201d says Danny Littlejohn<\/a> as he steps up to the mic.<\/p>\n After the show, Echo-Hawk and Littlejohn workshop the joke.<\/p>\n \u201cYou should have said that we\u2019re not brothers,\u201d says Echo-Hawk. \u201cThey probably assume that we\u2019re related.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMan, we probably are related,\u201d Littlejohn says.<\/p>\n Indigenous communities boast vibrant storytelling traditions that use humor as a tool of teaching and resilience. Take, for example, the story of Maushop, the Wampanoag giant who created the islands currently known as Martha\u2019s Vineyard and Nantucket by dumping his sandy moccasins out into the ocean. Or the Kiowa anti-hero Saynday who enlisted a cohort of plains animals to help him steal the sun.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a part of who we are,\u201d Echo-Hawk says. \u201cWe\u2019re very funny people.\u201d<\/p>\n Howie Echo-Hawk and Danny Littlejohn, another Indigenous comic in Seattle, chat between sets.<\/p><\/div>\n Adrianne Chalepah<\/a> is a Kiowa-Apache comic, and part of a touring stand-up act called Ladies of Native Comedy<\/a>. For her, telling jokes on stage is an inherently Kiowa act.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one of our favorite things to do,\u201d Chalepah says. \u201cWe sit around and we crack each other up.\u201d<\/p>\n She\u2019s inspired by the stories women in her family told around the kitchen table, weaving in and out of English and Kiowa, when she was a little girl. She says those women could turn something tragic or somber into a cartoon \u2014 something to be laughed at and learned from.<\/p>\n \u201cIt can feel sometimes like our communities are in a constant state of mourning, like there aren\u2019t enough tears to cry about every single tragedy,\u201d Chalepah says. \u201cNative humor is part of why we survived genocide. It\u2019s allowing yourself to feel a little bit of joy in a moment that might otherwise break you.\u201d<\/p>\n Chalepah\u2019s material can be dark, like Echo-Hawk\u2019s, but never as confronting or antagonistic. Still, she says, some non-Native audiences aren\u2019t quite sure how to react. That uneasiness, she says, is a form of erasure. That\u2019s why she likes Echo-Hawk\u2019s delivery style.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s using his talent to confront subjects like our genocide, what most Americans would otherwise be complicit to forget and deny,\u201d Chalepah says.<\/p>\n Comedian Danny Littlejohn prepares for his set at The Rendezvous in downtown Seattle, Washington.<\/p><\/div>\n Echo-Hawk says his relationship with comedy is complicated. It\u2019s a release for him \u2014 a way to keep painful emotions and experiences from festering in his head. But it\u2019s also a source of frustration. He says the role can be tokenizing and taxing. He\u2019s only been at it for a year and a half, but he feels jaded already and says he thinks about leaving comedy.<\/p>\n Littlejohn can relate.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing an urban Indian comedian is rough,\u201d Littlejohn says. \u201cSo I\u2019m with Howie on that.\u201d<\/p>\n Sometimes, Littlejohn says he\u2019s frustrated that audiences need a history lesson just to understand his jokes. Sometimes, Littlejohn feels pitted against the handful of other Native comics trying to break into the industry.<\/p>\n Tonight, though, he and Echo-Hawk say they feel inspired by each-other\u2019s sets.<\/p>\n \u201cI would have killed to see a Native comedian on TV as a kid. I would\u2019ve loved that,\u201d Echo-Hawk says. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019m gonna get there, I don\u2019t even know if I wanna get there. But the idea that I could make that happen for somebody is great.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_4″][et_pb_audio _builder_version=”3.6″ title=”Listen to Howie Echo-Hawk perform his comedy” image_url=”https:\/\/seattle2018.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/savannah_photos_edited-5-1.jpg” audio=”https:\/\/seattle2018.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/Savannah_Howie.mp3″ \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pawnee comic Howie Echo-Hawk wants to see you squirm Howie Echo-Hawk is halfway through his five-minute set at the Rendezvous bar in downtown Seattle. He has used the word \u201cgenocide\u201d six times. \u201cThis is a joke I keep telling because nobody laughs,\u201d he tells the crowd. The basement lounge he\u2019s performing in has been dubbed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" Howie Echo-Hawk is halfway through his five-minute set at the Rendezvous bar in downtown Seattle. He has used the word \u201cgenocide\u201d six times.<\/p> \u201cThis is a joke I keep telling because nobody laughs,\u201d he tells the crowd.<\/p>[caption id=\"attachment_204\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1024\"] The basement lounge he\u2019s performing in has been dubbed \u201cThe Grotto,\u201d and it feels like one. It\u2019s cramped. The air is stale. The audience members, made up mostly of white people, shift in their seats.<\/p> \u201cEvery morning when I wake up and go outside, I recognize that this might as well be the zombie apocalypse for Native people,\u201d Echo-Hawk says. \u201cY\u2019all might as well be zombies.\u201d<\/p> One woman close to the stage lets out a laugh, but quickly stifles it. Her friend turns her attention towards her phone, then her drink. Most comics would call this a bomb. On stage, Echo-Hawk is beaming.<\/p> A citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, Howie Echo-Hawk, 28, has been making people laugh all his life. But after the 2016 election, he was compelled to confront what he calls white liberal audiences with his \u201cpunishment comedy.\u201d Set after set, he seeks to agitate and even irritate with jokes, stories, and dispatches from life as an Indigenous man in America.<\/p> Reactions range from anxious laughter to full-blown crying, and that\u2019s exactly what Echo-Hawk wants.<\/p> \u201cIt\u2019s fun for me to see them squirm,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause in mainstream colonizer-America, I\u2019m pretty much constantly squirming, so to put that back on them for a couple of minutes is just fine for me.\u201d<\/p>[caption id=\"attachment_206\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1024\"] Echo-Hawk says he knows of maybe two Indigenous comics, including himself, who perform in Seattle \u2014\u00a0 a scene dominated primarily by white comics. But he doesn\u2019t think audiences should be surprised to Native people on an open-mic stage.<\/p> \u201cIt\u2019s not an illusion, folks, this is another Indigenous comedian,\u201d says Danny Littlejohn<\/a> as he steps up to the mic.<\/p> After the show, Echo-Hawk and Little John workshop the joke.<\/p> \u201cYou should have said that we\u2019re not brothers,\u201d says Echo-Hawk. \u201cThey probably assume that we\u2019re related.\u201d<\/p> \u201cMan, we probably are related,\u201d Littlejohn says.<\/p> Indigenous communities boast vibrant storytelling traditions that use humor as a tool of teaching and resilience. Take, for example, the story of Maushop, the Wampanoag giant who created the islands currently known as Martha\u2019s Vineyard and Nantucket by dumping his sandy moccasins out into the ocean. Or the Kiowa anti-hero Saynday who enlisted a cohort of plains animals to help him steal the sun.<\/p> \u201cIt\u2019s a part of who we are,\u201d Echo-Hawk says. \u201cWe\u2019re very funny people.\u201d<\/p>[caption id=\"attachment_205\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1024\"] Adrianne Chalepah<\/a> is a Kiowa-Apache comic, and part of a touring stand-up act called Ladies of Native Comedy<\/a>. For her, telling jokes on stage is an inherently Kiowa act.<\/p> \u201cThat\u2019s one of our favorite things to do,\u201d Chalepah says. \u201cWe sit around and we crack each other up.\u201d<\/p> She\u2019s inspired by the stories women in her family told around the kitchen table, weaving in and out of English and Kiowa, when she was a little girl. She says those women could turn something tragic or somber into a cartoon \u2014 something to be laughed at and learned from.<\/p> \u201cIt can feel sometimes like our communities are in a constant state of mourning, like there aren\u2019t enough tears to cry about every single tragedy,\u201d Chalepah says. \u201cNative humor is part of why we survived genocide. It\u2019s allowing yourself to feel a little bit of joy in a moment that might otherwise break you.\u201d<\/p> Chalepah\u2019s material can be dark, like Echo-Hawk\u2019s, but never as confronting or antagonistic. Still, she says, some non-Native audiences aren\u2019t quite sure how to react. That uneasiness, she says, is a form of erasure. That\u2019s why she likes Echo-Hawk\u2019s delivery style.<\/p> \u201cHe\u2019s using his talent to confront subjects like our genocide, what most Americans would otherwise be complicit to forget and deny,\u201d Chalepah says.<\/p>[caption id=\"attachment_203\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1024\"] Echo-Hawk says his relationship with comedy is complicated. It\u2019s a release for him \u2014 a way to keep painful emotions and experiences from festering in his head. But it\u2019s also a source of frustration. He says the role can be tokenizing and taxing. He\u2019s only been at it for a year and a half, but he feels jaded already and says he thinks about leaving comedy.<\/p> Littlejohn can relate.<\/p> \u201cBeing an urban Indian comedian is rough,\u201d Littlejohn says. \u201cSo I\u2019m with Howie on that.\u201d<\/p> Sometimes, Littlejohn says he\u2019s frustrated that audiences need a history lesson just to understand his jokes. Sometimes, Littlejohn feels pitted against the handful of other Native comics trying to break into the industry.<\/p> Tonight, though, he and Echo-Hawk say they feel inspired by each-other\u2019s sets.<\/p> \u201cI would have killed to see a Native comedian on TV as a kid. I would\u2019ve loved that,\u201d Echo-Hawk says. \u201cI don\u2019t know if I\u2019m gonna get there, I don\u2019t even know if I wanna get there. But the idea that I could make that happen for somebody is great.\u201d<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[5],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/seattle2018.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/savannah_photos_edited-2-1024x682.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/seattle2018.nextgenradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/savannah_photos_edited-4-1024x682.jpg\")
Pawnee comic Howie Echo-Hawk wants to see you squirm<\/h1>\n
Pawnee comic Howie Echo-Hawk wants to see you squirm<\/h1>
Pawnee comic Howie Echo-Hawk calls his comedy confrontational and antagonistic and many of his jokes focus on Native trauma and genocide. \u201cI think it\u2019s funny to see these people get so uncomfortable about something that did not happen to them.\u201d[\/caption] Howie Echo-Hawk waits with other stand-up comedians to perform his set at The Rendezvous in Seattle, Washington.[\/caption] Howie Echo-Hawk and Danny Littlejohn, another Indigenous comic in Seattle, chat between sets.[\/caption] Comedian Danny Littlejohn prepares for his set at The Rendezvous in downtown Seattle, Washington.[\/caption]