Laugh Riot: comic Brendan D'Souza on being part of a diverse, hilarious line-up

9 June 2019

Who says that activism, and Pride, can't be funny? Comedian Brendan D'Souza is on the bill for Laugh Riot, an event billed as "a celebration of us, and of those who sacrificed so much so that we could live and laugh loudly and proudly today . . . Though our show is a celebration, we do not want our audience to forget that Pride started as a riot, and when we celebrate our community that fact should never leave our minds."

D'Souza is happy to explain, "It's a variety show. The majority of the show is stand-up but, because it's a variety show, the acts that are performing music or burlesque are showcasing what they do with their medium. We also have a news desk with segments where we recap the queer news of the last year. Stand-up is typically something that queer people haven't had a huge market in. It's about showcasing what we're capable of. There are so many incredible things happening in the community and all of that is coming together in one spectacular showcase. There's so much going on here that people need to see."

Laugh Riot is curated by head producer Susan Waycik and Chanty Marotisca. "When Chanty started Queer and Present Danger, it started with a show called The Up + Comers," says D'Souza. "The idea was to give up and coming queer comedians a space to come together and grow. Because we've been doing that for a year and a half, going on two years, we've been able to grow as a community, support each other and help each other out. As we grow in our numbers, we  grow stronger in our abilities, in what we're presenting, the art we're creating. We're also creating more spaces to experiment more with what we can do in comedy."

D'Souza says that being a gay or queer comic "has become increasingly less relevant. Audiences want to hear more diverse voices." He says there are also more POC who are comics but "there are very few queer males of colour in comedy. As a queer man of colour," D'Souza is driven to perform so that "another will see themself," in a way that D'Souza rarely did. 

Laugh Riot is indeed a rainbow of comedy. "We've got trans performers, we've got POC performers, we've got everybody who encapsulates the queer community," say D'Souza. "The idea is to give opportunities to diverse voices, to show diverse audiences themselves onstage as they haven't had the chance to be visible. Susan and Chanty worked together to find a line-up that was diverse but would also showcase the best of our communities."

And it is exciting to be at Buddies which D'Souza calls "a spearhead of the queer arts." And a mainstream queer space. "Since last February there's been a boom in this community and we've done well on our own, but we really need the support of the community outside of comedians to lift us up and galvanize what we're doing. We're gaining traction."

The diverse line-up has some highlights for D'Souza though he notes that the show is "packed with up and comers" and headliner Brandon Ash-Mohammed. He's looking forward to seeing the other headliner, Kyle Brownrigg, who "is one of the five Yuk Yuk's billed gays in the country. Meg McKay, who I'm obsessed with, I don't know how to describe it but she's mesmerizing. Chanty is the first trans person to do . . . well, everything. And Bee Bertrand does an excellent form of stand-up, a storytelling thing that I can't completely describe, you really have to see it. It's something very special to Bee, to talk about it is to give it away."

D'Souza is surprisingly modest for a comic who has become a renowned stand-up artist, and also has a production company planning to change "what the format of a stand-up show can be." To that end they created The Wake for Avril Lavigne: A Part of the Problem Comedy Show. Though it was "not your average comedy show," D'Souza insists that "I personally do very traditional stand-up. I have a theatre school background, but that was telling other people's stories. My stand-up is experience based, everything comes from my lived experience. I'm not good at observational humour. I tell my stories and make them funny."

While being very passionate about inclusion, creating spaces and crediting other comedians, D'Souza hasn't been particularly funny during the interview. He agrees to tell his favourite joke, one that always gets a laugh. That slays. It's also, he insists, the only racy joke in his repertoire, he works clean. He clears his throat and then, with flawless timing, intones, "The worst thing is to find out that the guy whose dick you are sucking is a racist."

Activism, Pride and a laugh riot.