Comedian entertains Rocky Boy attendees

Tito Ybarra, a comic and enrolled member of the Red Band of the Ojibwe, put on a high-energy, hour-long performance at Stone Child College's Little Bear Gymnasium Thursday night for residents of Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation.

Ybarra's performance included impressions as well as elements of raw improvisational and slapstick comedy aided by props. Throughout the course of his show, the heavy-set performer mocked his own appearance, and touched on other topics including sex and relationships, and made light of some aspects of American Indian culture.

"And any elders, I just want you to know this is plastic," he said holding up a hand drum. "No spirits in here alright? No animals were harmed in the making of this drum, all right?"

The event was organized by the Chippewa Cree Tribe, Student Retention Services. Temporary Assistance Needy Families - TANF - and the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, which covered the cost of the show.

Paulette Standing Rock, a language specialist with the American Indian Administration program at Stone Child, said she invited Ybarra to come to Rocky Boy for a show during the college's orientation.

This year, during their student orientation, Stone Child wanted to not only inform new students but also entertain them at the college's orientation for new students Wednesday, she said.

Ybarra gave a second performance, for the entire community, Thursday night.

"We're doing something different this year, 'cause usually it's just orientations for students," Standing Rock said.

Before the show, members of the audience dined on a free dinner of menudo as well as chicken and rice soup provided by organizers, as children ran around in the bleachers.

Ybarra said during an interview that he has performed mostly before Native audiences at powwows, casinos and tribal programs.

He said he is trying to broaden his appeal with topics that can also appeal to a non-Native audience.

"I am a Native who just so happens to do comedy, not a Native comedian," Ybarra said.

He said the label is too limiting

Ybarra said when he was in school he was always the class clown and was inspired in part by the comedy of the late comic Charlie Hill, one of the few Native comics who was able to make the leap into mainstream comedy.  

Ybarra said he regularly had people tell him he could do standup comedy.

A former powwow singer from Minneapolis, Ybarra said he first did standup comedy at the Haskell Auditorium in Lawrence, Kansas, in 2010. He has performed standup comedy ever since.

After losing a job, Ybarra said, he was out on the powwow circuit where he and some friends made a DVD featuring several characters he created while singing at different powwow celebrations.

In all, he said, he developed some 13 characters, but there are only about three that he uses in his regular act, Larry T. Baskin, Uncle Beargrease and "the way too personal internet hand drum dude."

Ybarra said he thinks there are few Native stand-up comics partly because some of the issues, such as sex, are topics that are seen as too edgy for many Natives.

Ybarra said that while Natives often let loose with each other, they are less open with non-Natives.

He said the number of Native stand-up comedians are growing, especially in the West. And while they may have not gone mainstream yet, they need to take advantage of every opportunity they can get to market themselves and get exposure.

Ybarra said humor can help Natives empower themselves by giving them a vehicle to leave their comfort zone, which comedy has allowed him to do.

"If they can come out of their comfort zone to do comedy, they can tell the world what they want and achieve it," he said.

But comedy can also be a catalyst for major social change, he said, such as the often-contentious issue of race and past injustice committed against Natives. He said that through comedy he has brought up issues that white audiences he has performed before might not otherwise know about.

"And I was able to bring to light some of the things that are done to us that the other races do, but it was in a way where they laugh," Ybarra said.

Ybarra has a serious side as well. Recently, he camped out with members of the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota who are protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, an oil pipeline being built through the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation treaty land, but is being done without consultation of the tribe.

The issue has galvanized American Indians from multiple tribes in recent weeks who have shown their support on social media.

Ybarra said tribes are concerned that construction of pipelines like the Dakota Access Pipeline could damage sacred tribal sites and pipeline breaks could contaminate water supplies.

He urges others to show their support and even travel to the site where demonstrations are happening.

"It's not just a protest, it's a very powerful experience," he said.