The Underground Comedy Railroad tour lets Canada know: Black comedians exist and deserve to be supported. It’s the first and only all Black Canadian comedy tour and, for the last 11 years, has had Canadians giggling from Halifax to Ottawa.
“I don’t know if you know a lot about Scotland. The castles are not enough to make you want to stay. Scotland, in my opinion, is U.K. Detroit,” headliner Tamara Shevon told a crowd of 100 people as red fluorescent lights danced across her face.
“We created because the end of the Underground Railroad was in Canada,” creator and host Daniel Woodrow said, referring to the network of routes and safe houses that Black Americans used to escape slavery during the 19th century. “And we joke that we are bringing the Underground Comedy Railroad across Canada to cities and towns that don’t normally have Black or ethnic comedians at all.”
Shevon met Woodrow while she was familiarizing herself with Toronto’s comedy scene. Three years ago, he asked her to go to Ottawa and host the Underground Comedy Railroad show there. In her last touring experience, with the Irritable & Confused Comedy Tour, she was the only Black person in the cast. “Do you lean into who you are as a Black performer or would that turn people off because they’re going to be offended?” said Shevon. “Part of me feels like, why should I even have to explain or cater to them? I grew up in white suburbia and I was the only Black person on the street. I have to unwork the logic of being ‘too Black.’”
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