Ryan McMahon (comedian)

Ryan McMahon is an Anishinaabe comedian, podcaster, and writer from the Couchiching First Nation.[1][2] McMahon was born in Fort Frances, Ontario, the oldest of three siblings. McMahon was the first in his family to graduate from high school. He attended the University of Minnesota on a full hockey scholarship and graduated from the Second City Training Center.[3]

This article is about the comedian. For other people named Ryan McMahon, see Ryan McMahon.

Ryan McMahon
Born1977
MediumPodcast, stand-up, television
NationalityCouchiching First Nation, Canadian
Years active2006–present
Partner(s)Madeline Wilson Shaw
Notable works and rolesThunder Bay (podcast)
Websiteredmanlaughing.com

He was the host of the 2018 Canadaland podcast Thunder Bay, and its upcoming television documentary adaptation, also titled Thunder Bay.[4]

Early life and education

In his September 20, 2018 The Walrus Talks Success presentation in the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto, McMahon said that he was the oldest of four children and that he was the first person in his family to graduate from high school. McMahon completed his degree in theatre at the University of Minnesota.[3] He then completed a two-year program at the Second City Conservatory in Toronto, Ontario, with a full scholarship granted by the Toronto Theatre Alliance.[3]

Career

By 2008, McMahon had begun his standup comedy routines. In May 2010, his live performance of Welcome To Turtle Island Too was filmed in St. Albert, Alberta for a CBC television comedy special.[5] In the same year he was included in the New Faces of the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal.[6] In February 2015, CBC Radio 1 national aired an hour-long comedy special of Red Man Laughing , that had been recorded live in 2014 in Edmonton, Alberta. Guests on the show included author Joseph Boyden. McMahon did an hour-long comedy special called Reconcili-Nation that toured in 2015.[7]

McMahon was also featured as the host of Toronto Indigenous Film-maker Michelle St. John's Colonization Road whose documentary was partially filmed at Lang Pioneer Village. The documentary examined First Nations and settler relations through Ontario's first roadways. The roads were built to make the land accessible for settlers, but ultimately split up and cut off First Nations communities.[8] The program won the Yorkton Film Festival's Golden Sheaf Award for Best Documentary – Historical/Biography, and was nominated for a 2018 Canadian Screen Award.[9]

In June 2019, CBC Comedy included McMahon on their list of "15 Canadian comedians to watch in 2019".[10]

Podcasts

McMahon began podcasting in 2008.[11] His 40-minute podcast Red Man Laughing had 20,000 listeners by 2012.[1]

McMahon created the podcast Stories from the Land.[12] In 2016 he began to co-host Canadaland's political show, The Commons.[13]

As advertising revenue proved inadequate to sustain McMahon's indigenous-themed podcasts, in 2014 he began organizing a member-supported podcast network called Indian and Cowboy.[14] As of 2022 the network had 149 patrons and earned a monthly income of US$1,126 on Patreon.[15]

Thunder Bay projects

McMahon proposed a series about Thunder Bay to Jesse Brown, the founder of Canadaland. The series was intended to resemble the American National Public Radio (NPR) "longform storytelling model". Thunder Bay was largely informed by Toronto Star reporter Tanya Talaga's award-winning book Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City, which investigated the deaths of seven Indigenous youth in Thunder Bay, Ontario.[16][17][18] Canadaland launched a fundraiser and surpassed their goal of about C$27,800 a month from supporters.[19] According to a Canadian Press article, by July 2019, McMahon, Jesse Brown, and Northwood Entertainment's Miranda de Pencier were working together to develop the Thunder Bay podcast into a television drama series.[20]

Opinion essays

McMahon has written opinion pieces for Vice News[21][22][23][24][25] and The Globe and Mail.[26] Walrus magazine published a speech that McMahon presented at an event called The Walrus Talks Success held in Toronto on September 20, 2018.[27]

On May 26, 2017, as Canada prepared for its sesquicentennial, McMahon's "12 Steps to Decolonizing Canada" aired on CBC Radio's Day 6 program. McMahon charted a "course for the next 150 years" to avoid the mistakes of the previous 150 years in Canada's relationship to Indigenous people.[28] The show received the Sam Ross award for Opinion and Commentary at the 2018 RTDNA awards. McMahon reportedly refused to attend any celebrations of Canada's sesquicentennial.[29]

Activism

McMahon has used his writing and podcasts as a platform to express ideas on various subject matters.

In a 2015 interview with Rabble, McMahon said that the Idle No More movement was a turning point for him. By that time, he had 20,000 listeners to his Red Man Laughing podcasts, and he decided to use his platform to speak about Idle No More. In a 2013 podcast shortly after the Idle No More movement had been launched, McMahon said that, for Anishinaabe, everything you do is political.[30]

McMahon has been outspoken against colonial harm to Indigenous women.[31]

In a June 7, 2019, CBC radio interview, McMahon discussed the June 3 release of the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls[32][33] and the disappointing response to the report by the media.[31]

In June 2020, CBC recommended Michelle St. John's Colonization Road, which featured McMahon, as one of ten documentaries by Indigenous "activists" who are "advocating for change."[34]

References
  1. "The Round Dance Revolution: Idle No More". Revolutions Per Minute. December 20, 2012. Archived from the original on September 20, 2020. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  2. Daubs, Katie (October 1, 2020). "The man behind the satirical Walking Eagle News finally says the things he never could as a journalist". The Toronto Star. Retrieved October 2, 2020. s Ryan McMahon, a comedian, podcaster and writer who is Anishinaabe
  3. Carleton, Sean (March 22, 2016). "Changing the world with comedy". Canadian Dimension. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  4. Connie Thiessen, "‘Thunder Bay’ investigative docuseries to premiere on Crave next month". Broadcast Dialogue, January 19, 2023.
  5. Ryan McMahon (comedian) (May 2010). Welcome To Turtle Island Too. CBC Television & Radio, Corkscrew Media, and Story Ark Productions. St. Albert, Alberta. Event occurs at 9:04. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  6. Blackburn, Mark (July 26, 2012). "Rising star comedian Ryan McMahon in Montreal just for laughs". APTN News. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  7. "Ryan McMahon's storytelling uses humour to build awareness". March 6, 2015.
  8. Nyznik, Jessica. "Documentary filmed at Lang Pioneer Village in Otonabee-South Monaghan Township screening Saturday at ReFrame Film Festival in Peterborough". The Peterborough Examiner. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
  9. Nîtôtemtik, Tansi (October 17, 2019). "In the Media: Thunder Bay Podcast's Ryan McMahon Talks Canada's Reaction to the National Inquiry". Faculty Blog. University of Alberta. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  10. "15 Canadian comedians to watch in 2019". CBC. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
  11. Nair, Roshini. "Indian and Cowboy". Rabble.
  12. "Podcasting From The Land". _EDGE. December 15, 2015. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
  13. Salmi, Kirsti (December 31, 2017). "Canadaland Turns Podcasting Perspective to TBay". Thunder Bay, Ontario: The Walleye Magazine. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  14. Craig, Sean. "Indigenous media audiences are bigger than ever, but — like others in the industry — profits remain elusive". The Financial Post. Retrieved January 16, 2017.Gillmore, Meagan. "Ryan MCmahn hs bigs plans for his Indigenous media platform Indian and Cowboy". J-source.
  15. "About Indian and Cowboy". Patreon. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  16. Patrick, Ryan (January 8, 2018). "Why Tanya Talaga wrote a book about the lives and deaths of 7 Indigenous students in Thunder Bay". CBC.
  17. Wilson, Kim. "Murder Bay: Investigations into the Deaths of Indigenous Youth". Canadian Dimension.
  18. "Chapter 2: Clowns". www.canadalandshow.com. Retrieved December 12, 2019.
  19. McIntosh, Emma (February 15, 2018). "What's next for Canadaland's Thunder Bay podcast?". Ryerson Review of Journalism. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  20. Bresge, Adina (July 11, 2019). "Canadaland's 'Thunder Bay' podcast about deaths of Indigenous youth to be adapted for TV". The Canadian Press via Global News. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  21. McMahon, Ryan (October 23, 2015). "Here's Why, as an Indigenous Person, I Voted for Trudeau in the Canadian Election". Vice.
  22. McMahon, Ryan (January 11, 2016). "Indigenous People's Stories Need More than Just Leonardo DiCaprio's Speech". Vice. Ryan is an Anishinaabe/Metis comedian and writer based out of Treaty #1 territory (Winnipeg, Canada).
  23. "A message for Leonardo DiCaprio: Indigenous actors need more than just a shout-out". The 180. January 15, 2016. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  24. McMahon, Ryan (January 29, 2017). "Happy Birthday, Canada. Sorry, We're Still Here". Vice.
  25. McMahon, Ryan (March 9, 2017). "Here's What Indigenous Nationhood Could Look Like in Canada—in the Year 2167". Vice.
  26. McMahon, Ryan (December 14, 2018). "It all happened in the shadow of the death of Braiden Jacob". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  27. McMahon, Ryan. "Success: Ryan McMahon". Walrus.
  28. Vermes, Jason (June 23, 2018). "Ryan McMahon's 12-step guide to decolonizing Canada". CBC Radio. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  29. Lehmkuhl, Ursula; Tutschek, Elisabeth (2020). 150 Years of Canada: Grappling with Diversity since 1867. Waxman Verlag. p. 124. ISBN 9783830991243.
  30. McMahon, Ryan (January 1, 2013). "Everything you do is political, you're Anishinaabe. OR, What Idle No More is to me". Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
  31. New report, same old response: Ryan McMahon confronts Canada's reaction to the MMIWG inquiry. CBC Radio. June 7, 2019.
  32. Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (PDF) (Report). Vol. 1a. p. 728. ISBN 978-0-660-29274-8. CP32-163/2-1-2019E-PDF
  33. Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (PDF) (Report). Vol. 1b. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-660-30489-2. CP32-163/2-2-2019E
  34. "12 Docs on Indigenous Life in Canada: Indigenous storytellers with incredible tales and activists who are advocating for change". CBC News. CBC Documentaries. June 11, 2020. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
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