Indigenous comedy is seeing sold-out crowds, surge of interest

Joshua Emerson may seem like a typical comic — at least in the sense that he loves stand-up more than it loves him.

“Comedy is a lot of work for little benefit,” the 31-year-old said Monday over a BLT at Steuben’s Uptown. “And I love every second of it. Even the grind.”

But for a comic, Emerson is atypical in his background. His Diné (Navajo) heritage places him among the scattered few Indigenous comedians who tour nationally. Emerson has played festivals, clubs and theaters with a zeal that would please his comedy idols, such as Bill Burr, John Mulaney and the late Patrice O’Neal.

His stand-up group and production company, DeadRoom, is named after the terrifying silence most comics face when climbing on stage. It’s one of the only Native American comedy showcases in the world, and the only one in Colorado, he said.

With sold-out shows — such as the Saturday, Jan. 14, Colorado Native showcase at Boulder’s Dairy Arts Center — terrifying silence is getting harder to find. In addition to winning awards like the Audience Choice for Best Comedy Show at Denver Fringe Fest in 2021, DeadRoom is feeling momentum from receptive audiences across the country.

“The Native hook is strong right now,” Emerson said, noting the acclaimed FX series “Reservation Dogs,” which mines edgy humor from the lives of teens on a reservation in Oklahoma. “But it’s not just about ‘Rez Dogs.’ Audiences are interested in hearing stories they haven’t heard before about things they’ve never experienced.”

Humor is a vital part of Indigenous culture, Emerson said, helping to build community and to process trauma.

“Navajos even throw a party to celebrate a baby’s first laugh,” he said.

DeadRoom’s sold-out, Jan. 14 event benefits the Dairy’s Creative Nations Arts Collective, a nonprofit that supports Colorado tribes such as Cheyenne, Arapahoe and Ute. Emerson’s already got another showcase of diverse Denver comics planned for Wednesday, Feb. 1, at Comedy Works (“All My Exes Live in Cap Hill,” part of the Funny Final Four). His own jokes blend raunchiness and mundanity, and often draw from his time spent on summer and winter breaks at Navajo Nation in Vanderwagen, N.M.

His late mother was Diné, and his father is white, which allows him to straddle worlds and perspectives, he said.

“I’m a Native, so when I hook up with a white lady I will steal a scrunchie from her house and wear it on my wrist like a scalp,” he says in a spicy (and for mature-audience-only) YouTube set, captured at Fort Collins’ Comedy Fort last year.

DeadRoom’s founders, which include Emerson, Elliot Weber, and Jeff Stonic, tell all kinds of jokes. And much of Emerson’s life has nothing to do with his background. He works in guest services and develops tours for the Denver Zoo, and sings “Happy Birthday” in front of thousands during halftime at Colorado Avalanche games (as a Ball Arena “memory maker”) while working with the Colorado Rapids street team.

But as co-chair of Denver’s American Indian Commission, and a fellow of the Native American Media Alliance, he also has a stake in lifting up Indigenous people and debunking notions that they all share the same culture. After six years in the Marine Reserves — following in his parents’ footsteps — he earned an economics degree from Fort Lewis College in Durango and worked in equal housing and finance for Indigenous people before turning to comedy.

“It’s important to me that Native American comedy showcases are run by Natives, because most of them are one-offs, and producers tend to go with avenues they trust,” he said. “There aren’t that many Natives in the city going through those avenues, and urban Natives are often on their own.”