Janelle Niles: From Mi’kma’ki to the Mic - The Power of Comedy, Culture & Speaking Your Truth

Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, screenwraps.

Here we are with another great episode in January 2024.

This episode features the fantastic comedian Janelle Niles.

Now, I was switched on to her via my friend, Jeff Greenway, who did the soundtrack music for her sort of documentary, short comedy special, Inconvenient, which you can check out on IMDb.

I want to get her description completely correct.

So Janelle is a First Nations Micomile woman from Sipakkanakadik in Nova Scotia.

She's been doing comedy for about five years and she's set up her own production company called Gotland Productions, where she showcases other comedians and other people in her community all over Canada.

It's amazing really, you should check it out.

And you're going to hear me speak to her very, very shortly.

Now, I should probably give you a couple of trigger warnings and also just generally, I feel that doing a podcast, obviously we want to get sponsorship and stuff like that, but I can't really restrict myself about what I speak about.

It has to be truthful, right?

It has to be what I feel.

And if I get people on who have strong political or religious views, I need to have that conversation.

We're not going to mute it because we might have the odd listener that feels a different way.

I'm not a religious person.

I've mentioned this many times.

I mean, I wouldn't say I'm anti-religious, but I have a strong dislike for organized religion generally and everything it causes in the world.

And I believe it is heavily linked to right-wing politics.

And you should never talk about politics, never talk about religion and all of that.

But this episode, we do discuss a bit of that, and it's inevitable considering the subject matter that me and Janelle discuss.

And there is some stuff in here that's a bit dark.

There's generational trauma.

There's things in here that are not funny, essentially.

This isn't a hilarious episode, okay?

And it sways way far from television from time to time.

And we're finding that that does happen on the odd episode.

And it is what it is.

So, you know, I'm not going to restrict myself in subject matter and kind of, you know, avoid talking about certain things because it might upset someone who I might even know will be related to.

I've got to, you know, what's the current term?

Speak my truth.

You know, we do have to speak our truth, right?

I'm not on here to, you know, pretend I'm someone I'm not, okay?

So I hope that doesn't offend anyone.

I'm not trying to offend anyone.

I'm just trying to be myself and talk to people passionately about things we do want to discuss.

So although this is not the podcast for that, it does come up in this particular episode.

So without further ado, let's get on with it.

So this is me talking to Janelle Niles, probably about two months ago.

Here we go.

Welcome to Television Times, a weekly podcast with your host me, Steve Otis Gunn.

We'll be discussing television in all its glorious forms from my childhood, your childhood, the last 10 years, even what's on right now.

So join me as I talk to people you do know and people you don't about what scared them, what inspired them and what made them laugh and cry here on Television Times.

I found a new word today and that was from you.

I'm going to fuck this up.

Indigeneity?

Indigeneity.

Indigeneity.

Yeah, it's your indigenous identity, indigeneity.

I've not heard that word before.

Oh, it is definitely a new word.

Yeah.

This podcast, weirdly, I get a lot of Australian listeners, some Canadian listeners and UK.

So it's kind of like what would have been called, I guess, the Commonwealth, the list of stolen countries.

That's it, eh?

I know, right?

Because this podcast is predominantly about television.

What I've noticed, I mean, probably, and I have to say this, is Mark Maron, who kept having the sort of reservation dogs chat on his podcast, which made me watch Reservation Dogs, which made me watch...

I also watched...

I watched The Prey, the movie's Prey, Three Pines as well, the Canadian show.

That was pretty good.

It's just a real like thirst for like indigenous Canadians' stories, indigenous people's stories in North America.

And it seems to be almost, I mean, dare I say, it's just in the mainstream now.

There's a real change in Reservation Dogs.

I mean, it only did three seasons and ended, but that show dragged me right in.

And it was just like seeing this whole other culture and this whole other story that you just don't see anywhere else.

And as a British person, completely removed from it.

Are we recording right now for the podcast?

I just have to ask.

Oh, perfect.

Because I didn't want to get all profound without us actually recording perfect.

So it's amazing to finally have indigenous stories and our experiences and actors in the limelight.

Because for the longest time, indigenous people were called Indians.

And we were just cowboys and Indians in John Wayne movies and Dances with the Wolves and Pocahontas.

And today, we're actually showcasing our people the way that we want to be showcased because our stories are now being heard.

So I actually commend Mark Maron for talking about it because he's seeing it firsthand.

The history that we were all taught was completely wrong.

But those movies that you did grow up with, I mean, I remember having like a little gun with a thing in it and you'd play cowboys and Indians, incredibly racist.

And most of the time, they were played by white people, right?

It's like Civil War reenactments.

They don't tell the other side, you know, it's just the people who want want to play.

And what I like as well, it's like over here, I think Riz Ahmed, the actor, he said something along the lines of like, first you play a terrorist, then you play in sort of, you know, nothing negative just happened to be in a Pakistan.

Then you're just a drummer who's deaf, like in that movie he did.

And it doesn't matter.

So it's not about the ethnicity, it's just about the person, right?

And I've actually started to see that now because I'm seeing characters from Resi Dogg's and other shows like, what's his name?

I always get his name wrong.

This is Zan McLarnan, that guy in loads of stuff, and he's just rocking up and he's not necessarily talking about what race he is, or he's just a character in a thing without, and it's just the story.

Do you know what I mean?

So it's not about that.

It's interesting that you say that because that's what people say I only do on stage.

What I do is I tackle tough topics through humor and I just bring up a lot of stuff that needs to be said on stage.

My first and foremost thing is to make people laugh.

And if I can make people laugh with something they haven't really thought of before, making them uncomfortable to break that tension, that's what I do.

And I find Indigenous peoples here in Canada, we didn't really have our own voice until the Idle No More movement, where we stopped being silent to stay humble.

So as much as I do talk about being an Indigenous woman or black or gay on stage, my first and foremost is to make them laugh.

And I try not to be on a soapbox the whole time, if you know what I mean.

Your voice hasn't actually been out there before.

So, I mean, it needs to be part of it and it will be part of it, and especially with what you're trying to do.

It's kind of, you know, it's the whole thing, right?

Exactly.

What would I say is a company, Gotland?

Gotland is a business here in Canada.

Gotland is Janelle Niles, I'm a sole proprietor, and I created it in 2021.

And it was during the pandemic, and people said in the pandemic, Oh, if you're bored, start a business.

I'm like, Oh, okay.

Yeah, exactly.

Start a podcast, start a business.

I was like, fine, I guess this is the time to do it.

And I was actually in college for massage therapy at the time, because I really liked massage.

I liked the anatomy and physiology about it.

I passed the first and second year, flying colors.

And when going into the third year, that's when COVID happened, March, 2020, we were just graduating our second year and they said, Oh, everything's on Zoom now, but you can't learn massage therapy over Zoom the way I learn.

I'm very hands on and the whole third year was supposed to be clinic and you're in trials and you're hands on.

And I'm like, what am I supposed to do?

Right?

I'm like, am I supposed to massage the kink out of the K?

Like, I can't do this online.

By the way, you know you're learning massage.

No one's allowed to touch anyone for a year.

Exactly.

And it's like, what am I supposed to do?

But I was just getting into comedy at the time.

I think I was just shy of a year in.

And I'm like, I guess I can try to focus 100% in the comedy.

And no comedian.

If you're listening to this and you're a year in a comedy and you think you can start a business and go comedy full-time, I took a leap of faith and it worked for me.

But do not put all your eggs in a basket.

I threw all my eggs in a basket to take that risk.

But I'm determined.

I'm lucky in the way because everything fell where they may.

I wouldn't want anybody to put them in a position that they couldn't handle themselves.

I was in a perfect position to start my business and so I did.

Now it's a thriving business and I'm a full-time stand-up comedian three years later.

Well, I mean, you made your own stage.

You invented it.

You basically made a stage for you to stand on.

That's the way to do it.

Everybody was telling me to watch The Marvelous Miss Maisel.

I have and I was like, which character do they want me to think I am?

I'm like, oh, it's the booker.

It's her agent.

Yeah.

It's not the comedian.

It's the booker.

Do you do that thing where you pretend to be someone else when you're booking yourself?

Oh, yeah.

She's available, but put on a different voice to be an agent.

Not at all.

I'm quite transparent.

I just know how to talk myself up.

Have you gigged anywhere outside of Canada?

I can't say publicly that I have because I do not want to be banned out of a country because I didn't have the paperwork.

However, I actually was gifted, let's say it was a gift, to do a free show at an open mic in Ireland when I went there in 2019.

That open mic doesn't exist anymore.

It got ruined through COVID.

But I was one comedian out of 22 and it was a three-hour long show.

And because I brought the audience, other than the 22 comedians, they made me go last.

So everybody I brought had to sit there, but they were drinking and having the best time of their life.

And every single person who was at that show in 2019, my friend group, my friend's friend group, they were at the wedding that I was just at a couple of weeks ago.

And they're like, wow, look how far you've come.

We saw you when you were just brand new.

Because I was, I was just spanking brand new.

And it was nice to see people who just seen me when I was like a couple of months into where I am now.

You clearly have a brand, you have a look, you have a style.

You're very individual, I think.

And you stand out.

I mean, clearly.

I want to be something people haven't seen before.

Is that a great joke?

I've seen it a couple of times.

I keep playing it back.

One where you just go, are there any landowners in?

It makes me laugh every time.

Oh, yes.

Some people say you get a little too political up here.

White people, am I too political?

They'll be like, no, I will try harder.

Any landowners here?

Any single landowners?

Just trying to get my land back one white man at a time.

I'm like, we have to stop making celebrities president, you know?

You don't want the rockers president, then?

Here's the thing, we, as people in the entertainment industry, we're degenerates in ourselves.

Like, a lot of the celebrities you see on TV here in North America haven't even graduated high school.

Why would you want them to run the country?

And it's like, I could not see my...

People are like, Janelle, why didn't you work for the government?

You check off all these boxes.

I'm like, because I don't want to be silenced.

I want to be able to say whatever I want to say on stage.

And also, why would you want me to...

I don't have all the answers.

And God forbid, I trust anybody who thinks they do.

And so, if anything, I think we need to elect people who are...

who have doctorates, multiple doctorates to...

And be the thing, right?

So if you're in charge of healthcare, be a doctor.

Exactly.

Don't just be a guy who is a businessman of a hedge fund.

That's the thing.

It makes no sense to me.

How many times people are at work in a corporation and people above them have no idea how to do their own job.

And that's how I find with those...

with the government.

It's just like a bunch of people in power who don't even know how to do the job that they are overseeing.

That is true.

And it can happen in entertainment worlds too, because in 2018, I was production manager for one of the big five at Edinburgh Fringe, and I didn't know what the hell I was doing.

And if I didn't have all those brilliant people underneath me doing all the work, you know, I could get shows up on time, I could go around and talk to all the acts and all of that.

But like when it came to some of it, I was like, I don't know what we're talking about.

Yeah, birth by fire.

That's what we call it.

Yes, delegation and birth by fire.

But you know, the funny thing is you say that, like, because like, it's always whoever's popular now, it's The Rock, before it was Will Smith.

They wanted Will Smith to be...

Remember that period?

That's gone, that's gone.

Thank goodness.

The audio recording got a bit fuzzy around here, I couldn't make head in the tile of it.

But basically, we were talking about childhood and how we watch TV and access to television.

And it led to Janelle basically reintroducing herself to you, the listener on the podcast.

Of course, 100%.

I'd love to introduce myself.

So I do it on stage every day.

It's like, hi, my name is Janelle Niles.

I am a First Nations Mi'kmaq and Black woman from Sabaginagini, Nova Scotia.

And I was raised in front of the TV.

If anything, TV helped raise me.

And I think one of the biggest things I did as a kid was, as soon as I got home, I put on Just For Laughs.

And Just For Laughs is a big production here in Canada.

And they showcased a lot of stand-up comedy, Just For Laughs gags.

And it was on, I think, Comedy Central, I believe.

Hopefully, I'm not getting that wrong.

But I put on Just For Laughs and I watched comedy every single day of my life.

So it was always part of you?

Yes.

I mean, you have Montreal, don't you?

Yes, it's just two hours away.

Do you perform it?

I haven't performed in Montreal, but I have performed with Just For Laughs in Toronto.

Where's the venue in Toronto, then?

I was at the Royal Cinema Theatre, and it was in the heart of Toronto.

I love Toronto.

And it was amazing.

We had two shows back to back.

And unfortunately, it was on the day of Truth and Reconciliation Day here in Canada.

And that is just a very heavy day for us because we are remembering the children that we have lost due to the residential schools.

And they believed that having a show that day would, an Indigenous comedy show, would be a good thing.

And in a way, it was.

However, it was one of the hardest shows I ever had to do, trying to sell tickets to a show where we are almost collectively mourning.

But I knew that our people, we need laughter, and laughter, we heal through humor.

And actually, after a day of those, I'm not saying celebrations, because that's the word I want to say, but it's not the word that we use.

The day of ceremony, there it is.

Having some laughter at the end of it kind of brings your mood back up after those heavy days of tears and mourning.

And it was, and I'm very happy I was able to be gifted those two shows for Just For Laughs.

It was my dream to be performing on the Just For Laughs stage.

I wanted to be performing in Montreal, but I'll take Toronto.

I'm not too picky.

But I do know that it was one of the hardest shows I ever had to do.

That's tough.

See, I have a thing that I have to be very careful on here because I do have probably some people that are Christian or whatever who believe...

I don't know what your religious situation is, but I know that you're probably a very spiritual person, for sure.

But I am extremely anti-organized religion.

And seeing the stuff that's happened in Ireland and Australia and Canada and America, I mean, I can't actually get my head around it.

I just cannot understand how a human being can do that.

Although you put on the news they're doing it today.

But to actually do the things they did and to take fucking children from their parents and put them and just brainwash them into another way of thinking because they think their God is right.

It makes me so angry.

Even as a big old honky, I get very fucked off.

They actually have a doctrine called the Doctrine of Discovery and that was giving them justification to do what they did.

And that's why here in North America, Turtle Island, we say we send the Doctrine of Discovery because we need to stop Catholic, Catholic, Christian, we need to stop them from trying to take over the world.

Oh, for their God, like to stop killing and stop committing genocide for your religion.

And people like, Oh, that doesn't happen anymore.

I'm like, it still happens today.

Like people go to villages with Bibles and disease and try to wipe out indirectly or directly that population.

And they're like, Oh, they're all dead.

Oh, look at all these resources laying around.

Whoops, oops, sorry.

We didn't mean to, but now let's grab everything we can.

So it's kind of that backhanded, passive, aggressive, like we're here for the greater good of us, not you, but we're going to make it look like we want to help.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, there are charity shops here.

What do you call charity shops?

You have them there, don't you, where you take secondhand stuff and buy secondhand, like Goodwill in America, but where money actually goes to charity.

But I won't go to some of them because they'll take the goods and they'll sell them and they'll give the money to the charity and they'll give them to the people that need it, but only with the Bible.

It's horrible too, because on that note, in the Bible, it actually states that if you are Christian, you have to help the homeless.

And that's why the Mission or the Soup Kitchen, they're all run by the church because they get tax breaks, right?

As long as they help the homeless.

However, I was homeless myself and I tried to go to the Mission once and they told me, well, you have to go to chapel before you can get a meal.

And I was like, I'm going to go somewhere else.

Thank you.

Yeah, you had to go to chapel before you got a ticket to go to meal.

And I was like, that is ridiculous because I'm just here for food.

I'm not sure if that happens anymore.

And it's been about like 15 years since I've been homeless, but sorry, that homeless on the street.

I've been homeless multiple times.

When I was homeless, homeless, like sleeping on my twin sister's couch, I was homeless, but I wasn't homeless, homeless.

How do you feel about the new term, unhoused?

I don't like it at all.

I'm like, how dare you?

It's so pretentious.

I'm like, I was homeless.

I was without a home.

And to tell people who were homeless that they have to use a new term, we're just looking at them like, who are you to tell us what we can call ourselves?

Who are these people?

I have to be really careful because some things I want to take on because they're better words and get rid of some of those horrible old words that mean horrible things and are offensive.

But with that one, I did think, oh, that does sound like, that sounds like a liberal white person in Brooklyn came up with that one.

I mean, it really does.

100%.

And George Carlin would be rolling over in his grave.

They're like, they're still doing it.

They're still doing it.

Why bother with that one?

Exactly.

There's a lot of other ones they need to work on.

I say homeless when I'm on stage.

I say homeless when I talk public, when I do speeches and whatever have you.

I say homeless.

And I do see a little people shift in their seats a bit.

And I'm like, as somebody who was homeless, I should be able to say I was homeless.

It's like people who've been, you know, I was physically abused as a child.

It's like telling me that I was unloved instead of abused.

You know what I mean?

Sorry, you were unloved.

I mean, I'll start that.

Should I start that?

I can start that movement tomorrow.

Not even.

I'm not doing it.

It's just people are so scared of words.

And when I was a security guard downtown, one of the politically correct terms for somebody who was like a street person was vagrant and the vagrant, we had to write.

And people say, oh, you shouldn't use that word.

I'm like, why?

Is it the V or the grant?

It's vagrant.

And I'm like, I used to be a vagrant, too.

I used to be homeless.

I used to be walking these streets.

And they're like, yeah, but it just sounds wrong.

And I'm like, yeah, because it makes you uncomfortable.

It literally is the politically correct term I need to use in my notes as a security guard.

I'm just like, I wonder what the word vagrant actually means.

Like, what is the actual meaning?

A vagrant is someone who is homeless and poor and may wander from place to place.

V for vendetta ruined all V words.

You think so?

Yes, it's delicious.

Cheers.

So, while you were unhoused, did you have access to television?

No, actually, I was living in shelters and transitional housing and stuff like that, and I did not have access to television.

But when I moved up to Yellowknife with my ex-husband, he actually took me out of some of my situations there, and I got obsessed with a TV show called My Name is Earl.

My Name is Earl.

And that TV show, yes.

And it's a show about this guy who is battling karma because he was in and out of jail all the time, he had malicious intent, and he won a $100,000 lottery ticket but got hit by a car.

And when he woke up in the hospital, he's like, I need to change my life.

So he writes down everything he did wrong and throughout the seasons.

Yes, he tries to make them right so he can have this money without the guilt, if you will.

And it felt like, oh, wow, I have to get my karma in order.

As somebody who used to be homeless, I'm like, I need to get my karma in order.

I know I didn't deserve to be homeless or I put myself there.

It was more of I need to write my wrongs.

But there is some Christian overtones, I guess.

It sounds like the 12-step thing of going around and apologizing to everyone.

Yeah, unfortunately.

But I'm able to take out those religious commentations and just focus on, oh, look at him trying to do good for his family or his friends.

Yeah, I mean, sometimes.

I mean, I've seen the Dalai Lama speak multiple times and I'm not a Buddhist, but I love what he says and those messages are good.

And when he's not sucking children's tongues, he's the dude, you know?

But I'm not a Buddhist and I don't follow it all because I can't, it's not in me.

Because we have critical thinking skills and a lot of people don't, you know?

Possibly.

You're able to take the good out of the bad.

Yeah, but then sometimes, there were sometimes, and that's probably something you might have, is there's sometimes in nature, when I'm looking at nature or when I'm looking at my kids, I have kids, and I just think they are a little bit miraculously, and it is kind of mad that this is just here, and we're just floating in space on this rock, and we're alive, and I know there's oxygen in the air, and I'm breathing it in, but I don't know about that, and what if it wasn't there?

And I think that is, in some way, that does make me question my atheism, but not enough to believe one of this, but there's something else going on.

I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if we're not where we think we are.

I find it's just like the magic of the universe, if you will.

I love the universe.

I love, like I travel.

I've been up north to the tundra, where if you walk an hour in any direction, you're dead.

If you don't know how to get back home, same.

Yeah, same if you go to the desert.

I shouldn't be at live shows where they just go wandering.

Exactly.

And lots of places on Earth are inhabitable, really.

And then we kind of triumph, like a lot of the Inuit populations.

The fact that they've been able to survive for thousands of years, it's like, oh, wow, how did they do that?

Just ice.

Exactly.

How are you doing this?

Exactly.

And it's a miracle within itself, but we adapt.

Humans, we adapt.

And I think, I know this is a weird segue, but I always wonder what would happen if the grid went down with all the power?

How long do I have to make sure to get my materials, my like to be able to adapt in that new civilization?

Because all heck is going to break loose when law doesn't exist, because there's not going to be enough police or enough army, enough order.

Yeah, I do wonder about like, because obviously, they've made loads of shows like that.

You know, the internet suddenly doesn't work anymore.

And then planes fall out of the sky and all that sort of stuff, because we have computerized everything.

But I do sort of think that at some point in the future, it won't be like this.

We'll probably go back a little bit.

We'll step like future generations will go, this is too much.

And they will go back a little because this is clearly too far.

But weirdly, what you just said reminded me of sometimes I've been to India a few times, and last time we were just backpacking.

And last time we were there, they do a thing called load shedding, where they just turn all the electricity off for like hours a day.

So at like, I don't know, six o'clock at night, and they don't do it in the daytime for some reason, they do it at night when it's dark.

At six o'clock at night, you're in the Himalayas in a pub, and they'll just go, all the power will go off, and they go, this is what it's like for four hours, and they'll put some candles around.

And it's fine.

And you just live like without electricity.

And we used to do it almost every day.

And I really liked it.

I actually really liked it.

And I think it would be good for the world to just do it.

Oh, 100%.

To exist within themselves, to listen to their own thoughts.

Read a book.

Exactly.

Don't just wander around Costco buying giant tins of beans or whatever they do.

Well, it's a it's Velveeta cheese.

I must dispute the fact that America has cheese.

Oh, yeah, that's yeah, that Velveeta is not real.

But when I was in Ireland, everyone thought I was an American.

Oh, really?

Because of the way I talk.

And I was standing at the elevator and a friend of mine was standing next to me.

And I'm like, holy, my feet hurt.

We've been walking all day and a girl's like Americans.

I'm like, I'm like, I've been walking for 10 hours across Dublin.

I think my feet are allowed to be sore.

All right, let's get on to some silly telly questions.

Is that all right?

Do you want to pick a number from one to 20?

Eight.

Eight, what's eight?

The funniest thing you ever saw on TV?

So the funniest thing I ever saw on TV was, I believe it was Just For Laughs.

It was a comedian, his name is Richard Jennings.

Unfortunately, he has passed.

I think he took his own life 2007, 2008.

But he was one of the funniest guys I've ever seen.

And I saw him when I was a kid, and he had a skit where he was laying out the playing cards while dating.

Like if you had cards of your issues, like the biggest red flags, what would they be?

And I was on the floor crying.

And I really loved Richard Jennings.

I believe Bill Burr today, Bill Burr is like preceding Richard Jennings.

But he was one of the best comedians that I've ever seen.

Yes, Richard Jennings.

Yeah, he was in the mask as well.

Yes.

I love the mask.

The mask is great.

I watched that with my, well, I think he was probably about seven when I watched it with him.

And I thought, oh, this is way more inappropriate than I recall.

Same.

I tried to watch Delirious, Eddie Murphy's Delirious with my cousin.

And I was like, oh, I'm like, this is a little too, ah.

She's like, I don't find this funny.

I'm like, I don't blame you.

I don't know what kind of reality TV shows you have in Canada.

I think you might have similar ones to us because the, again, terrible word.

I don't even know what it means.

I should investigate what commonwealth means.

But it's always Canada and UK and Australia have the same TV shows.

They're like Dragon's Den and Apprentice and all of those things.

Big Brothers and the American One, Survivor and Married at First Sight, things like that probably.

But I'm going to guess you're not into reality TV.

I might be wrong.

I'm not into reality TV because I know it is scripted.

So it's not reality.

You're too intelligent to like that.

But if, say, you're five years' time, you're at the top of your game, you got your specials out, you got your Netflix special and they come to you and they come to you and they say, Janelle, we really want you to do this show.

Gunn, to your head, which reality TV show could you bear to be on?

I would be on, if they made one for me, like Tila Tequila had one.

Yeah.

Yeah, if they made one, Falling in Love with Janelle Niles, I'll be on that one.

What is the TV show that you would erase from history?

Some Men in Black, hit the button, no one remembers it, it's gone.

Yeah, The Weeknd's The Idol.

That TV show should not exist.

It is horrible.

It is literally someone's porn dream fantasy that he got enough money to make.

It is triggering beyond belief.

It is just raunchy.

It is like I, as a comedian, I know to make people uncomfortable to break the tension, it was just uncomfortable.

There was no break of the tension.

There was no character development.

It was just being edgy and raw and gross on purpose.

I wish it never existed.

Well, your wish is our command.

With a wave of our wand, it is gone.

Yes.

And if there was a TV show from the past that you could bring back to life, it could be a reboot or you could just bring it back as it is, what would that be if you could bring one back?

Seinfeld, 100%.

I love Seinfeld.

I love everything about it.

Even when they were being a little bit risque, like when Jerry had the Indian cigar statue to the Indigenous woman, I was like, oh, hey, okay, they're starting a conversation, 100%.

And he was just being very, and then they had the conversation.

I'm like, good, that's what you're supposed to do.

That's why I like shows like All in the Family or the Jeffersons and stuff, because they created a conversation.

And I like those shows.

Would you, same cast, you just bring them back as the age they are now and just continue?

Oh yeah, 100%.

If they're still right as rain, yeah, all of them come back.

Even Michael Richards.

Oh yeah, definitely Michael Richards.

Kramer, God, and he has to lather himself in butter again.

That's his, that's his karma.

It's like, yeah, you're gonna come back on Seinfeld, but you have to lather yourself up in butter again.

Will you do that?

He's like, okay, as long as I get the check, you know.

Sometimes I think when we're doing podcasts, that we've all become Kramer when he steals that set and installs it in his apartment and has his own chat show.

He's talking to himself.

I kind of think we've all become that.

100%, like I listen to Bill Burr's Monday morning podcast all the time and he's just there talking to himself.

You know, and I'm like, but I find with Kramer, Michael Richards, as a comedian myself, I could understand why he thought that would get the pop, that he, but it was not the right room nor the right energy, the right thing.

Not saying I'm saying you should have said that, or that was a great thing to say.

It was more of as a comedian, sometimes you think, oh, this will get the room back.

And it was the complete opposite.

Exactly.

And he didn't mean, and I've spoken to other people about this, but nobody believes he believes what he said in any way or form.

No, it was just-

Just literally bad response to a heckle.

It was out of anger mixed with the intent to laugh.

And that wasn't the appropriate mix.

It wasn't the potion he needed to, you know.

Yeah, he was angry.

Yeah.

People say crazy things when they're angry, but yeah, he walked it back a bit on comedians and cast, didn't he?

Slightly.

Oh yeah.

So he sort of apologized for it.

Imagine that we were all held to the standard of what we say when we're the most angry.

Everybody be in jail.

Who was the first person on television you saw that gave you that fuzzy feeling inside?

Your first TV crush, as it were.

Can it be a cartoon?

That's the problem.

It's Cyber Six.

Cyber Six?

Yeah, because Cyber Six is about a woman that was in a lab, and she has to fight these monsters that this evil doctor is trying to, like, you know, take over the world kind of thing.

And she, by day, is disguised as a man, and by night, she's a woman in a cape and a hat, and she triumphs over evil, like in Sailor Moon.

And I saw that, and I was like, that is amazing.

And I never knew, like, back then as a kid that I was identifying with her.

I just thought that was the coolest thing in the world.

I was all like, look at her masquerading by day as a man, and then at night, she's a woman kicking ass.

It was something completely different for a superhero to change their gender, just even, like, on the face of it to masquerade in public.

And I was like, oh, that was amazing.

It was something new, something different.

And I love Cyber Six.

So this is an interesting question for you.

You'll have one for this.

Which TV character would you embody for 24 hours?

Like, you would be that person, the fictional or...

It would be Lila from Futurama, 100%.

No, right, the one eye.

Give me one big eyeball.

Give me...

I know, another...

Like, if you see my bed right there, you can see, like, a Dragon Ball Z plush, a Hello Kitty, a bunny.

I've got that on my daughter's bed.

We have that same Hello Kitty.

She's six tomorrow.

So here's a secret that I never said out loud.

I have plushies on my bed because I'm still like an old otaku, loved anime and stuff.

But anytime I look at my bed and I think of an adult, I'm almost, I'm 36 years old, having plushies or something childish around, I unfortunately think of that news anchor who killed herself on live TV.

And when they went to her bedroom, they saw how childish it was.

It was all pink and she had stuffed animals on her bed.

And I look at my bed and I'm like, you are not that woman.

You are a different person.

And like, because I recognize patterns, a pattern recognition.

So I'm like, does me having plushies on my bed signify that I have a mental illness or do I just can't can't handle change?

In some way, claiming some kind of childhood back, isn't it?

Because you because it was tumultuous.

So you want to have that comfort.

Imagine what's more comfortable than a nice squashy plushy toy.

Exactly.

I like them.

I bought some back from Japan for my kids and they were like, you know, they're mad over there, like a kind of, you know, a cupcake.

Well, anything is a is a mascot, right?

And I bought back these little and they're so soft and they're so nice.

And sometimes I go and sleep on the floor in their room and I'll grab a couple of them and they just, oh, they're so lovely to hold.

Exactly.

So soft and lovely and velvety.

People say, oh, you should be mature and have a mature like room and everything has to be bland and boring.

And that's how adults live.

And I'm like, God, no wonder you guys are depressed.

No wonder you hate yourselves.

Like there's a lot, some we say here on this side of the pond, we say, I think actually someone from your side of the pond said it and we just adopted it.

It's self-expression is the opposite of depression.

Nice.

I have a theory that there are no adults.

I don't think we're all just pretending.

I don't feel any different than I was a kid to you, really?

Not really.

Just pretending, aren't we?

Exactly.

I go outside and I still wander.

I still look around.

That's something different.

If I go to the States, I have to not do that.

Apparently, if I am smiling and looking around and everything, people are going to call me an easy mark.

I'm like, oh.

Oh, really?

An easy mark.

I thought it was going to be the other thing.

My in-laws live in Arizona.

When I go there, I have been stopped by the police just for walking as a white guy just because I'm walking, because nobody walks around, and why would I be outside?

I've just been walking along the street, and I'll try and cross the road and I'll come back, and then suddenly there's a cop and they go, whoop, and they get the light and they shine it in my face.

And they're like, what you doing here, sir?

And I go, I'm just visiting.

And they hear the voice and they go, who the fuck is this guy?

And I have to explain, like, you know someone that lives around here and do this whole thing?

And I'm like.

I turn my white voice on or my colonized voice on when I have to talk to authority and whatever have you, because it's called self-policing.

But I grew up with somebody who was so against authority, who would scream in cops faces and odd stuff and always get in trouble with the police.

And my family gets in trouble with the police a lot because they have, you know, disdain for police.

And I understand why they do.

However, I don't ever want to be in jail because I think like that cop could be a good cop and you're just fricking poking the bear.

Or you could be battling a cop who's having a bad day.

But if you are doing everything as proper as a citizen, then that will be shown on the body cam.

You'll have a better case.

But if you're just cussing out a bad cop, then he has more case against you.

And it's just a weird balance where it's like, I hate the fact that I feel I have to do that.

That I have to kind of shuck and jive just so I don't go to jail.

Cause I was brought up with the notion that I was always going to go to prison because I'm a black native woman and the white man will want to make an example out of me.

And that was put in my head that I was always going to go to jail, always going to go to prison.

Like there's what show scared the shit out of me?

Oz.

There's a show called Oz.

Yeah, and a prison show.

And my mom made me watch it as a kid.

So I saw a lot of the the rape of men as a child.

And she said, that's what's going to happen to you one day.

The white man's going to put you there just because.

And I'm just like, it was a constant that I was, it is, and all I could think of was like, how can I not go to prison?

And I was like, be on your best behavior.

Follow the rules.

Listen to what is told to you.

Respect authority.

And I'm for like, it, unfortunately, but it did work for me.

I don't have, I don't have a criminal record and I've been a good girl, if you will.

But a lot of people in my family who hate authority, just because it's in their nature, they have been a person.

They just don't know how to not talk the way out of it or just, you know, be like even going to the grocery store.

They're arguing with the cashier.

It's just, it's not even just authority.

It's anybody who might have power over them from like from a cashier to a service worker to anybody.

It could be anyone.

And they have to like fight back against the man.

And I'm like, oh, goodness gracious.

That's exhausting.

That's gonna get tiring.

Well, that's a thing, isn't it?

I mean, I always, I would never fucking shout at the police.

I would never take that risk.

Because I was brought up in by parents who told me that the police were bad.

And if they come to the door, you never answer the door.

My biggest threat to me as a child was if you ever bring the police to the door, I'll beat the shit out of you.

That's what my dad used to say.

And I bought them twice.

It was a fucking bad day.

So the police were always the boogeyman, you know?

And it was always like, you know, they're against us and we're the good guys.

And I'm like, but we're the criminals.

We can't beat the good guys.

And so as a grown up, I mean, I always treat them nicely.

I just think they're doing a job and they're doing as best as they can.

They're just people at work.

And if you scream and shout at them, I mean, I even walk different when a police car goes by and I haven't done anything.

You're just sort of like relax a bit and go, hey, I'm relaxed, so I haven't done anything, you know?

Self-preservation.

That's what I think.

Self-preservation is like, it got so bad growing up that I was scared to walk into an IKEA because I was meant to believe that IKEA is a white people store and I'm not welcome.

So-

It's just a Swedish store.

And then I was scared to go on to the train because I thought only white people could afford it and I wasn't allowed.

It was just like being, like I was, if I was at a movies theater and my friend put his feet up on the front of the chairs, I would say, put your feet down right away, we're gonna get kicked out.

And he's like, no, we're not.

I'm like, then I will because I'm with you and you're gonna like blame me.

And I'm gonna get kicked out.

And it was just that instilling the paranoia of both police into your child's brain, that you are always going to be the victim of police is not progressive in the least.

And it turns your child into a second class citizen because you're just constantly thinking that you're the one that's gonna be targeted because you're not equal.

Exactly.

And it's, I guess in some cases, it's true in the States when there's a huge police presence in the hood or in the Bronx or whatever have you that you can just walk down the street and you can get gunned down.

And I do understand that that's happened to people.

But here in Canada, I was meant to believe that's how I was supposed to be living because I grew up here in the ghettos of Ottawa.

And to put that fear into a kid's head made me hyper vigilant.

And now I'm hyper vigilant as an adult.

And I go to therapy and they say, well, it's not mental, Janelle, it's somatic.

It's in your muscles.

Have you got the fight or flight is always in flight mode?

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm the same.

I'm constantly in fight or flight mode.

Yeah, me too.

No, and it can be groomed into you from paranoid parents.

It can be made, you can be made to be that type of adult.

And I wish any kid listening, if there is a kid listening, that you don't have to be fearful of the world because the world will mold around you in its own regard as long as you can have trust.

Like I trust that the world can be a good place, even though I know that there is good and bad.

The thing I keep telling myself and thinking, and I would tell my kids too, is that there's never been a better time to be alive.

That's just fact.

There's never been a better time to be alive on this planet.

And generally, most people seem to be pretty decent.

Generally, there's a very small amount of people that are the worst.

Unfortunately, those people seem to be running everything, but it won't last forever.

I have a little switch in my brain.

As a comedian, I have to have a switch in my brain to tell me when the audience likes me or hates me.

And I'm like, I have to kind of shift.

And I do that with people.

I'm like, oh, okay, that person, I must have rubbed the wrong way.

I'm just gonna back off and blah, blah, blah, and just not pay it any mind because that wasn't in my intent, but I'm not going to perpetuate any more harm.

So like people see, I'm on Facebook a lot or Instagram or whatever have you.

And I'll write a blurb of how something or someone had made me feel.

People like, is this actually happening or is this in your head?

And normally I don't post like that unless it's happened multiple times.

Because it's happened so often, my pattern recognition is picked up on it.

And either I want people to stop hating on me or doing those microaggressions.

When I'm telling a joke, I'm joking up there.

When I'm being serious, I'm being like, there's two different Janelles you're meeting.

The person I'm on stage is not the same person.

I'm off stage.

So please understand that when I'm off stage, I leave my activism for on stage and trying to explain the duality of that.

Do you respond to comments?

Do you read comments on your social media posts?

Yes and no.

I read comments, not to the point where I have to respond.

Like this one guy said on a video, don't quit your day job.

And I was like, eh, whatever.

I think I saw that.

And I also saw someone say something negative and then a lot of people piled on on your behalf.

Yeah, and I tell people, don't pile on my behalf because the last thing I want is people to, what do you call?

Because when people come after me, I don't want them to come after my friends and family because I've had that happen to me before where they came after my own mother came after a group of my friends and she just let them have it and spilled her vitriol to my friends who were just trying to support me.

So, oh, this one happened yesterday.

He's like, so bad, such a bad routine.

She looks awkward AF as fuck.

And then I wrote thanks.

And I wrote thanks because he helped my algorithm.

I'm like, thanks for the comment because you've just boosted my algorithm.

And then he just kept going.

He's like, oh, you're welcome.

I'm like, much appreciated.

I just, exactly.

I'm like, the more you comment, the more the algorithm pushes it.

So my thing is never defend yourself to strangers.

That's a long way to get there, but never defend yourself to strangers.

I have to defend myself to peers and family constantly.

So why would I want to do that to someone who doesn't know me from a rock in the dirt?

Exactly.

What a great answer.

That's brilliant.

Well, is there anything you would like to plug Janelle?

Sure.

Well, I'd like to plug that.

Hey, I am Janelle Niles.

I am the creator of Gotland Indigenous Comedy Show.

You can find us on www.gotlandcomedy.com.

And also if you want to see Gotland and you're in the Hamilton region of Ontario, we are going to be performing with the Canadian Comedy Hall of Fame on the third week of February.

So just follow us on our social medias and hopefully we'll see you there.

Thank you so much for coming on Television Times Podcast.

We did talk about telly somewhere in there, but it was a great chat regardless.

It was really good fun.

Thank you.

You too, Steve.

Thank you so much.

That was Janelle Niles speaking to me remotely from Canada.

Now, what a story that was, eh?

Training, massage, therapy, COVID hits, and then she goes comedy full time, and now she's got her own business, and you know, she's very successful.

It's amazing, and her voice is important, you know?

It's important to have indigenous voices out there as well, not just a bunch of white people like me.

Now, to our outro track.

Right, to the outro track.

So it's Transatlantic Serenade, a song from After the Fireworks, which was recorded in Ireland in 2008.

Parts of it were also recorded on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, hence the reference of standing on two different Atlantic shores, looking at the ocean from both sides.

And it was quite an emotional experience writing this song.

And yeah, I'm doing the vocal and being very, very affected by it.

We also tried to do it live in Toronto when I first met my future wife and my friend Jeff.

We attempted to play it live at a place called Supermarket in Toronto.

Two places, I think.

And yeah, it wasn't like in Back to the Future, where you go, okay, it's in E and it's the blues riff.

No, it's a fucking disaster.

Anyway, so this is Transatlantic Serenade.

I hope you like it.

I certainly do.

Well, that's one of those songs that just doesn't let up.

I used to do a lot of these, like Love, Die, To Death, songs like that that would just literally start and just fucking motor all the way to the end.

I hope you enjoyed that.

Real drums, proper band sound, that one, eh?

And yeah, we gotta get these songs out there somehow.

Let's do that, too.

Okay, so come back next week where we have a very special guest for you, and it's gonna be a good one.

You're gonna love it.

Okay, see you next time.