Derek Neary
Northern News Services

Fort Simpson (Jun 30/00) - It's been 16 years since Don Burnstick has indulged in alcohol.

In that time there has been a lot of reflection and a lot of laughter. Both were evident in Fort Simpson Thursday and Friday evening when Burnstick put on a couple of highly-anticipated performances in the community.

On Friday, he performed his dramatic, widely-acclaimed I am Alcohol play, based on his own life story.

The presentation, which poignantly tells of the ways alcohol was destroying his life, was something Burnstick created nine years ago. He said he had initially started out with a "rah, rah, rah," stop drinking speech, but it wasn't working.

There's little doubt in Pat Switzer's mind about the effectiveness of I am Alcohol on the other hand.

"It was quite powerful, very moving," said Switzer, who is a drug and alcohol counsellor with the Fresh Start program.

"Actually I've seen it about a dozen times because I have it on video. To me -- I use it in groups (counselling) -- it's a very powerful tool."

After a few years of performing the play, Burnstick realized the need to develop something else to complement his emotional performance.

"After the play there was always a lot of tears, so I needed something to balance it out," he explained. "I really believe in the message, but to life the spirits of the people with humour, that's really quite a gift."

He integrated laughter into his repertoire and now espouses four gifts of healing -- crying, praying, sharing and laughter.

"If you can do those four things, your life will change," he told the audience.

The youngest of 15 children from a Cree family of the Alexander First Nation outside Edmonton, Burnstick's comedic routine, enhanced by his Jim Carrey like facial expressions, includes his musings on popular culture from Elvis to rap to his version of the Macarena, the "Macaroni."

His material also includes the popular "... you might be a Redskin," an offshoot of Jeff Foxworthy's "... you might be a Redneck." He doesn't pull any punches when it comes to joking about contrasts between whites and aboriginals, and topics such as bingo and being poor.

Sisters Judy and Virginia Sabourin had a good laugh.

"His jokes, I found them funny because they're based on the truth," Judy said. Burnstick's comedy is sometimes edgy, but he made no apologies.

"If I offended anybody, too bad. You're too serious," he laughed, and the audience laughed right along with him.