A face from the crowd
Reluctant comic pleases audiences at Mahaha comedy event
Casey Lessard
Northern News Services
Monday, August 10, 2015
IQALUIT
It took "a lot of convincing" for Nicole Nutaushuk Etitiq to step out of the crowd and onto the stage a year ago, but comedy fans in Iqaluit are glad she found the courage.
Nicole Nutaushuk Etitiq was a reluctant comic, but in her third gig, a Mahaha Comedy stand-off July 25, she was named top comic for sharing her personal stories. - Vincent Desrosiers photo |
In her third appearance at a Mahaha Comedy event, the 20-year-old won the Best Comic title July 25 at a comedy standoff against other local comics.
"I'm not telling jokes, it's just day-to-day things that happen in my life," Nutaushuk Etitiq said. "I find people laugh because they can relate to it. My whole life is a string of moments where it was embarrassing. I do a lot of self-ridicule in my comedy skits."
Unlike others in the group, she notes that she never had ambitions to be on stage and face a crowd.
"(My dad) always made fun of me because I used to laugh at my own jokes a lot," she said. "I never really considered myself a comedian, even yet. All of my stories are true. I think there's some sort of community feeling when you have a big group of people and you're all having a good time laughing."
Mahaha was founded to give Iqaluit comics Franco Buscemi and Nanauq Kusugak a venue to perform regularly, co-founder Travis Daley said, adding the Francophone Centre has become a welcome home for occasional comedy nights. It's one piece of a growing comedy scene in the capital, with last month's standoff being judged by APTN's Qanurli? crew of Josh Qaumariaq, Anguti Johnston, Vinnie Karetak, and Stacey MacDonald.
"(People in the audience) really respond well to coming in and seeing people they know on stage," Daley said. "We've had success with the pros we've had come up, but the best response we've had has been with people bringing jokes up that relate to Iqaluit and Nunavut."
Along with the other comics, Nutaushuk Etitiq showed that to be true, and got to take home $250 and a guest appearance on Qanurli?.
"I guess she felt confident that night," Daley said. "She was awesome, and she's done much better over the last few shows and gained confidence."
Daley is not so confident that he can safely put a video of her routine on the Internet. The show was recorded, yes, but it's not quite family-friendly.
"The last Mahaha show was pretty explicit," she said. "I talked about pretty sexual things, but I'm trying to do PG-13 right now. Somebody else won Most Perverted, and I really thought I was going to win that one."
There are, however, some videos of Aaron Watson, who earned the title of Freshest Comic, online. But Daley said perhaps the best idea for people who are interested in comedy is to come to the next show, in October.
"You kind of have to be there."
