What a fascinating read.

This is non-fiction and chronicles the almost non-existant history of Native American comedians. It also showcases up and comers.

Yet, it is so, so much more. I am an IOTA Menominee and thought I "understood" the Indian culture to a point. After all, my family regularly went to the Rez when I was a kid. I have been to pow wows. I am proud of my heritage.

Well, I quickly learned how ignorant and blinded I truly am.

It's a real eye opener. A history lesson; a Current Events lesson; and great, funny stories all rolled into an extremely well written book. ( )

Its a great blend of history and could be a gift for folks who are in comedy ( )

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S WE HAD A LITTLE REAL ESTATE PROBLEM ABOUT?
This book sketches a broad history—roughly from the end of the 19th Century to the present—of Native Americans in comedy. He starts with things like wild west shows and circuses—where people like P. T. Barnum presented "authentic Indian" practices, but would define what was authentic for the people who'd do the performing, and would punish them if they did anything actually authentic. So right away, you know this is going to be a feel-good story.

In the early days of Movies and TV, it's not much better for most—Indians were stereotyped and usually played by Whites. Sure, you'd get occasional people like Will Rogers as the exception. Nesteroff chronicles the struggles for representation from then up to "Iron Eyes" Cody (and beyond, I'm sure).

Then he sketches out the bright spots for Native Americans in the contemporary comedy scene, from stand-up to theater to TV writing. Nesteroff spent a lot of time on Charlie Hill's life, career, and legacy—who made a lot of the contemporary advances possible. Frankly, he could've spent more time on it and kept me interested (although what he gave was sufficient). His interactions with Richard Pryor was fascinating.

Interspersed with the history are brief profiles of individual comedians/teams and their careers. So it's not just a history of the industry, but we get spotlights on individuals, too. They were definitely the highlights of the book for me.

HOW FUNNY WAS IT?
Nesteroff kept the narration restrained—he's a stand-up, so I'm sure his instincts were to perform (at least) a bit more than he did. But he read it the same way you'd read a book about productivity. I'd think that would be particularly difficult when he read a transcript or script from a comedy piece/interview. But even then—the material shone through and I found myself audibly chuckling frequently. Funny stuff is funny (would've been funnier in the original, I'm sure, but getting permissions necessary to do that would've made this audiobook too expensive to produce).

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT WE HAD A LITTLE REAL ESTATE PROBLEM?
I heard Marc Maron talk about this book a little on his podcast (but I haven't gotten around to any of the episodes with the author), and it seemed like it'd be up my alley. I love hearing about the business of comedy and the people that are behind it. Focusing on this one story? Sounded like a great idea. And I think Nesteroff pulled it off.

I guess I would think as a history, it's probably incomplete—but I'm not sure how you can do a comprehensive history of something like this.

I think the central premise of this—media depictions of Native Americans makes them conform too much to a stolid, serious, stoic type—or a tragic one. It's hard to believe that encompasses any culture—much less the great number of Native American cultures in North America. To promote understanding between cultures in the US and Canada, we ought to see all aspects of them.

The profiles—either brief or extended (like Charlie Hill and Will Rogers)—were interesting enough to make me go check out samples (and sometimes more) of the work. The overall narrative was interesting and optimistic.

I think the book worked—if you're at all interested in the behind-the-scenes of comedy, about those who make the movies/shows/stand-up you enjoy, you'll probably think so, too. ( )

Who knew? Which is what made this an interesting book. But I found it difficult to focus and concentrate on the book. In fact, while reading it, I found my mind wandering, thinking "I'd rather be re-reading 'The Inconvenient Indian.'" ( )

Best for:
Those with an interest in the history of comedy; those interested in the ways that US and Canadian popular culture have excluded groups, specifically Native Americans / Indigenous people.

In a nutshell:
Author Neteroff provides a comprehensive history of Native American comedy interspersed with vignettes about modern-day Native American comedians.

Why I chose it:
A cannonballer reviewed it and it sounded so interesting.

Review:
I wanted to enjoy this book more than I did. I think it might be one of the few cases where reading it as an audio book might have harmed it - for example, I didn’t realize until maybe 1/4 of the way through that the chapters were set up as sort of an alternating straight time line of the history of comedy and chapters about modern comedians. It felt super disjointed and a bit hard to follow until that clicked.

That said, the information in this book is interesting and pretty much all of it was new to me. The racism and lack of opportunities is not surprising, but I’ve been completely ignorant of the plight of Native American comedians - I’m not really ‘in’ to stand-up comedy, though I am a fan a few comedians (Hannah Gadsby springs to mind). I’m not totally unaware of the challenges that people who are not white men (or white women, to a lesser extent) face when seeking out their careers in places like Saturday Night Live, but I appreciate how the Native American experience is unique in this area.

I do wish this were written by a Native American writer or comedian, as I think they would be able to provide even more cultural context, though Neteroff clearly has done loads of research.

Keep it / Pass to a Friend / Donate it / Toss it:
If it weren’t an audio book I’d donate it. ( )