Arsan Buffin brings Indigenous comedy, storytelling, and emerging voices to the stage

By Chevi Rabbit, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 

(ANNews) – Arsan Buffin says his work in the arts has grown from years of community involvement, storytelling, and humour into producing and performing Indigenous stand-up comedy across Alberta.

Buffin is originally from northern Saskatchewan, from the community of Meadow Lake. He is a member of Flying Dust First Nation but now calls Edmonton home.

“I worked for a lot of Indigenous organizations in the arts and supportive roles like frontline support worker,” he said, reflecting on his path after moving to Edmonton in 2004.

Alongside his community work, Buffin has remained connected to the arts through photography and, more recently, performance-based work. “I’ve always worked in the arts through photography, and nowadays I’m working on the performance arts,” he said. “I wrote my first play recently, and I produced an Indigenous stand-up comedy show.”

That shift into comedy, he said, was something that developed organically over time, especially through humour and early experimentation with social media. “People have always said I was funny, and I’ve always liked to tell jokes and tell stories,” Buffin said. “And then TikTok came along, and I used TikTok a lot to make dumb videos, comedy videos, just being cheeky.”

Encouragement from viewers pushed him to take the next step into live performance. “A lot of people said, ‘Oh, you should do comedy, you should try stand-up comedy,’” he said.

Buffin began performing at open mic nights in Edmonton, including at Grindstone Theatre, where he tested material and built confidence on stage. “I did a couple open mics here in Edmonton at a place called the Grindstone Theatre, and I did okay,” he said.

From there, he drew on his experience organizing community events to build something larger. “I have experience organizing shows and events,” Buffin said. “You just have to find people, find a venue, and promote it.”

That approach eventually led to the creation of the Must Be Nice Indigenous Comedy Tour, which continues to feature emerging Indigenous comedians and community-based performances.

which Buffin just completed a tour over the National Indigenous Day weekend June 19 – 21, with performances in Cold Lake, Edmonton and Wetaskiwin.

Buffin said humour plays a significant role in Indigenous storytelling and communication, especially in relation to lived experience and intergenerational healing.

“I think humour is a way that First Nations or Indigenous people like to communicate,” he said. “We have a lot of trauma, we have a lot of unpacking that we have to do, like generational trauma, and one of the ways that we reclaim those stories and reclaim identity is through humour.”

He said humour can also reflect trust, connection, and cultural familiarity. “One of our love languages is teasing,” Buffin said. “If another person likes you, they tease you, and if they don’t tease you, then chances are they don’t like you.”

Buffin added that storytelling requires comfort and relatability between performer and audience. “A lot of that is feeling comfortable with somebody,” he said. “Comfortable that they can take a joke, and I feel that’s an important aspect of storytelling.”

He said his identity as a First Nations person also shapes his comedy and how he connects with audiences. “I think that being First Nations and having a Nation that you come from helps you identify with the audience and helps you create a niche for yourself,” he said.

Much of his material, he added, is rooted in Indigenous perspectives and everyday experiences that audiences can relate to. “So, the comedy show and the comedy that I do, a large part of it is from the Indigenous perspective, the Indigenous lens, Indigenous stories,” Buffin said. “I feel that those experiences really help connect to the audience.”

He said those shared cultural touchpoints often help bridge generational and community differences. “If there’s a kokum or a grandmother in the audience, I can easily tell a joke about a kokum and she’ll totally laugh because it’s something she can relate to,” he said.

“Being able to say I come from this Nation helps create a dialogue,” he said. “It helps create that connection to whichever community I’m in.”

He also hopes Indigenous comedy helps shift how audiences understand Indigenous stories and representation. “I hope they learn that we have a diverse range of stories,” he said. “We’re not just joking, doing aunty-jokes or uncle jokes, even for our own people.”

Buffin said Indigenous comedy is often misunderstood as being limited to hardship narratives. “We’re not all gloom and doom,” he said. “We’re not just talking about poverty and all the crappy or unfortunate stuff in our lives.”

Instead, he said, Indigenous humour is broad and accessible to all audiences. “Our humour is general, and people who aren’t from the reserve can also laugh at these jokes,” he said.

He added that seeing Indigenous performers on stage can challenge stereotypes and shift perception. “It can really shape the way they perceive an Indigenous person or First Nations person in terms of seeing them on stage,” he said.

Buffin said he sees performance itself as a form of healing and expression. “I think the thing that people can take away is that being on stage is a therapy,” he said. “Being able to be on stage and getting to share your ideas and have the community resonate and relate to your humour or your jokes is powerful, and that’s a form of therapy.”

He said he hopes more Indigenous people are encouraged to explore storytelling and performance. “I really want to encourage and support other people to be able to get on stage and share their own stories,” he said.

Buffin added that comedy and performance should be seen as accessible to everyone, not limited to major centres or industry gatekeepers.

“As somebody who has dedicated my life to the arts, I want people to know that the performance arts and comedy is accessible, and that anybody can do it,” he said. “My goal is to educate people and to show them how they can do it too – how they can tell their stories too.”