Ryan McMahon is an
Anishinaabe
The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawat ...
comedian, podcaster, and writer from the
Couchiching First Nation
The Couchiching First Nation ( oj, Gojijiing Anishinaabeg) is a Saulteaux First Nation band government in the Canadian province of Ontario, who live on the Couchiching 16A and Agency 1 reserves in the Rainy River District near Fort Frances ...
.
McMahon was born in
Fort Frances, Ontario, the oldest of three siblings. McMahon was the first in his family to graduate from high school. He attended the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
on a full hockey scholarship and graduated from the
Second City Training Center
The Second City Training Center was founded in the mid-1980s to facilitate the growing demand for workshops and instruction from the world famous The Second City theatre. Training Centers are located in Chicago, Toronto and Los Angeles. Satelli ...
.
He was the host of the 2018
Canadaland
Canadaland is a Canadian company that operates a news site and a network of podcasts. It was founded by Jesse Brown in 2013. Canadaland has produced podcasts on Canadian media, art and culture, cooking, medicine, and politics. Podcasts include ...
podcast ''
Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population i ...
'', and its upcoming television documentary adaptation, also titled ''
Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population i ...
''.
Early life and education
In his September 20, 2018 ''The Walrus Talks Success'' presentation in the
Isabel Bader Theatre
The University of Toronto is made up of several academic and administrative buildings at each of its three campuses.
St. George Campus
Scarborough Campus
Mississauga Campus
Demolished/Former Buildings
{, class="wikitable sortable"
, ...
in Toronto, McMahon said that he was the oldest of four children and that he was the first person in his family to graduate from high school. McMahon completed his degree in theatre at the
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...
.
He then completed a two-year program at the
Second City Conservatory in Toronto, Ontario, with a full scholarship granted by the Toronto Theatre Alliance.
Career
By 2008, McMahon had begun his standup comedy routines. In May 2010, his live performance of ''Welcome To Turtle Island Too'' was filmed in
St. Albert, Alberta for a
CBC television comedy special.
In the same year he was included in the New Faces of the
Just For Laughs festival in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
.
In February 2015, CBC Radio 1 national aired an hour-long comedy special of ''Red Man Laughing'' , that had been recorded live in 2014 in Edmonton, Alberta. Guests on the show included author
Joseph Boyden
Joseph Boyden (born October 31, 1966) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer of Irish and Scottish descent. He also claims Indigenous descent, but this is widely disputed. Joseph Boyden is best known for writing about First Nations culture ...
.
McMahon did an hour-long comedy special called Reconcili-Nation that toured in 2015.
McMahon was also featured as the host of Toronto Indigenous Film-maker
Michelle St. John
Michelle St. John (born August 26, 1967) is a Canadians, Canadian actress, singer, producer and director who has been involved in creative projects in theatre, film, television and music since the 1980s. Her directorial debut, ''Colonization Road ...
's Colonization Road whose documentary was partially filmed at Lang Pioneer Village. The documentary examined First Nations and settler relations through Ontario's first roadways. The roads were built to make the land accessible for settlers, but ultimately split up and cut off First Nations communities.
The program won the Yorkton Film Festival's Golden Sheaf Award for Best Documentary – Historical/Biography, and was nominated for a 2018 Canadian Screen Award.
In June 2019, ''CBC Comedy'' included McMahon on their list of "15 Canadian comedians to watch in 2019".
Podcasts
McMahon began podcasting in 2008. His 40-minute podcast ''Red Man Laughing'' had 20,000 listeners by 2012.
McMahon created the podcast ''Stories from the Land''. In 2016 he began to co-host
Canadaland
Canadaland is a Canadian company that operates a news site and a network of podcasts. It was founded by Jesse Brown in 2013. Canadaland has produced podcasts on Canadian media, art and culture, cooking, medicine, and politics. Podcasts include ...
's political show, ''The Commons''.
As advertising revenue proved inadequate to sustain McMahon's indigenous-themed podcasts, in 2014 he began organizing a member-supported podcast network called Indian and Cowboy. As of 2022 the network had 149 patrons and earned a monthly income of US$1,126 on Patreon.
''Thunder Bay'' projects
McMahon proposed a series about
Thunder Bay
Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population i ...
to
Jesse Brown, the founder of ''Canadaland''. The series was intended to resemble the American
National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
(NPR) "longform storytelling model". ''Thunder Bay'' was largely informed by ''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...
'' reporter
Tanya Talaga
Tanya Talaga is a Canadian journalist and author of Anishinaabe and Polish descent. She worked as a journalist at the ''Toronto Star'' for over twenty years, covering health, education, local issues, and investigations. She is now a regular colu ...
's award-winning book ''Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City,'' which investigated the deaths of seven Indigenous youth in Thunder Bay,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...
. Canadaland launched a fundraiser and surpassed their goal of about C$27,800 a month from supporters.
According to a ''Canadian Press'' article, by July 2019, McMahon, Jesse Brown, and Northwood Entertainment's Miranda de Pencier were working together to develop the Thunder Bay podcast into a television drama series.
Opinion essays
McMahon has written opinion pieces for ''
Vice News
Vice News (stylized as VICE News) is Vice Media's current affairs channel, producing daily documentary essays and video through its website and YouTube channel. It promotes itself on its coverage of "under-reported stories". Vice News was create ...
''
and ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
''.
''
Walrus
The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the fami ...
'' magazine published a speech that McMahon presented at an event called ''The Walrus Talks Success'' held in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
on September 20, 2018.
On May 26, 2017, as Canada prepared for its sesquicentennial, McMahon's "12 Steps to Decolonizing Canada" aired on CBC Radio's ''Day 6'' program. McMahon charted a "course for the next 150 years" to avoid the mistakes of the previous 150 years in Canada's relationship to Indigenous people. The show received the Sam Ross award for Opinion and Commentary at the 2018 RTDNA awards. McMahon reportedly refused to attend any celebrations of Canada's sesquicentennial.
Activism
McMahon has used his writing and podcasts as a platform to express ideas on various subject matters.
In a 2015 interview with ''Rabble'', McMahon said that the
Idle No More
Idle No More is an ongoing protest movement, founded in December 2012 by four women: three First Nations women and one non-Native ally. It is a grassroots movement among the Indigenous peoples in Canada comprising the First Nations, Métis ...
movement was a turning point for him. By that time, he had 20,000 listeners to his ''Red Man Laughing'' podcasts, and he decided to use his platform to speak about Idle No More. In a 2013 podcast shortly after the Idle No More movement had been launched, McMahon said that, for Anishinaabe, everything you do is political.
McMahon has been outspoken against colonial harm to Indigenous women.
In a June 7, 2019, CBC radio interview, McMahon discussed the June 3 release of the final report of the
National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls[ CP32-163/2-1-2019E-PDF][ CP32-163/2-2-2019E] and the disappointing response to the report by the media.
In June 2020,
CBC recommended Michelle St. John's ''Colonization Road'', which featured McMahon, as one of ten documentaries by Indigenous "activists" who are "advocating for change."
References
External links
* of Red Man Laughing Podcast
* of Indian & Cowboy Podcast Network on Patreon
* of Makoons Media Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:McMahon, Ryan
Canadian stand-up comedians
Saulteaux people
Living people
People from Fort Frances
Comedians from Ontario
1977 births
Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey players
Canadian podcasters