Keesha Brownie's new comedy album is the result of 'addiction' to standup
When asked to describe her comedic style, Keesha Brownie says "someone once said that I remind them of the Jamaican Ellen Degeneres."
The Montreal native's strong theatre background is what informs her lively and theatrical performance style and allows her to view standup comedy in a unique way.
Brownie first became interested in comedy while attending Humber College for their theatre performance program. She remembers attending a student-led standup performance with her classmates and noticing the similarities between theatre and standup comedy.
After graduating from theatre school, Brownie decided to take a comedy workshop and says she's "just been addicted ever since."
Her first standup performance was for a school showcase at a theatre near Humber College. At the time she had a professor who she says would eat chicken nugget sauce with his finger while teaching class. Brownie recalls incorporating this into her set and receiving a lot of laughs from the audience.
Brownie says she considers herself as "more of an actor comic". She explains that there are comics and then there are comedians. The former being someone who can stand on stage and continually deliver one-liners, and the latter being herself. Someone who acts things out.
"I'm very physical on stage," she says. "It's a show."
"Theatre is what really gave me the legs and the skeleton to do standup comedy because it's the same kind of art form, you're up there and you're vulnerable," says Brownie.
"You know if you're messing up the joke you mess up the joke. There's no cut, action and makeup. You're just in the spot, you're the writer, you're the producer, you're the director... If you have a good show my goodness it's rewarding, but if you have a really bad show then yeah you really take that to heart."
Brownie says she has pursued other passions, including modeling, acting, and music, but comedy is always something that she comes back to.
Her "addiction" to the art form is what led her to create her new comedy album, The Ingredients of a Brownie which was released under Howl & Roar Records, a female centric comedy record label. The album features jokes inspired by her Jamaican background, her parents, her Montreal upbringing and personal experiences.
"These are jokes that I've been doing for quite some time now and I figured that's the best way to kickstart myself to try something new. You know, work on another album. These are jokes that I want to retire now. They're funny, they're great but I'm a different Keesha now," she says.
When explaining what she hoped to accomplish with her album, Brownie says she wanted to "get her name out there", stay true to herself and display her roots. She describes the album as "a compilation of funny observations and quick one liners".
Pre-pandemic Brownie hoped to move to New York and continue pursuing her passion, but due to the pandemic has remained home in Brampton, working on virtual comedy shows and musical parodies which she posts on her social media accounts.
Her most recent show being a four night comedy show she helped produce called The Underground Comedy Railroad Show. She says it is "the first ever cross country virtual comedy show in dedication of Black History Month" and it is the show's ninth year running.
For the future Brownie says wants to continue improving the "Keesha Brownie" brand and hopes that people with similar passions will want to collaborate with her.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
