This 12-year-old stand-up comic learned the ropes from his mom
"I knew that she was funny. I kind of wanted to be like her," Zachary Coffin, 12, said about his mom, Dawn
Zachary Coffin is turning heads in Winnipeg's comedy scene — and not just for his sense of humour.
At 12 years old, Zachary is by far the youngest comic in the city. Since he began performing about six months ago, he's taken the stage at local bars and comedy clubs, as well as some of city's largest performing venues.
"When I'm on stage, I feel like I'm on top of the world," he says. "I feel like a superhero."
Zachary comes by his comedy naturally. He was inspired to start after his mom, Dawn Lavand, began performing at open mics a few months before him.
"I knew that she was funny," he says. "I kind of wanted to be like her."
Now, stand-up comedy is a way for the pair to bond with each other as mother and son, and to connect with their own Indigenous identities.
Finding humour in difficult times
Dawn never set out to be a comedian. She says she fell into comedy after she sang at a work talent show over a year ago and someone told her she had a natural stage presence for comedy.
Since then, comedy has become a way for Dawn to process challenging experiences she's had in her life. She's Cree and Ojibway, but she wasn't raised by her biological family or in her community. She was raised by a white foster family, and a lot of her comedy is about what it was like for her to reconnect with her biological family and community as a young adult.
"I draw my inspiration from having to, as a youth, as a child, be expected to make sense of the world around them, even when the adults failed to teach or share any of that with me," Dawn says. "I had to figure that out on my own. And so there's a lot of humorous moments that go with that, just cause they're so outrageous."
Dawn says she's tried to raise Zachary differently from how she was raised, so that he has a better understanding of the world around him. But that hasn't always been easy.
"We had an interruption where the people I invested in didn't really believe in me as a mom," Dawn says. She says they told her that she should send her son away while she was going through hard times.
"So I did. I sent him away. And it wasn't until we got him back that I realized how close we were to maybe losing him."
Facing undercurrents of racism at school
Dawn says she has encouraged Zachary's interest in comedy so he could foster a confidence and connection with his identity that she didn't have when she was his age.
"I was really nervous because I didn't know if people would laugh at my jokes," Zachary says about the first time he got on stage. Now, he says he's found a place where he loves doing comedy. "My favourite thing to do is just make people laugh."
Zachary often jokes about school and his cat — subjects that any 12-year-old could relate to. But he also tells jokes that are more particular to his experience. He jokes about being a 12-year-old in spaces where he's the only kid and about being raised by an Indigenous mom and a white dad.
"I bring up I do comedy at school, but I don't really tell my jokes at school. They wouldn't get it," he says. "Whenever I'm at school I always feel like I have to wear this protective shield. I can't really share my emotions that much at school."
No matter which school Zachary has attended, Dawn says there have always been undercurrents of racism. Since he began junior high, she says the discrimination her son has faced at school has only gotten worse.
"I was telling my son, be kind, play with others. And then he would go to school and he would do what I said and then be met with hostility," Dawn says. "I needed to find a way that supported what I was telling my son."
'We have each other's backs'
It was around that time when Dawn discovered WOKE Comedy Hour, a twice monthly open mic night in Winnipeg that provides a space for women, non-binary, queer, Indigenous and people of colour comics.
"When I found WOKE and I heard the things they were saying about how they dealt with their racism or how they dealt with those kinds of themes, I was emboldened," Dawn says.
Even if the apocalypse happened tomorrow and we were fighting zombies, Zachary and I would be an awesome duo and we would figure it out.- Dawn Lavand
These days, Zachary and Dawn are regulars at the WOKE Comedy Hour.
"That's a place where we feel like we can be and not be judged," Zachary says. "When we go there we go with respect."
All those open mics were preparing Dawn and Zachary for their biggest show yet. On March 15, they took the stage at Laughter is Medicine, an annual comedy show hosted by the Indigenous publishing collective Red Rising Magazine.
The night was significant for both mother and son. Dawn had been looking forward to performing at the show since last year, and it was the biggest stage Zachary had ever performed on, with more than 200 people in the audience.
"I just couldn't have ever imagined being in a position like that and being able to share that moment with my son," Dawn said after the show.
Moving forward, Dawn says the potentials are endless for her and Zachary. She says that one day she hopes they might collaborate on a show together.
"We have each other's backs," Dawn says. "Even if the apocalypse happened tomorrow and we were fighting zombies, Zachary and I would be an awesome duo and we would figure it out."
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About the Producer
Isaac Würmann first tried his hand at storytelling as a nine-year-old living in Edmonton where he published a newsletter called Die Zeitung (German for "the newspaper") that he circulated among his family and friends. In those days, most of the pages were dedicated to ghost tales, but in short time he realized he'd rather help people tell their own true stories. Thirteen years later, Isaac is a freelance journalist living in Winnipeg. He graduated in 2018 with a Bachelor of Journalism in journalism and human rights from Carleton University. You can find him on Twitter: @isaac_wurmann.
This documentary was edited and mixed by Veronica Simmonds.