‘Sash’ and Burn! Aisha Brown Hilariously Settles Scores with her New Crave Original Stand-Up Special THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN EVER, Streaming Friday

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Aisha Brown doesn’t want to “make a big deal” of being the first black woman to host a Crave Original Stand-up Special. Even though she takes the stage wearing a sash that reads “Miss Black Crave Canada.” Also, the new hour-long special actually is called, AISHA BROWN: THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN EVER. But other than that, she insists she doesn’t want to make a big deal of it. Filmed in front of a live audience at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montréal last summer, AISHA BROWN: THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN EVER premieres this Friday, Feb. 14 on Crave. It’s the first installment in a brand-new batch of exciting Crave Original Stand-up Specials, and will be followed in the coming months by THE EL-SALOMONS: MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE, GRAHAM KAY: STUPID JOKES, and TOM HENRY: 66 JOKES. Here’s what Brown – a Toronto-based comedian, writer, actress, and extremely casual satirical rapper – had to say about the thing she isn’t making a big deal about: Q: There are a lot of targets in your stand-up act, from specific towns, to ex-boyfriends, to politicians, to racism. Are you just settling personal scores? AISHA BROWN: “That’s all it is. We’re taking care of my dad’s stuff, and then I’m going to go after my grade-school teachers, and I already pretty much punch every ex-boyfriend in the face. I don’t name them by name. I let them be insecure, like, ‘Was that me?’ I’m very petty, so I go after anybody who has slighted me or my family in even the smallest way. Although I won’t use a person’s full name in a joke, because I don’t have the money to get sued.” Q: Does it impact you when you know a live show is being taped for a special? AISHA BROWN: “I’m a person who does get a little self-conscious in front of a camera. I guess as long as you’re not being slanderous, it doesn’t change what you’re doing too much. But your material needs to be more evergreen. I’ve worked at THE BEAVERTON, so I’m a person who, for a career, reads the news in order to satirize it. That’s second nature to me. So when I know I’m being taped, I have to go into more general subjects. I’ve already given up on trying to be relevant with things like music and trends. I feel like that’s a full-time job. If I wanted to be cool, I would have to commit a lot of energy to that.” Q: You’ve been in the comedy world for quite a while, even though you’re still a very young woman … AISHA BROWN: “Very young? Well, thank you. People say I look young, and I like to play with that in my act. But I feel they just aren’t looking close enough. People talk to me at night.” Q: Isn’t that a typical Canadian response? The first instinct is to deflect a compliment. AISHA BROWN: “That’s why it’s so hard for Canadian entertainers to be stars sometimes, because humility is kind of a prized Canadian attribute. We’re scared of being perceived as ego-driven monsters. But maybe in doing that, we’re denying actual innate parts of ourselves that we need for success. When you always want to be liked, it stops you from being able to have sincere emotions.” Q: That sounds like a winding path for a comedian. AISHA BROWN: “There is a weird line because I find that when a comic will double down on something, and they don’t back down, it strengthens their point of view. But a lot of us fight that instinct to go too mean, because we’re like, ‘What if they don’t go with me? What if they don’t appreciate this?’ A lot of my punchlines ARE mean. They’re not things I would say in a conversation. It’s for entertainment value, but I’ve had to coach myself to lean into it. I don’t want my comedy to be alienating, but I’ve realized that if I look apologetic, no one will be on board.” Q: Aside from your established fans, there are people who aren’t yet familiar with your comedy who will see this special on Crave. Who are they? What’s the target audience? AISHA BROWN: “That’s a good question. I hadn’t really thought about it before, because I didn’t want to psych myself out. But thinking about it now, maybe that GAME OF THRONES fan who signed onto Crave, and is looking around for something else to watch, and I’m not on their radar, but maybe they accidentally press play and keep watching. So I just want everybody who was into GAME OF THRONES to be into me.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv