Valerie G. Barnes Connell Jordan
Northern Advocate
Aliya Kanini uses humour to make a connection with people wherever she goes.
For 10 years she worked as an Air Line Hostess, before turning to comedy as a career.
“I’ve always sort of used humour as a way to connect with people, since I was young,” she said in an interview with the Northern Advocate.
“I was always the fun in school. I truly felt it was the easiest way to connect with people, to make friends, to diffuse a situation, and so, it really just became part of my personality.”
After a decade in the air line industry, Kanini made the decision to move into comedy full time.
She took part in a comedy writing class and thought, “hey, listen, let me just do this for fun.”
She said participating in the class taught her a lot. She describes it as like opening a “Pandora’s Box” of creativity.
“I realized I had this real creativity inside me that had just sort of laid dormant for such a long time,” Kanini explained.
“I was just taken aback by how passionate I was about the thing that I just newly discovered … I just didn’t understand it could have been a career. … It was a nice accident almost.”
Comedy has taken her down the road and farther afield over the past 10 years.
Kanini was in La Ronge, hosted by the La Ronge Arts Council, on Monday, Nov. 17 at the Elks Hall, where she entertained a full house.
As a comedian, it’s a career that has brought together her two passions, comedy and travel.
“All of a sudden now I was a comedian and that allowed me to travel, but it really allows me to again meet locals and, ear to the ground, sort of immerse myself in the culture,” she said. “It’s really important that I do understand a little bit locally what the cultures are, to be able to speak to people. It’s really like a beautiful merriment of my two passions of travelling and my newfound passion of comedy, so I hit the g round running (and) I started touring.”
After making the discovery and beginning to make it a reality, she went to Australia and began to get invitations to other places.
“I went to South Africa for the Johannesburg International Comedy Festival … I go to go to Edinburgh Fringe … It’s been just a beautiful adventure to be able to travel and do comedy, both,” she said.
Travelling to different countries means entering different cultures. Kanini has been asked if comedy translates. Her answer? Not always.
“It really depends on what your topics are and how you present (them),” she explained. “For me, my goal is always be able to work in any place, to be able to present my comedy to be able to connect audiences on a human level.”
Keeping her goal before her and working on content and rhythm, Kanini has been able to weave her way through many communities and countries, and keep that human connection.
“One thing that I try to do is … figure out how to talk to everyone and make sure everybody is connected,” she said. “Now, that I have built this show to where it is, it is a very similar show whereever I go because I do want it to be the same show that connects with people know matter where I am.
“The proof is in the pudding, right? When I can get everybody, no matter where I am, whether I’m in Perth, Australia, whether I’m in La Ronge, whether I’m in New York City, and we can all laugh at the same jokes, that’s the proof of my premise, we are all the same.”
Of Saskatchewan, Kanini said, “I was really blown away by how kind, friendly and hospitable everybody was … It really was a lovely experience and I’m looking forward to coming back.”
While Kanini enjoys the travel and the creative aspect of comedy, she said important part is always connecting with people.
“A really fortunate thing that you have to remember is that, especially with the younger generation, the connection is not through your phone, [it’s] connection in person, feeling each other’s vibrations, sharing space,” she said.
