Table of Contents
Author's Note xi
Jonny Roberts Drives Five Hours to Every Gig and Five Hours Back 1
"Degrading, Demoralizing, and Degenerating" 4
The 1491s in Their Underwear 15
Vaudeville Was Fraud-ville 22
Adrianne Chalepah Pays the Price for Correcting Her History Teacher 26
Will Rogers's Grandpa Is Murdered in a Vengeance Killing 31
Jonny Roberts Is Nervous in San Berdoo 36
Will Rogers Learns Rope Tricks from an Enslaved Person 41
Jackie Curtiss Breaks Ed Sullivan's Foot 54
Will Rogers Takes a Fateful Flight With a One-Eyed Pilot 61
Dakota Ray Hebert Listens to Jeff Foxworthy on Her Walkman 70
Jim Thorpe Demands Only American Indians for American Indian Parts 72
From Meteorology to the Upright Citizens Brigade with Joey Gift 79
Will Rogers Jr. Hated Analogies to His Father 81
Charlie Hill Orders a Ventriloquist Dummy 86
Brian Bahe Goes Onstage Twelve Times a Week 91
Davy Crockett Brainwashes the Kids 93
Lucas Brown Eyes Sells a Sitcom Pilot 101
Charlie Hill Is Inspired by Bob Newhart and Other Political Radicals 103
Paul Littlechief's Only Ambition Is to Be the "First American Indian Comedian" 115
The Trickster Figure Causes People to Fart When They're Most Keen to Impress 121
F Troop Represents the F-Word 125
Williams and Ree Perform for Thirteen People at the Holiday Inn 130
Charlie Hill and a Bearded Comedian in a Rusty Red Truck 139
Williams and Ree Are Desperate to Get on Carson 150
Charlie Hill Asks Barney Miller to Free Leonard Peltier 155
Jackie Keliiaa Thinks, "Holy Shit, This Is Amazing." 167
Someone Calls the Cops on the 1491s 169
Charlie Hill and the Swimming Number with Joe Namath 173
Larry Omaha Investigates a Foul-Mouthed Parrot 177
Terry Ree Becomes the First (and Last) Native American Comedian on Hee Haw 181
Ryan McMahon Has a Life-Changing Experience in Winnipeg (of All Places) 185
Charlie Hill Isn't Offered Anything but Crap 187
The 1491s Reluctantly Agree to Do a Shakespeare Festival 192
Sierra Ornelas Sells Sitcoms Like It's the Santa Fe Indian Market 195
Vincent Craig Performs on the Back of a Flatbed Truck 199
Isiah Yazzie Does Improv for an Empty Room in Shiprock, New Mexico 209
Howie Miller Does Impressions. Do You Guys Like Impressions? 211
The Beef with Don Burnstick 214
Marc Yaffee Is Weirded Out by His Own Mother 221
Jonny Roberts Quits His Job 227
Netflix Summons Adrianne Chalepah to Minnesota 231
Elaine Miles Assumes She Was the First Woman to Do It 235
Dallas Goldtooth Rides His Bicycle through Standing Rock and Sterlin Harjo Mocks the Hippies 238
Those Friendly Canadians Send Death Threats to Williams and Ree 246
Ralphie May Starts a Fight and Then Changes His Mind 250
Charlie Hill Phones Mitzi Shore to Say Good-Bye 255
The 1491s Get a Standing Ovation in a Small Oregon Town 262
Jonny Roberts Is Stunned to See the Literal Writing on the Wall 269
Acknowledgments 271
A Note About the Notes 273
Notes 275
Index 297