The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour

(5 stars; 4 reviews)

The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour A fifteen minute political/social satire radio series that revolved around Native people and Native concerns. Set in Blossom, Alberta, the show featured Edna Rain as Gracie Heavyhand, Floyd Favell as Jasper Friendlybear, and Thomas King as himself as they sit around in the Dead Dog Cafe and discuss the affairs of the world. While Jasper tries to talk Tom into paying for his coffee. The Dead Dog Cafe began in Tom King's novel Green Grass Running Water and offered all sorts of "dead dog" items on the menu, such as deep fried puppy whatnots. In the radio series Dead Dog Cafe Comedy Hour, three native characters have a radio show, but they don't know anything about radio. There's Jasper Friendly Bear, the optimist of the group. We don't know what he did before starting the radio show, but since then he has talked about becoming a paparazzi photographer and opening a bank at the cafe. There's no end to the good that Jasper can do for the country as a whole. Then there's Gracie Heavy Hand, who is more pragmatic than Jasper. She's very "down to earth" and as a businesswoman she's very supportive of Jasper -- when it stands to make her some money. Then there's Tom King, who gets to play himself. He thinks he's cerebral. He also thinks that he understands both native and white culture, but he doesn't really understand either. At the Dead Dog Cafe, the talk is lively and the coffee's always on and you never know who will drop in.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.