How Scarborough Took Back Its Own Story | Janice Mendes — Creating Consciousness Ep. 6

Scarborough was getting talked about for everything except the people who actually live there so Janice Mendes built a platform to flip that whole narrative.

Welcome back to Creating Consciousness. This week I sit down with the official unofficial Ambassador of Scarborough herself, founder and producer of Scarborough's Got Jokes, and a real one in every sense of the word. We get into what actually makes Scarborough different (it's the only place where the immigrants outnumbered the people calling them immigrants), why we're all out here angry about a five-dollar patty but never angry about fifty-dollar pasta, and why Kennedy Station was the heartbeat of half our childhoods. Janice tells the whole founding story of Scarborough's Got Jokes — how it started as a birthday stunt where she just wanted to bring four comedians to her side of the city instead of dragging twenty of her friends downtown, and how it grew into a 200,000-follower brand booking lineups with names like Hasan Minhaj, Nitish Sakuja, and Tamara Shevon. We talk about the difference between actors and comedians (actors are lone ships, comedians are a community), why comedy still doesn't get the respect it deserves as an art form, and how her years working as a youth worker — including with a young Tristan Thompson — taught her exactly how to handle a room full of comics who need attention. We close with a brand new round of "Levels To Me." If you're from Scarborough, from a hood that doesn't get its flowers, or anywhere built by people the news got wrong — pull up. Peace and love, y'all.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Why Scarborough Is the Place Immigrants Actually Land

00:04:30 Why $5 Patties Make People Angry But $50 Pasta Doesn't

00:08:30 Kennedy Station Was the Heartbeat of Our Childhood

00:13:30 Stigma vs Reality of Growing Up in Scarborough

00:18:30 The Unwritten Rules of Scarborough Hoods

00:22:00 Scarborough's Got Jokes Started as a Birthday Stunt

00:26:00 Actors Are Lone Ships But Comedians Are a Community

00:30:30 Why Comedy Still Doesn't Get Respect as an Art Form

00:36:30 Scarborough Spots and Building a 200K Follower Brand

00:40:30 What Youth Work With Young Offenders Taught Her

00:44:00 How That Skill Set Transfers Directly to Producing Comedy

00:48:30 Levels To Me: Pick One Scarborough Restaurant to Revive

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