We’re still getting rave reviews from our Dead Wit Laugh comedy show last month, and want to thank everyone who came out and supported the show! We did a few impromptu interviews with our DWL stars, and we want to share them here – get to know some of our homegrown talent!

Dwayne Morgan is a poet, author, spoken word performer, and social entrepreneur who has touched Toronto and the world with his words. Read on to learn a bit more about the man behind the mic!

What drew you to comedy and the performing arts?

That’s a good question! I love just entertaining people in whatever form, you know. It was good that poetry came to me at some point, because I couldn’t rap, I couldn’t sing, you know – all that other stuff. So once I discovered that poetry was something that I could do, then I just took that and ran with it and built what I’ve built. 

What have been the best and worst things about performing spoken word poetry?

The worst thing is that there aren’t enough people like me building an infrastructure so that you can actually tour successfully and all of these sorts of things. I’ve been blessed to be able to do it, but there are so few of me, and there haven’t been enough people building spaces the same way I’ve been. I mean, you look at comedians and they have Yuk Yuks, and you can be on that Yuk Yuks circuit just going, going, going – but with poetry you can’t really do that. 

The best, I think is – very similar to comedians – the world is becoming so digital that it’s good to see that you can just speak to people and remind people that you can communicate with just words. It’s the oldest form of human connection really, and just reminding people of that is the best part. 

What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened to you at a show? 

Definitely, the craziest thing was this time I was booked to open for these male strippers, and the women in the audience turned on me and started chanting for me to take it off. I couldn’t even remember the lines to my poem because it was so loud! I looked at my sister who was off to the side, and she was pissing herself laughing. I just hurried up and finished the poem. 

How does Toronto’s audience differ from other cities? 

For the most part, at a lot of the shows I do, I see a lot of Black people. When I travel outside of Toronto – especially in Canada anyway – my audience is completely different. Black people and people of colour end up being a minority. When I’m in Europe, I’m performing for all White people. I think because I’ve built and cultivated a certain thing here, it’s easier for me to perform in front of people who look like me, and when I get outside of that, it’s a whole different thing. One of the challenges for me has always been to create material that supersedes just the Black community, just Scarborough, just Toronto – because when I go to Germany, they don’t care about Scarborough. They don’t know Scarborough. So I have to write stuff that means something to them there. I think it’s been a good thing as an artist to travel and expose myself to all of these different things and realize where my material has to go for me to achieve the things I want to achieve.

A genie grants you a wish: You can create your own show, and it’s guaranteed to be a sell out. Who are the 3 people you’d have on the bill with you?

Let’s see – 3 people on the bill…well, I’d definitely have to put Mariah Carey on there, and Kanye will have to make an appearance. And I think Beres Hammond would have be on there. We’d definitely make something happen. 

Dwayne celebrates his 20th anniversary on August 7th! Check his Events page for more details!