No joking matter

• Williams and Ree

Williams and Ree

Talk about it

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• ON THE WEB: Williams and Ree's website
• North Dakota Senate panel to hold Fighting Sioux hearing on Monday
• Williams and Ree to perform at Empire Arts Center on March 15

Williams and Ree, the longtime comedy duo who bill themselves as “the Indian and the White Guy” and play off race for some of their material, were negotiating in February to play Grand Forks this month when UND’s Fighting Sioux nickname controversy apparently derailed the talks.

Rob Battle, the comedy team’s agent in Nashville, Tenn., confirmed Thursday that he was negotiating a Grand Forks appearance by the comedy team for mid-March when a representative of the host facility made an unusual request.

“A request came back to the boys asking that they not use the word ‘Indian’ in their performance,” Battle said. “It seemed odd, since that’s part of their deal. After all, they’re the Indian and the White Guy.”

Battle said he did not remember which venue was to host the concert, but he thought “it was part of the university.”

A spokeswoman for the Alerus Center, which hosts UND football games, commencement ceremonies and other events but is not part of UND, said Thursday that she was aware of consideration given to the Williams and Ree act but did not know about any negotiations that may have taken place.

Cheryl Swanson, the Alerus Center’s executive director, was not immediately available for comment.

No offer made

Phil Potter, national director of programming for VenueWorks in Ames, Iowa, said he was looking at Williams and Ree among several acts as possible entertainment at a “business after hours function” at the Alerus on March 17.

“There were at least half a dozen acts we kicked around, and it never got to an offer point,” he said.

Potter said he knew nothing of the nickname controversy until someone in Grand Forks mentioned it to him. He called Battle and asked “if that is too sensitive right now.”

He said he made the suggestion that the act limit its references to Indians.

“I made the inquiry,” he said. “That was a call I made on my own.”

He said the discussions didn’t go further, and the event planners apparently decided “to do something smaller, maybe local,” and he didn’t think more about it.

Battle said he was told, apparently by Potter, that because of the ongoing controversy over the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo, there was concern “by a member of the committee” that approved event scheduling that an appearance by an act that relied in part on Indian-related jokes could be a problem. The situation “was just too heated politically,” Battle said he was told.

He said he was asked whether the comedy duo would agree to perform without using the word “Indian.”

Battle said he took the query to Terry Ree, and Ree — who is Sioux — laughed.

“He thought it was very funny,” Battle said. “He said, ‘Yeah, we can do that.’

“They’ve done this for so long, there’d be no problem with filling a show and meeting that condition. We even said we’d be willing to put it in the contract. They’re so flexible, they could make it work.

“I can guarantee you they’d have a thousand ways to skirt the issue and still be dad-gum good.”

But Battle said he was told that the event planners had decided against proceeding with a booking.

House vote didn’t change things

Battle said he made another overture after the North Dakota House of Representatives approved a bill on Feb. 21 directing UND to retain the Fighting Sioux nickname and logo. He said someone emailed him a copy of a newspaper report on the House vote.

“We went back and asked if this changed anything,” he said, but it apparently didn’t.

Williams and Ree frequently perform on Indian reservations as well as in Las Vegas and at other major venues. They performed two shows at the Spirit Lake Casino near Devils Lake on Feb. 28.

In a video clip posted on sayanythingblog.com, Ree talks about the unscheduled concert and his reaction when Battle told him the engagement would not happen — but might if they agreed not to make references to Indians.

“When I pulled myself up off the floor and stopped laughing, I told him yeah, we’ll do it.”

He hinted, though, that the performance might have included some new material drawn from the UND nickname fight.

“I was going to hang this son of a bitch out to dry, any moron who could be that narrow-minded,” he said.

“I don’t know any Indian that doesn’t like Fighting Sioux,” Ree said in the undated video. “I don’t know any. I’m a Sioux and I think it’s a hell of a deal. I like to see that Indian head on there.”

Bloggers who favor keeping the nickname and logo have been citing the incident as evidence of “political correctness” influencing the debate.

Reach Haga at (701) 780-1102; (800) 477-6572, ext. 102; or send e-mail to chaga@gfherald.com.

A video clip of Williams and Ree talking about not appearing in Grand Forks on the Say Anything blog:

http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/comedians-williams-and-ree-lose-gig-in-grand-forks-over-the-fighting-sioux-nickname-controversy/

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