A young Toronto comedian is motivated to make her community smile by turning her hardships into positive fuel.
In 2017, Grade 11 student Faith-Ann Allison first started posting rants on Instagram, and people started sharing her content. Those funny rants ended up becoming skits, which became the fire for her to jump into the content creation space.
“What inspired me to continue was that it was making people laugh. A lot of people live and breathe these characters that I put on screen. My creative process is making note of everyday things and how I can make something funny even more exaggerated,” Allison told Now Toronto.
Allison always enjoyed exploring her creative passions from a young age, from starting her own clothing brand as a teenager, being awarded a bursary from the Pinball Clemons Foundation, and one of the youngest Black women to be on the Black carpet at last year’s Legacy Awards.
She’s found success in her viral videos with over 15,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok through engaging captions, hashtags, and content that would get their attention immediately.
However, it’s not just about the digital numbers and fans for Allison. For her, she started realizing her impact and how to engage with her audience even deeper when people started recognizing her outside of the house.
“I wanted to connect with people more in terms of creating more engaging posts, getting people’s opinions, and asking people what kind of videos they want to see, or things that they like, that they want another repeat of, or even part twos to original content that I have,” Allison told Now Toronto. .
Allison works part-time with children at the Toronto Foundation for Student Success and has a lot of younger followers, so she’s mindful of what she puts out there and stays true to being her positive self.
“Just growing up and seeing certain things happen in my environment, my neighbourhood, really wanted me to just aim high and just be better for myself and for my family. So, for me, my purpose or my long-term goals is really to be at a place where I can just be happy, joyful, and using my gifts and my talents to really just help people and inspire people to be the best that they can be,” Allison said.
The now 24-year-old hopes to show other youth that she is the living example of someone who grew up in the Jane and Black Creek area, but was able to push through and lift the rest of her community up.
“I watch friends leave school to do other things. I watch friends leave this Earth, so many things in my environment that I was exposed to, and I was just able to choose a different route for myself because I saw that my talents, my capabilities, could really be used in a way that is for positive and to show others that you don’t have to turn to these things,” Allison said.
Allison often includes her friends in her long-form skits on YouTube or other Toronto content creators on the come up to highlight their growing platforms, like Gammi Jhordhan, Plushh, and Snowd4y.
The comedian also pays homage to her Jamaican culture by posting plenty of voice over content about her own childhood growing up in a household with two Jamaican immigrant parents.
“The reason why being a Jamaican is important for me, and I incorporate that in not only my comedy, but also, just like speaking and things like that, is because that’s really my backbone,” she said.
Allison’s determined, yet humble attitude has carried her far in the entertainment industry already, where usual setbacks in standup comedy or people spewing hateful comments on social media don’t mean much to her.
“I would definitely say when a joke doesn’t land, I just move on to the next joke and that’s honestly how I look at life. You fail or you fall on your face. There are certain opportunities or a door doesn’t open, then you just go to the next thing, like you just tramp over that. And for me, I always look at comedy, stand-up, and the things that I encounter in life as a mini picture of what life is really about,” she said.
And if Allison does feel like she’s going through a setback, she sees it more like a learning opportunity to do better for herself.
“I want to educate myself more so that I’m able to properly advocate for myself and not do it where I’m highlighting a stereotype, like I’m not showing the angry Black woman. I’m presenting myself as an articulate person who knows how to use their voice in a space where it’s needed, or a space that is not heard,” Allison said.
As for what’s next, Allison recently opened for Kenny Robinson’s Nubian show. She’s performing at the Up and Comedy show with Mista Dre and friends at Ruumors Lounge on Oct. 18 at 8:30 p.m.
