Kliph Nesteroff

Kliph Nesteroff is a Canadian comedy historian whose archival research and interviews recover performers often left outside standard entertainment histories. We Had a Little Real Estate Problem, published by Simon & Schuster in 2021, traces Native American comedy from the late nineteenth-century Wild West show circuit to contemporary stand-up and sketch work. The narrative places Cherokee humorist Will Rogers and comedian Charlie Hill beside later figures including Adrianne Chalepah and the 1491s. Nesteroff draws on original interviews while showing how Native performers used humor to challenge stereotypes, preserve community perspectives, and enter industries that had denied them representation. The project extends the historical method of his earlier book The Comedians, but narrows the focus to Indigenous artists in the United States and Canada. Publisher and author records describe him as a comedy historian, and the book's combination of biography, cultural history, and performer testimony makes that role especially visible.