Julie C. Bull [footpints]

Comedienne was more than just a bunch of laughs

When Jodi Taylynn Belcourt attended a healing group led by
Julie Collette Bull, her life was in shambles and she had a large chip on her
shoulder.

“I wanted to leave, but Julie told me I would smile one day
and be happy,” Belcourt wrote in a Facebook tribute to Julie. “She asked me to
trust her. I went home that night and decided to stay. I stayed for one year
straight. She believed in me when no one else would, and in group she made me
laugh until my belly and cheeks hurt.”

The Alberta comedienne’s use of wise counsel and humour
endeared many more like Belcourt to Bull.

“Julie was naturally talented in a number of ways,” said
Edmonton’s Louis Buff Parry, a close friend who gave the eulogy at her funeral
on Alberta’s Goodfish Lake First Nation. The much-loved performer, educator and
counsellor died of complications due to diabetes on May 23, 2015. She was 42
years old.

Parry explained to Windspeaker that it was after he showed
Julie a video clip of his ex-wife performing stand-up comedy as an opener for
comedian Howie Mandel that Bull first considered using humour to make a living.

“After she saw that performance, it sent her to a place
where she’d always kind of been because she is by nature a very funny person.
She took lessons in comedy and before we knew it she was going on tour.”

The final exam Julie had to pass from the course she took at
Yuk Yuk’s International Comedy Clubs in 2001 consisted of giving a live
performance onstage at a Yuk Yuk’s stand-up comedy night.

“She was nervous but she did great,” said her younger sister
Crystal. “Students were given other opportunities to perform at Yuk Yuk’s, and
my sister always took them. She gave out a lot of complimentary tickets so she
always had support from family and friends. That really helped her build
confidence and she just kept going.”

She ended up doing comedy for more than 10 years, making
audiences of up to 2,500 people laugh. She performed in Edmonton, Calgary,
Winnipeg, and Toronto, and also travelled to the United States and Australia
with her show.

Julie often relied on her body weight to make audiences
laugh. She was a large woman who had often been referred to as “that fat chick”
in school, said Crystal. “She had self-esteem issues, as we all do, but I think
she was in her late 20’s when she finally accepted the way she was and decided
to just live.

“She was my role model. I loved the way she dressed. There
was even an article written about her fashion sense in a Big, Beautiful Women
magazine about 10 years ago.

“She loved the 80’s and the clothing of that time – those
leopard and zebra prints. It was all about big hair, too, and I remember
there’s a picture of her in high school with her hair spiked sky high – about
half a foot off her head. She said if she was going to be known as “that fat
chick” she might as well be known as “that fat chick with the hair.”

Born in Goodfish Lake on June 26, 1972, Julie’s close-knit
family moved to Sherwood Park, just outside of Edmonton, when she was still
young, and then spent three years in Victoria while her father, Sam Bull,
attended law school.

The family returned to Alberta when Sam started the
Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations, of which he became the executive
director. Julie also worked there for almost seven years, beginning in 1994, as
the Education Coordinator, working with Aboriginal organizations and mainstream
agencies while participating in the political process at First Nations’ local
and provincial levels.

In 2005 she began working as a facilitator for Native
Counselling Services of Alberta. With a partner, she developed a parenting and
life skills program, delivering it and evaluating it regularly by keeping
statistics related to her clients’ lives. She also researched, developed and
led workshops in self-esteem, effects of colonization, humour in the workplace
and an especially well-attended session entitled ‘Play Is Not Just For Kids.’

Her teaching style revolved around humour and made her a
popular facilitator, Master of Ceremonies for private and public events, and
professional public speaker.

“My sister made friends everywhere she went,” recalled
Crystal. “She was the most outgoing person I ever knew. She was a spiritual
person, too, and was taking courses to become a minister at Edmonton’s Centre
for Spiritual Living.”

In his eulogy, Parry touched funeral goers by reading poems
Julie had written and explained why he called her “Jules” instead of “Julie.”

“She was always correcting me and telling me I should call
her Jules. So I did, and here’s why: because she was a diamond – sometimes in
the rough – with a big, ruby heart. Her struggles created the great pearl that
she became.”