Kesi Asher, Staff Reporter
Tony 'Paleface Hendriks in a recent performance at the International Comedy Festival, held at the Hilton Kingston Hotel. - CARLINGTON WILMOT/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
THE LURE and impact of 'Brand Jamaica' continues to be felt in comedy. Jamaican comedians, Owen "Blakka" Ellis, Ian "Ity" Ellis, Alton "Fancy Cat" Hardware, Audrey Reid and Tony "Paleface" Hendriks are satisfying a great demand in North America and Europe for "yaadie" style comedy.
Tony 'Paleface' Hendriks, who now lives and works in England believes that Jamaican comedy is another important brand in the Jamaican appeal internationally.
'With the size audience that I'm talking to, we get to explore Jamaican culture and that's good. If you grow bananas you have to export them, I'm just exporting my brand of bananas," said Hendriks.
The comedian has made a name in the UK and across Europe, orchestrating and perfecting his one man show, Brixton Road Portraits. In fact he says he is in discussions with promoters about taking the show to Kingston next year. He has also been doing stand-up comedy at least five to six times a week in comedy clubs in Britain and Europe, including the famed Hackney Empire.
Hendriks is also involved in a televised sitcom called Within the Crouches, aired on BBC1. "My career is definitely coming along because I'm expanding the market," he says.
In fact, expanding the market is what many local comedians like actress Audrey Reid, famous for her role as Marcia in Dancehall Queen, is about.
'HUNGRY FOR IT'
Reid has also been busy in England working on plays Higgler, Confessions of Black Women, Betrayed, and It's a Dancehall Ting. Reid reports that being on stage in England is much like in Jamaica, as the audience is "hungry for it."
"I see myself in the theatre for a long time. My career has been going great, mainly in England, I've been busy. I've performed at the Blue Mountain Theatre and the Achne Theatre," remarked Reid.
The lure of the bright lights and big stages of first world countries has also attracted Ity and Fancy Cat and Blakka Ellis.
Ity and Fancy Cat launched their laughter on the international scene on September 16, 2005 in the British Virgin Island of Tortola for the Caribbean Comedy Festival but the duo also has shows scheduled in New York at the Brooklyn College, and Montreal, Canada in October. On November 5, they will join Blakka in Toronto at the York Event Theatre, for Caribbean Comedy Invasion.
Comedians play not just to foreign audiences internationally, but to a substantial group of Jamaicans abroad who are hungry for a taste of Jamaica.
Blakka Ellis has been pinned to an enormous schedule. Caribbean Students Week at McAlester College in Minneapolis Minnesota in April, was fed with a 'belly full' of laughs when Ellis graced their stage.
He also headlined the Laughs and Music from Jamaica comedy show at Club DNA Lounge in Toronto. The event featured New York based Jamaican ensemble Robanic Reggae Band and a host of young Canadian comics.
Blakka Ellis also brought a bellyfull to the Ardenne High School Alumni Luncheon held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in White Plains New York in May. In June he was in Boston and Washington, where he did the Caribbean Comedy Fest.
In October, he travels to Atlanta, New York, Barbados, Montreal, London, and Los Angeles before coming back to Jamaica for the Caribbean Christmas Crack-up.
Blakka Ellis endorses the idea of creating a Jamaican Brand of comedy internationally. He says that at almost every show on which he performs, there are non-Jamaican comedians who draw on Jamaican material because they know it is widely accepted.
"The fulfilling part of it is to discover time and time again how Jamaica is loved all over the world," Blakka Ellis said.
He reflected that the Jamaican legacy makes the expectations high as people overseas find funny facts Jamaicans take for granted. "The challenge is also a part of the fuel," he says for performing overseas.
Besides the challenge of making an unfamiliar audience laugh, and maintaining a Jamaican presence in comedy shows internationally, there is another, more universal element that lures comedians abroad.
BETTER SALARY ABROAD
According to Hendriks, comedians generally get paid a better salary when they perform internationally.
The amount paid is heavily dependent on the economic capacity of the country in which a comedian performs, the size of the crowd and venue, and the type of work done. A comedian therefore is likely to get more in situations where all the elements are substantial.
Plus, as Hendriks pointed out, working overseas in countries such as England, helps to build a comic's reputation and make him more marketable in countries in Europe and America.
"I would love to live in Jamaica, but career opportunities in Jamaica are limited for comedians," he said.
