Buteau Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Michelle Buteau has been coming to Jamaica from her United States home since she was three months old, but on Sunday it will be the first timeshe will be plying her trade of laughter in her mother's land.
She is a headliner on International Comedy Fest 2007, along with Owen 'Blakka' Ellis, Drew Thomas and Wil Sylvince, who are American-based but were born in Jamaica and Haiti, respectively, Ity and Fancy Cat and Christopher 'Johnny' Daley. The laughter will be in the Backyaad on Constant Spring Road.
After six years in comedy Buteau is accustomed to being the only woman on a stand-up comedy line-up. "Wherever I go, the U.S., Canada, Dublin (Ireland), usually I am the only woman on the show. Maybe, maybe there will be one more," she said.
Her icon
On her website, Buteau wears an orange Bob Marley T-shirt and Is This Love plays when her myspace account is accessed. "I am a size 14 Marley fan. He is one of the icons that I think is timeless, and way ahead of his time in his passion and talent. He put Jamaica on the map. He made it easier for me and other Jamaicans and people from the Caribbean," she said.
Still, her patois is 'so-so'; Buteau said she tried it out 'for fun' when she was growing up. "I think I am better at comedy," she said. And as for trying it out on Sunday, "I respect it too much to ruin it."
Although she is new in the flesh to the Jamaican stage, the 'hostess with the mostest' ("because you can say anything with a smile. The mostest is what I am saying") will be familiar to some from 'Last Comic Standing'. And HGTV fans may just recognise her from a stint she did, running through offbeat stuff like the 25 worst landscaping mistakes ('they wanted some humour').
Although she was not the last comic standing at the end of the competition, Buteau knows the value of the exposure. "Even those two minutes on television you reach a lot of people," Buteau said, pointing out that Jennifer Hudson did not win American Idol and is still immensely popular.
"It was very intense, because it was people coming from all over the world," she said.
Schedule
On her schedule for the rest of summer is a slew of university shows across the U.S., and Buteau points out that "Performing for live audiences is great. It is lucrative to go on the road. College kids are the new fans. They want to download you, get your T-shirts. That's like the start of pop culture, really."
And she knows Jamaican audiences' reputation of being tough ones to crack, much less crack up. "I know my people are tough people, especially if they pay good money to see a good show. That's why I love them. It makes you stronger," she said.
Michelle Buteau got into comedy because people told her she should. "I had funny stories all the time. Then I went to a couple comedy clubs and I thought 'where are the women?'," she said. Her debut, however, was not the funniest of moments. It was in New York and she says "I felt lucky to be alive and I am sure a lot of people were." It was four days after the aeroplane attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon.
There is no such feeling of survival ahead of International Comedy Fest 2007 and Buteau says "I can't wait. I am excited."
