Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
United States comedian and actor Shang performs during the Jamaica/U.S.A. Comedy Connection.
Half an hour after the slated 7:00 p.m. start, Sunday night's Jamaica/U.S.A. Comedy Connection 2008 at Backyaad, Constant Spring Road, seemed to be coming up short as well as late.
There were many empty white chairs, those seated facing a woefully inadequately decorated and lit stage, a long ladder to the left which remained throughout, helping to preserve the slightly tacky setting.
Hilarious host Audrey Reid would later take issue with the red, white and blue vertical swaths of cloth which were passed off as a backdrop, demanding where the representation of Jamaica was.
However, after the Vibes Ihatas duo had ended their good opening dance, in which they displayed the versatility of hip movements in evoking explicit eroticism as well as subtle sexuality to She's Royal, there were sufficient persons to make an audience, if not a crowd. And when the U.S.-based Shang wrapped up a rollicking, highly sexual, delightfully politically incorrect set just before 11:00 p.m. with the advice to "love life, breathe life, sex life, enjoy life," it was the wrap on a short comedy show that was long on laughs from strong material.
Creative jokes and laughs
Dr. Michael Abrahams opened with a review of 2007 which included Asafa's run behind Tyson Gay during the Jamaica/U.S.A. Comedy Connection 2008 at Backyaad, on Monday. - photos by Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer
Laughter opener Dr. Michael Abrahams' long poem '2007 Year in Review', though accurate, verged on tedium at points, but it held sufficient interest and earned occasional chuckles as he went through elections, Cash Plus, the Reggae Boyz and entertainment, "Munga claat Deva inna him head" getting his best reaction.
Comedy Buss 2007 winner Dwight Samuels presented all fresh, all funny material. He suggested that someone in this technological age, where teeth are worn in the ears, should invent a baby remote control so if the child is falling there would b a 'pause'. And for crying, press 'mute'. On the adult side, he said that in Antigua a lady changed the weather, swirling ice in her mouth to give him a cold front.
For the single men there was the Christian holiday Palm Sunday, for his drunk friend Festus there was a question for a pickpocket on a bus: "Me woulda like fe know a who a yu tailor, cause me woulda like fe know how him put fi yu pocket pon fi mi pants."
Elva, who was greeted with cheers which also liberally sprinkled her set, was in a jolly drinking mood ("An alcoholic is someone who has a drinking problem. I don't have a problem with drinking.") Elva said, "Me know al a we boun' fi dead. Me a choose how me go. Me no waan confuse no pathologist." So, when her body comes in it will be no breathing, reeking of alcohol, tick, tick and 'next!'.
Pronouncing 'money' a guttural 'mooniee', she described the three stages of drinking. First was 'Noice', also known as the 'One Entry', where the inhibitions are loosened. 'Pretty', also known as the 'Multiple Indefinite', is where everybody looks beautiful. Third is b-e-a-u-tiful, "a dangerous stage. I live down there that's when yu fren dem haffi tell yu how de party was".
And she declared her taste in men with "I shop on Young Street."
After Vibes Ihatas led up to the break at 9:22 p.m., with Peter Tosh's Creation before going Pon De Edge with Busy Signal and Reid had resumed the laughter 15 minutes later with yet another rum and beer giveaway, Christopher 'Johnny' Daley discussed the seriousness of marriage and monogamy and being "de big man", as well as the insistence of beggars. When one approached him in Kings Plaza he said, "No badda gi mi de Kern Spencer. Anytime me see smaddy a bawl a him me memba."
The beggar joke
Hilarious host Elva gets expressive during her set at the Jamaica/U.S.A. Comedy Connection 2008.
Along with the beggars came the downside of being the face of Cash Pot. Daley went into the business of music, including a swipe at the Twin of Twins, and a second coming was required when he left the stage. After discussing the gangsterism of deejays, he ended with an up-close dance for a lady at the front of the audience.
Shang earned his closing, top billing for the night with a performance that had one person hurrying their child out in the early going. And it got stronger, much stronger, along with the howls of laughter, from compliments to the busty women to simulated midget sex and queries about vaginal self-examination. There was the question for an ugly woman who wanted to be taken to the movies ("Why would I take an X-Man to see 'X-Men'?") and a simulation of 9/11 hijackers trying to take over a plane full of Jamaicans. "We have knives and we are going to Allah" was met with "We have guns and we are going to Kingston", to which the response "We will go to Allah on the next flight."
And after testing the laughing limits by saying that women who use vibrators when they are pregnant end up with children who stutter and getting a gale of laughter, Shang said, "this is a sick crowd. I love it."
