By Mel Cooke, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
THERE WAS so much laughter at Backyaad when Ity made an approach to a lady in the audience on Wednesday night that a car alarm went off inside the 126 Constant Spring Road venue.
As he and comedy partner Fancy Cat were competing for the favours of a young woman, Ity got off the stage, went close, took her hand and said in a smooth lover boy's tone: "Your hands- Do you do farm work?"
The members of the audience, substantial especially for a mid-week event, erupted in laughter, one man running from before the stage to the back, gasping for air to sustain his mirth.
Ity and Fancy Cat, along with Pretty Boy Floyd and Owen 'Blacka' Ellis, who closed the show, provided the jokes and the audience at 'RE Backyaad Crack Up returned the favour with laughter. In addition, Christopher 'Johnny' Daley and sidekick Christopher 'All-Purpose' Hutchinson, played humorous host and kept the show flowing, even as very light drops of rain fell on the heads of an audience kept warm with laughter.
There was the serious side to the matter, though.
SWEEPING DUTIES
"We a put artiste firs' inna Jamaica. A long time artiste a feel it. An we a talk bout de danca dem too," Johnny said to applause from the audience, just before All-Purpose did his sweeping duties and Ity and Fancy Cat were called on.
The duo took a look at the funny side of serious issues such as the Haitian boat people landing in Jamaica, as well as the notion of an attempted hijacking of a plane with "two fat higgla". "Whe him name. Osama? Tell him fi come mek we sama him ma!" they illustrated.
They took time out to 'big up' Daley. "We don't get enough comedy in Jamaica. Is part a we culture," Fancy Cat said.
It was Owen 'Blacka' Ellis, though, who took the matter of comedy most seriously, while cracking up the audience with a series of jokes, exquisite timing and a rather rubbery face. He looked at manhood, sex, politics and the overbearing attitude of an otherwise powerless man suddenly invested with authority as a security guard, complete with a bunch of keys.
"Yu mus' learn to laugh. People who tek demself too serious, smaddy deh roun' de corna a laugh afta yu," he advised.
LAUGHTER
The audience laughed along as Ellis told the tale of a not too right smelling man at a stoplight, trying to check a lady in a "criss X5". "Me woulden even badda try. She outta my league. Him a seh anyting can gwaan. She mighta wake up an' see har man wid anedda man. She mighta waan tek revenge an tek me!" Ellis said to much laughter.
He took issue with the matter of calculating a man working out his expenditure as he works away at a woman. "If him can tink bout him ceramic tile, him doorknob, him no have no time fi tink bout sex."
"Nuff man like sex, but no like woman," Ellis said.
And he made a cutting observation about Jamaica's political history, that Jamaica has been ruled mostly by one family since Universal Adult Suffrage. The laughter was gone momentarily, both from Ellis and the audience, before he ended on a joyful note with the poetic sketch of a gateman from 'Tings A Gwaan', which will open soon.
And, true to his word, Johnny brought out the dancers, who improved on All-Purpose's funny moves, and Chico deejayed to cap off the show.
