'Johnny' spices up 'Come Mek Wi Laaf'
Marcia Rowe, Gleaner Writer
IN THE middle of heavy and intermittent showers, laughter rained on The Jamaica Pegasus' Grand Jamaican Suite, on Sunday. Thus was the case at the fourth staging of the Best Care Foundation-organised event, 'Come Mek Wi Laaf, It's Christmas'.
The large turnout was treated to a healthy dose of eye-watering, beautifully constructed humour, as well as some try-to-understand mundane gags.
Few topics were left untouched by the mocking comedic brush.
The show got off to an appropriate start. MC Audrey Reid announced, from somewhere off stage, "The playing of the National Anthem" and it was only when the familiar sounds of the Jamaica's National Anthem began that the instruction was clear - a fitting precursor to what was to come.
First was the Nigerian Mr Confidence. Unlike his dapper look, his not-so-new tales only generated a sprinkle. And Claudette Pious, in all her glory, wearing a red petticoat, carrying an over-sized baby's feeding bottle, was enough to make you either laugh or weep. In spite of her comical appearance, she did not change the forecast. Her jokes on double belly and an over-sized man received a lukewarm response from the audience. She made her exit sweating profusely.
Scathing remarks from the doctor
It took Reid's re-entry to the stage to bring back the laughter. And reinforcing the theory that comedy is about people being presented at their worst, she proceeded to ridicule Pious' physical appearance - of course, in jest.
Dr Michael Abrahams, the medical doctor, was also scathing, but not on Pious, on politicians, Edith Allwood-Anderson, Vybz Kartel and the West Indies Cricket team.
"The West Indies Cricket Team has more whitewash than Vybz Kartel face," he said. The extradition of Christopher Coke, too, was coloured comedy by the part-time comedian.
Likewise was his suggestion to the prime minister on the "transformation" of some national symbols: the national bird should be the john crow, the national dish - water crackers and tin mackerel, while the motto should be Out of Manatt One Preckeh."
But it was Christopher Daley, without a trace of his grief (the recent passing of his favourite sister) that the tears truly began to roll.
Stealing the comedians' jobs
Running on to the stage like a man on a mission, he told the audience: "Come mek wi laugh, wi haffi laugh at this time."
And with that, he launched into satires on the economy, a few politicians, including the prime minister, and the deejays with their LIME commercial. With accurate demonstrations, the young stand-up noted that if the deejays had their visas, they would not be doing the current Christmas advertisements and the comedians would have been cast for the roles.
Daley concluded his performance with Dr Abrahams performing a creative remix of Shaggy's It Wasn't Me.
Joan Andrea Hutchinson's stint was akin to a lesson on Jamaica's culture and titled 'There was a Time' or 'These are the Creative Things We use to Do' and is best expressed in the words of Pauline "I think the show was very good. I love the comedy sections and the things that Joan say. I could relate to it because it really is something from old-time Jamaica."
When Drew Thomas hit the stage late into the night, his hilarious performance was missed by the members of the audience who left. The Jamaica-born United States citizen, who has made the top 10 of Comedy Central's 'Last Comic Standing', chose the fertile topic of relationships. He spiced his act up with Jamaican restaurants and Jamaican mechanics in the United States.
It is said that laughter is the best medicine, but even with laughter there could be an overdose, and so it seemed, as there were more empty chairs when Bobby Smith, the last of the pack of jokers, came to the stage.
But Smith gave his best and had the last ones sitting, laughing to "woman brain is what they make computer from," as he related a tale that compares the cunningness of a wife to a computer.
And the almost five-hour-long dose of laughter ended like a dying ember. But when it was hot, it was a riot and, besides, is worthy of its meritorious function - an attempt to close the gap for 49 special children.