Laughter galore at Ity, Fancy Cat recording

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Ironically, the audience that whooped and hollered in the Dennis Scott Studio Theatre on Friday night did not see probably the most anticipated segments of the show they were a part of recording. For while Ity and Fancy Cat, along with guests Granny and Owen 'Blakka' Ellis, provided many a laugh for the people dressed in 'I am a Part of the Love and Laughter' T-shirts, they did not see the skits that 'The Ity & Fancy Cat Show' has become renowned for.

They, like everyone else, will have to wait until next Sunday when the show's third season opens on TVJ, to see the hilarious spins on Jamaican life.

However, that did not make the trip to Arthur Wint Drive, St Andrew, less worthwhile, as the opening and closing links for the first three episodes in the 2010 season were laughter-filled. Plus, the live audience got a few extras that the television audience will not - the parts of the recording (many of them spontaneous) that will be edited out and the giveaway of products from Grace, Mandingo and Digicel.

Commentary on tivoli

Ity and Fancy Cat closed the episode-two recording with "the other day, Bruce go inna Tivoli ... " and, after the giveaways and Blakka's guest performance, they returned with another reference to the ongoing security situation.

Cat announced himself a gangster and Ity asked, "You a nuh don again?" "No, a don dem a pressure," Cat replied.

There were matters of the hairy kind, with Ity saying "If me see (NAJ president) Edith without the wig, me nah go recognise her. Anytime Portia change the hairstyle, me nah go recognise her."

There was a spontaneous moment of recognition, though, Fancy Cat walking over to two large ladies seated in the front row and asking "Them pay two fat people to sit together?" And there was recognition of athlete Melanie Walker in the audience.

There was laughter at the announcement that Granny, whose rapid-fire, multiple-wig removal and tossing is a high point of his, or her, routine, could not locate a particular red hairpiece. And there were a few expressions of delighted disgust when Blakka Ellis walked on stage, a couple of his front teeth blacked out, to go with white on his cheeks in simulation of a much older version of himself.

Ellis took a seat on the oversized lettering on the set, which spells out the name in huge, bright-coloured letters, and welcomed all who "have survived the effects of Tropical Storm Dudus". Declaring himself a believer, he said he had still been read out of the church, this after changing the hymn Rock of Ages to Frock of Ages and singing "breast for me, legs me hide myself between thee".

As is his wont, though, Ellis addressed some very serious issues through the medium of comedy. He asked, "Suppose them call election now?", then outlined the choices facing the nation. NDM stands for 'No Damn Members', PNP means 'Portia Not Prepared' and 'Peter Not Prepared' and JLP is actually 'Jamaica Latest Problem'.

A crowing contest to win Grace cock soup packages, men dancing around women standing in for Mandingo bottles, a verbal soup concoction contest and a listing of the Digicel Gimme Five promotion's components were a part of the giveaway fun and laughter at the Ity and Fancy Cat Show recording on Friday evening.