Teino Evans, Staff Reporter

Patrons who turned out to Jokers Wild J'ouvert, Chocolate Honey Bunnies at the NHT car park in New Kingston last Friday night, might have been shocked beyond their wits, but only if they were not accustomed to such an event.

Just about anything was acceptable at Jokers Wild, as long as it was in the name of fun and excitement.

At 1:39 a.m. when Oscar B asked, "massive, are you ready, let mi see all my Jokers Wild people?" It signalled that it was time to take the party to the next level.

Machel Montano was introduced on stage immediately after and he wasted no time in getting the real vibes on the way.

He took the stage singing 'Put nyuh rag inna di air' and the massive audience responded with rags waving, as they jumped and gyrated to the sound of Machel singing 'Get Scandalous' and 'We don't need no wata.'

Machel then paused and said, "this is Jokers Wild, this is J'ouvert morning, I have a question?" He then continued his questioning in song, "anybody from Grenada, anybody from St. Lucia, anybody from Barbados, anybody from Trinidad - somebody missing, a seh somebody missing, anybody from Jamaica - den start to wine."

This he led by example from the stage, much to the delight of the females in the crowd as Machel gyrated his waist line and completed a few half splits.

After portraying such energy on stage, Machel was ready for another round, but had to check if patrons could still manage to keep up with his energy.

"Anybody tired, anybody thirsty, anybody horny," he asked as he went back into his performance.

While Machel sang the 'Insane' song, the patrons caught on to the craziness, as some splashed each other with water as they jumped, gyrated and enjoyed themselves.

Looking to tone down the energy a bit, Machel delivered some slower songs like a rendition of Bob Marley's 'I Don't Want To Wait In Vain For Your Love'. He then instructed "every man put a girl in front of you an mek love to ar."

At one point, Machel laid down on top of one of the speaker boxes and began to wine on it as if it were a woman, but apparently, just a brief intermission for him to catch his breath because immediately after, he had everyone doing 'Footsteps'.

"All di tired people move out di way," he warned as he instructed, 'moving to di left, moving to di right.'

Machel even had a special treat for a few of his female fans, as he instructed a couple of them to grab his groin. "Touch it, touch it, squeeze it, squeeze it," he instructed.

The likes of Red Rat and Left Side also got in on the action, as they injected some much appre-ciated dancehall vibes into the soca madness.

Later on, there was a mad rush to an area at the side of the venue where the paint was being organised, but it was not yet time for it to be given away. Attendants had to be shouting at the top of their voices, "yow, nuh yet, nuh yet, next 20 minutes!"

Some patrons in the meantime made use of a 'paint-slide' that was set up in the centre of the VIP section, as they went down the slide and into some paint. This was obviously not enough for them and finally, pandemonium when they got a hold of the real paint, just before taking to the road in the early morning.