Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Apache Chief and Sarge - Colin Hamilton Photo

The people, many of them in Jamaican colours, who turned out for Friday night's Comedy Fest at the Courtleigh Auditorium, New Kingston, came for laughs. And they certainly got that, with Urkel, Apache Chief and Sarge, Leighton 'Fullswing' Smith and Rohan Gunter on the bill.

Host, Mass Jasper also got in his jokes, his outfits causing hilarity. But they also got some dance from Jamaica's Michael Jackson and the closing Hilarious Granny, as well as magic from Cowen the Magnificent Magician.

Apache Chief and Sarge also served up a healthy dose of music for an appreciative full house.

Before they turned to tunes, Apache Chief did a very good imitation of Renato Adams, outlining his shooting schedule (including a charity shooting) to interviewer Sarge. "If I laugh I ketch stretch mark," Sarge said at one point

When Bush and Blair made a call from hell to the US and England respectively the Devil charged them $25,000, but Bruce's bill was only $2.50. "Hell to hell is a local call," the Devil explained.

A 'girl checking' competition between the two led to the songs, Sarge causing laughter with "Sammy plant piece a corn dung a gully" and Chief thrilling the audience with Here I Am, among other slow jams. And when he imitated Buju, Assassin and, finally, Lady Saw, the house exploded, leading to an encore.

Jamaica's Michael Jackson shimmered in a shiny outfit and lip-synced to The Girl Is Mine and Billie Jean, a smooth backslide causing spontaneous applause. A shirt came off to show an even shinier one inside, there were some crotch grabs and hip prods and, at the end, a hat flicked from a shoe onto the head during Beat It.

Prince Edwards' approach was more studied, his timing impeccable and physical demonstration of the positions of several characters on a bus ride that had him sitting 'so', his face inches away from a large posterior, where graphic and side-splitting.

"Lasco cheap, so dem buy nuff," he reflected, to additional gusts of laughter. He closed with a Jamaican trying to get into the Olympics in Beijing by carrying a roll of barbed wire. When he was asked what event he was participating in, he said "fencing".

'Fullswing' took the audience on a rollicking laughter ride after intermission. He told the men that if they are going home early they should call and let their lady know, so they don't get any surprises. But "if yu get bun tek it in good grace, go buy Cashpot an' sey a rake," he advised. He questioned the 'eat what you grow and grow what you eat' campaign, saying "me have a son me a try grow. Whe me fe do, eat im?".

Coming up to the end of his set, Smith said that pastors should have manners and stop answering their cell phones in church, proceeding to demonstrate just how they do that when they preach and then demand "hello somebody!"

Cowen the Magnificent Magician involved a lady from the audience as he ate pieces of tissue and then reeled out a seemingly unending spool from his mouth. To cap it of, as he appeared to stuff it back in a bird appeared, to gasps of amazement.

He swallowed a sword to the red hilt, poured liquid into a folded sheet of newspaper held by an audience member then opened it to show it was dry, refolding the paper only to pour liquid from it, and closed by briefly pouring liquid from a bottle into a cup somehow suspended in mid-air.

Gunter mentioned the Olympics as he worked his way steadily towards his hilarious closing 'mix up entertainer news', in which he mentioned a 'Milky Way' among the stream of 'passa passa' to laughter from the audience.

Granny closed with moves to dancehall songs, waggling a stuffed posterior, bouncing an oversized chest, stripping off wig after wig after wig and attempting to teach an older gentleman from the audience the 'No Linga', to amusement all around.

Maas Jasper's outfits were cause for laughter and he told one persistent heckler that "car lick dung dog inna yu mout' an nobody no bun 'im"