L-R Gail Welch, Payce Digital, Simon Allyne and Tilia Wilkinson from Starcom Network at the press conference of A World Of Laughs scheduled to be held on April 28th 2024 at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
The Bible says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine”, and with all the stress we go through on a regular basis it’s great to go out and have a good laugh once in a while.
With that in mind, the team behind the highly successful Cocktails and Comedy series of shows featuring local stand-up comedians will be staging “A World of Laughs” on April 28 at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
Simon Alleyne, the producer of the show, said Cocktails and Comedy has grown tremendously since its inception in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic in October 2020.
“We thought it would be wise to administer a medicine everyone would enjoy, that of comedy, to improve people’s mental health at that time because of all the restrictions that prevented people from going out and enjoying themselves. We started by doing some recorded shows via social media which proved successful, and when some of the Covid restrictions got lifted, we put on some live shows, and I must say we have had a lot of support from bars and restaurants around the island.
“For our fourth year, we wanted to do comedy on a bigger scale, such as putting on an international comedy show. Over time we have built relationships with other comedians across the Caribbean as well as in North America. In November 2023, Barbados House of Montreal invited us up to Montreal to do a comedy show, which was well received, and coming out of that our upcoming show will feature two comedians from Montreal. We also expect to have two comedians from Guyana and two from Trinidad taking part.”
Two of the members of the Cocktails and Comedy team, Steve “Steve Biko” Garnes and Jason Carmichael, spoke of how they got involved in comedy and said they’ve been enjoying their experience thus far.
Steve said his name came about after he took part in a talent show his workplace staged.
“We wrote a skit where there was this African guy, and since my name was Steve, I thought I would just branch off and use the name Biko and propel myself as this particular character. Simon was one of the MCs for the show in his role as part of Rum and Koke, and after my performance , he approached me and said, “That was really funny, you ever thought about doing comedy?
“I said, “Not really.” Now we did not exchange numbers or anything like that, but some time after that one day I was at home in the shower, and my doorbell rang, and when I looked outside, there was Simon on my doorstep! We had a discussion and the following week I was in my first show. I was very nervous at first, but I have grown to enjoy it because I like to make people laugh and see them happy.”
Jason shared a somewhat similar experience.
“Comedy has always been one of my bucket list items, one of those things I always wanted to try. I knewSimon from school and I went to one of his shows one night to support him, and afterwards, he told me, “Jason, I want you to come on stage one of these nights and tell a story.” I said, “No problem,” but I really didn’t expect anything more to come out of that conversation. Later on, Simon saw me again and asked, “Jason, so you’re ready? You’ve written something?” I told him I would try, and eventually, I came on board and I love being a part of the Cocktails and Comedy team.”
Kevin “KB Kleen” Hinds of MADD Entertainment fame will be acting as host for the show, and he spokeof the role of comedy in lifting people’s spirits over the years.
“Comedy goes back so far in world history. In the days of kings, queens and emperors, before medical science became so advanced, if the rulers were not feeling too well they would send in the jesters to make them laugh and when they did so they felt better. We want to see people happy and for far too long we have not had a comedy show like this.”
He noted that, “Last year MADD had a 40th-anniversary show and we invited as many comedians from Barbados as we could to participate, because we started off as the MADD Comedians, but we became MADD Entertainment when we branched into other areas. I am happy to see the Cocktails and Comedy team take up the mantle and bring back shows like this.”
Meanwhile, Advertising Sales Executive with Starcom Network Inc., Tilia Wilkinson, noted that “Starcom Network supports culture and the community, and we haven’t had a comedy show featuring regional and international acts for several years now, so it is good to see that comedy is alive and well, because mental wellness is very important in these times.”
Gail Welch of Payce Digital said would be patrons can use their payment app to purchase tickets for the show, which went on sale on March 1. Payce Digital is the digital partner for the Cocktails and Comedy A World of Laughs show.
Alleyne urged Barbadians to check out further details on the show via cocktails.comedy246 on Instagram, where there will also be weekly giveaways in the lead-up to the show.