For a variety of reasons, I don't get to watch enough Jamaican television these days. But I try and keep up with what's on. Well hear this now. I understand that the little boy with the whistle in the advert for 'All Together Sing' was asked on an interview on morning time TV yesterday, what he wanted to become.

That got my interest same time. Yeah man, because most times when they ask Jamaican children that question on TV, it usually activates a recitation of rehearsed idealism that has the children saying things like 'In the future, God willing, my ambition is to become a paediatric-endocrinologist'. And some a di time di pickney nuh have no idea what that job involves or if such a job-title even exist. Nuh true?

Well, me hear say on this occasion, di lickle man never bother gi dem any of those fancy, boring, stereotypical choices when he responded to the question of what he wants to be when he gets bigger. Him just tell them straight: "comedian!"

I love it! And, after all why not? Di youth sight up that 'comedian' is now a high-profile job title. As my Rastafarian brethren would say, 'di youthman ah pree wisely'. Yeah man, he's watching comedians like Ity & Fancy Cat taking prominence on TV, radio, and various high live-profile events, as well as touring foreign regularly. So who wouldn't want to be a comedian? But it's not just a question of profile and prestige. I think that young man has made an excellent choice because I can speak from experience that being a comedian is also a tremendously fulfilling avocation.

being funny feels good!

Take it from me; being funny feels good! As one writer Eric Idle, puts it, in his preface notes for the book: FOOTLIGHTS! A hundred years of Cambridge Comedy (By Robert Hewison) "to be on the other side of a laugh, causing it, triggering it off, and feeling the great wave of human noise come back at you is one of the most powerful and addictive sensations that there is". And trust me, I know that feeling.

high-status professions

That feeling is the reason why there are many people around who would gladly give up other noble and high-status professions in aspirations of being a comedian. Comedy is big and getting bigger. Right now, as the hottest comedy act currently operating out of Jamaica, Ity & Fancy Cat has a busy local schedule and a growing international calendar that includes upcoming appearances in the USA, repeat performances in Canada, and New Year trips to St. Martin, Trinidad & Tobago and the UK.

So the comedians are standing tall. And I like to remind them that it's because they stand on the backs of many pioneers. So when my son shared the story of the young man's declaration of ambition with me via his post on Facebook yesterday, I immediately clicked on 'like' and added the following comment: 'Bless Bim & Bam, respect Slim & Slam, applaud Ike & Mike, honour Miss Lou & Mas Ran' and big up the Godfather Charles Hyatt'.

My good friend Joan Andrea Hutchinson soon added her comment 'and big up those who teck di baton and run wid it, like Bello & Blakka, Ity and Fancy Cat. I will stop dere for if mi call some and nuh call some mi inna trouble'. And she's right; many more names can be called as comedy is finally taking its place as a respectable Jamaican entertainment genre. So who wants to be a comedian? Pretty soon, everybody!

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Blakka's Box