'Ku yah, ku yah, but si yah, dis a Bello and Blakka and dis a culture, wi ago tek off lacka airplane tonight. So settle dung and draw yu seatbelt tight!', who remember dem lyrics deh from 30 years ago?

Ahh, sah, people love to say 'time flies when you're having fun', as if time move any slower when you're having none!

Of course, we know it's all a matter of perspective because every single minute has the same 60 seconds in it. Well, I'm still here wondering though, how 30 years come so quick.

Look here nuh, mek mi tell unnu a story I love to share. I was not always a comedian, you know! And I never had any conscious plans to be a comedian. No, peeps, back in the days I considered myself a serious dub poet! But, apparently, destiny had other plans.

poem combination

In 1985, my dear friend, Pastor Winston Bell [aka Bello], and I were two recent graduates of the Jamaica School of Drama, who were asked to do a joint performance for the launch of the first ever Caribbean Popular Theatre Exchange that was being hosted in Jamaica.

Our plan was to do a song-and-poem combination. Bello was going to sing a poignant song about his dreams for world peace and I would do a riveting dub rant about the 'real raw reality'.

York University professor Dr Honor Ford-Smith, then a lecturer at the School of Drama and one of our respected elders and mentors, was also participating in the event. So we asked her to look in on our rehearsal and give us some feedback. She listened intently to our presentation then she smiled and told us in soft, sweet voice that "it's really profound, solemn and boring!"

comic skills

She reminded us that noted poets Lorna Goodison and Dennis Scott were appearing on the show, so there'd be enough good poetry and "deep stuff" on the billing. She suggested that we employ our acting, improvisational and comic skills in the performance instead of bombarding people with more serious stuff. "People want to laugh," she said.

So Bello put a pause on his song and I parked my poem and we created a comedic skit called 'dis a culture'. The piece took a light-hearted look at the various definitions of 'culture'. It included a spoof on folk choirs and cliché island songs. It involved an impersonation of the late Professor Rex Nettleford, and it poked fun at silly fanatical Afro-centric pretensions. It worked. People roared with laughter.

A report on the show, along with a picture of Bello lifting me up in his arms in a mock 'ballerina pose' ended up on the front page of theGleaner. We were asked to repeat the performance at a lunch hour concert for the Institute of Jamaica and other requests for performance kept pouring in. And just like that a comedy duo was born. Give the credit [or blame] to Honor!

blazed a trail

For the next decade we were the only comedy act performing at all the concerts, school barbecues, staff parties and major concerts all around Jamaica. We blazed a trail of laughter all around the Caribbean and elsewhere in the world - including performing at the prestigious Apollo Theatre in New York, touring England and doing a TV special for the UK's Channel 4.

Yeah, we eventually put the duo on pause to pursue individual projects, but we've never ever had a quarrel, never ever disagreed and always maintained mutual love and respect for each other. Friends for life, a me and Bello dat!

And now, 30 years later, we're planning to launch 'Bello & Blakka DA - the 30th anniversary reunion tour'. It kicks off in Jamaica in March and we already have bookings for Florida, Montreal, Toronto and counting. Unu ready fi it? Well unnu better get ready because we start prepping [and taking our vitamins] and readying up to evoke some sweet kinteet again! Oh, and no, 'DA' does not mean 'drunk already' it stands for 'dweet again!' so mek mi ask again, .. unnu ready?

box-mi-back@hotmail.com.