Left: Elva was in a 'ya' mood at Backyaad Crack-Up on Wednesday night.Right: Christoper 'Johnny' Daley spoke about entertainers' gangster lyrics. -photos by Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer

Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

With an encore for Elva before intermission and a standing ovation for Apache Chief and Sarge at the end of the night's final scheduled performance, the Backyaad Crack-Up comedy series got off to a cracking restart on Wednesday night.

And it did so to a near capacity audience, which grew significantly after the beginning, very close to the scheduled 9:00 p.m.

In that beginning, after Fancy Cat had danced out to his own deejay style recording and Ity followed to his and said "big up" to all "who born with one complexion and still have one complexion", leading to a humorous giveaway of 'freeness' from Courts and Carimed, Dance Theatre Xpressions opened with an uptempo take-off of Young, Gifted and Black, announcing their addition of song to dance.

One of Comedy Bus winner Rohan Gunter's better moments came when he asked "Which is the most important insect in the world?", concluding that "from cricket come a Jamaica de whole place fix up". However, when he attempted to return to the Mix Up Entertainer News, in which a bus with entertainers had a 'freaky accident' after picking up Elephant Man and Ce'Cile, he forgot his lines and, after a few attempts, left with a rueful smile to encouraging and conciliatory handclaps.

Backyaad landlady

The Backyaad landlady Elva, introduced with a slash between her many job titles, the last two being "wokka gal, slash, tek yu man if yu naa look".

From descriptions of the cooling system in her car ("SSB, meaning So So Breeze") to descriptions of her switch from Barney to a young partner (who sends a text message saying "I love you more than my XBox"), Elva had her audience roaring with laughter, then she went into extended attention to the 'ya', dancing to "me bad from me born" and then deejaying "me tight from me born". And 'ya' it was to the end, Elva educating the ladies in "how to tighten your yas" and advising to dispense the 'ya' in various places, such as on the gully bank, but in such a position that the woman can watch out for the police.

Her name was chanted for an encore and duly delivered.

Dance Theatre Xpressions was in a total dancing mood after the break, one host shouting 'matrix' as the audience cheered at a slow move to the end of Junior Gong's remake of Exodus.

Christopher 'Johnny' Daley came out to his own record and a chant of "go Johnny", advising Elephant Man to sort out his pronunciation of "Badsh Boysh". There was also advice about Noddy Virtue's music of Sing to Me, which Daley dubbed Screw Me. "Wicked. All de song good people cyaan listen to de song," Daley said, advising wide angle shots instead of the damaging close-ups.

More serious mood

But he was in a more serious mood as he spoke about the peace meeting between Vybz Kartel and Mavado, where they had said the gangster attitude in dancehall "is only in the lyrics". "If you a no gangster, why you put it in de tune?" he asked.

There was also a substantial amount of song from Apache Chief and Sarge, the latter introducing himself as a "blue seam, red seam, security, soldier, bad boy police" and dressed accordingly. Chief said he had woken up feeling like a lesbian, soon clarifying that "de two a we jus' love woman" and declared that he would not shorten himself to please a woman who wanted a foot. And when he started imitating various entertainers, a sniff coming before Gregory Isaacs and the command "hey gal, lie dung" before Zebra, then sang love songs as he competed with Sarge for a lady's attentions, the duo brought the house down.

But more was to come, Sarge departing briefly to return as the spitting image of a cross, angry and very miserable Bounty Killer, movements, hairstyle and all, the two doing a Mavado and Killer combination of songs that had many people in the audience standing, a standing ovation coming at the end.

The brawta came from cricket analyst Lemon, deejay coach Movie Star and a 'borderline' Shabada.