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Dwight Samuels, the seven-time 2007 'Comedy Buss' Club Rocker and eventual champion.

Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

When he stood to 'Comedy Buss' host Christopher 'Johnny' Daley's left, the other remaining contestant, Gabre Nelson, on the right, last Sunday Dwight Samuels was looking down on the stage at TVJ's Lyndhurst Road studio.

As he was announced winner of the 2007 'Comedy Buss' contest, Samuels looked up into a changed future, smiling and arms held wide as if to embrace not only the public which voted him the top joker in the contest but also the slew of possibilities that have come with it.

Although he had been judged the competition's 'Club Rocker' on seven of the nine occasions the contestants were assessed, Samuels said he did not take winning for granted.

"We've been on the road and even though people have me as a favourite, I've seen and heard a lot of people who are fans of Gabre and we have not been to all the communities in Jamaica. I was thinking if this man was here with me, it could be him," Samuels said of the seconds just before the moment of decision when he was looking down.

"I like to respect all competitors," he said.

Hard work pays

And when he looked up, he was thinking, "Yeah, me do it. The hard work pay off. Overwhelming. Jubilant".

It has been a long journey in a short time for Samuels, who grew up in Wakefield, Trelawny, and now lives in the area of Lilliput, St. James, called 'Africa' (he takes time to send shout-outs to 'Dangles', 'Chimpy', 'Teddy' and the 'New Navy Crew'). He was encouraged to enter the contest by his supervisor on the job as ramp attendant at Sangster International Airport, Behoreen James. "She was saying to me that me a crack up people on the work for free, so me can go crack up Jamaica for money," Samuels said.

He was reluctant, she was relentless, and off to the 'Comedy Buss' auditions he went.

"The auditions were like a nervous thing for me. Once I crossed that first hurdle it was smooth sailing," he said.

That smooth sailing involved some adjustment, though, as initially Samuels would use bar jokes and jokes he found on the Internet. Workshops with Dorothy Cunningham and Peter Heslop changed his perspective. "I said if people can write a joke for me to laugh, I can write a joke for people to laugh," Samuels said.

Natural delivery

Although the writing may have been new, delivery was not, for a man who was always the joker of the class at William Knibb High School. "I was one of the most-loved troublemakers by the student population and teachers," Samuels said.

The final image of Samuels at the 'Comedy Buss' results show live on TVJ was of a man with his arms full of prizes. At the after-show at Backyaad, Constant Spring Road, he was running the crowd ragged, climaxing with a sermon from the Dancehall Chronicles, in which Beenie Man, D'Angel, Marco Dean and Bounty Killer figured prominently. It was the only material in the night's somewhat extended showing that had been performed previously.

And, of course, repetition during the weekly televised shows was out of the question.

Dwight Samuels is always generating fresh material, as he says, "Even when I am going to work, I travel with a notepad and a pen. Something happen and I just jot it down. When I go home and get some quiet time, I work on it. I always try it out pon my ramp and security friends at the airport. They are my measuring stick. If them tell me that it can't work, trust me it can't work," Samuels said.

Intends to go mainstream

His intention is to translate his comedy into a few cultures, a he is not about to leave his job, Dwight Samuels intends to go mainstream in the United States and Canada. He said he would rather be a small part of a big setting and grow in that setting than be a big part of a small setting. "We all know stand-up comedy is a fledgeling art in Jamaica," he said, so expansion is a must.

"I want to be a part of that expansion," Samuels said.

At the same time, he is not neglecting his home and last Friday he did a double, a staff appreciation party in Montego Bay and, later in the evening, a hotel gig in Runaway Bay. In addition, Samuels said, "I am thinking seriously about starting a comedy club in Montego Bay. I have already approached some people. The genre has potential to grow. Somebody has to take the bull by the horns."

Kids are everything

The father of three, 13-year-old Shadeika, six-year-old Shameika and seven-year-old Dwight Jr., said that when the eldest, who is a student at Westwood, heard that he had won, she made a leap towards the ceiling and then rushed to tell her friends. "I am not only her parent, I am her friend. We rap together. We have a good relationship as father and daughter," he said.

"My kids are everything to me," he said.

And he describes his mother, 'Mama Viris', as "like my rock. Strong Jamaican woman. Growing up without a father, no buss no gun, no smoke no ganja, no smoke no coke, no tief no cyar", he summed up her influence on him.

While he knows that winning 'Comedy Buss 2007' is going to change his life, Samuels says, "In terms of the friends I have, the places I go, I may not be going there as often. I have shows to do. I will still be going to the places I used to go to, I will see the people I used to see."

And he will be wearing clothes from the same people, MX Fashions, who dressed him throughout the contest. "MX just mek me walk een, try out some ting, what me want me go out with. Is them going to dress me throughout me career," Samuels said.