Content area
Full Text
It is a Saturday night in Port of Spain, and we have just arrived at the Spektakula forum, one of the main calypso tent venues for the 1998 season. Our hostess has only two tickets with her, so she sends me to the ticket office, because they like to pad the audience with "tourists like me" to have a diverse house (and create a good impression among foreigners). We then enter the "tent"-no longer the tapia huts of old, hut a full-sized theatre, recently converted to air-conditioned comfort. The four seats we have purchased are in two different sections, but our hostess takes me to the better seats near the front of the house. At stage left is the house band, Wayne Bruno's Rapid Response Orchestra, seated behind a partition decorated with colorful banners. The house is already near capacity, but since the show has yet to start, many people are still liming around the bar and refreshment stands inside the tent. Others lime outside the front entrance, where a number of vendors of snacks and beverages will remain until the show concludes around 1:00 or 2:00 a.m.
The band then goes into an instrumental of the Caribbean jazz/pop variety, perhaps to set the crowd into a relaxed mood. Tommy Joseph, Spektakula's emcee, then takes the stage directly in front of the bandstand for his monologue. he is difficult for me to understand at first, but I soon learn that his material is similar to what I have heard ordinary Trinisjoke about: plenty of sex and scandal. The atmosphere is like a Vegas floorshow, or even the old days of vaudeville, with Tommy Joseph returning to the stage between acts to keep the audience's interest. We are treated to several unique acts, including "Soca Elvis" and a drag impersonation of Tina Turner. There is plenty of lag time, and that is when I realize the crucial role of the emcee in keeping the pace and even saving a bad performance by getting the Calypsonian off the stage without causing further embarrassment. Another advantage is the layout of the tent and the liming areas; it is easy to break away and go to the bar or even step outside until the action onstage heats up again.