If you feel weighed down by the load of social problems, rising crime, partisan political turmoil and challenges within your relationships, and want relief – at least temporarily – there is now a great opportunity to ‘laff it off’.
But there are some details I cannot go into at this time because ‘Nuh Name, Nuh Blame, Nuh Lock Up‘ is the very theme of the 40th-anniversary1 edition of the 2025 Laff-it-Off season.
The event, which had its second showing last Saturday night, is currently playing to jam-packed audiences at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre (LESC) every Saturday from eight o’clock sharp.
If the last two weekends are anything to go by, patrons are warned to strap down their bellies and strengthen their jaw muscles because the comic performances of cast members Angelo Lascelles (director), Janine White, Asha Elcock, Vilmore Johnson and Ishiaka McNiel, have been bursting bellies and locking jaws from laughter.
The satire and tongue-in-cheek treatment of the issues of the day, including spotlighting Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne and expelled Democratic Labour Party president Dr Ronnie Yearwood with the DLP in-fighting, Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s overseas travels, a Barbados Labour Party candidates’ selection committee meeting, and impersonations of National Cultural Foundation chief executive officer Carol Roberts-Reifer, former Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, and CBC TV’s My Community presenter Sherwood McKaskie, had patrons bawling.
The top-drawer acting gives life to the script, which addresses – among other things – rising violent crime, the recent controversy related to the TKY pyramid scheme, a particularly hilarious jab at insurance coverage of road accident claims, and the likely deportation of Barbadians from the United States under President Donald Trump’s new immigration policy.
One standout scene of impersonation characterised Dr Yearwood – played by Johnson – seeking advice from his former party leader Stuart – performed by Lascelles – on how to get back into the DLP.
You have got to be there to hear the advice but suffice it to say Lascelles was excellent in capturing the idiosyncratic verbal expressions and body language of the former prime minister.
The Nook and Cranny Bar, which is synonymous with the Laff It Off scenarios, continues to be the centrepiece of this now iconic cultural showcase that has always attracted massive audiences and has never run long enough to satisfy the insatiable appetites of local patrons who crave to ‘laff it off’.
