Reigning National Extempo Monarch Joseph Vautor La Placeliere, known in the extempo arena as Lingo, demonstrated just why he is king, when he made a guest appearance at the San Fernando Extempo competition, on Harris Promenade, last Friday.
Lingo, who according to Trini expression has no cover for his mouth, brought the house down as he took on his host, San Fernando Mayor Dr Navi Muradali, on his recent domestic spat with his girl friend.
As he took to the stage, Joey Rivers and his band Unplugged started playing the Santimanitay tune, slowly.
"Hold on, hold on, this is ex-tempo not slow tempo," Lingo said as he began his repertoire.
Touching on one of the topics of the competition, the Mayor Keeping Sando Alive, Lingo drew sharpe laughter and a wince from the Mayor, when he sang, "I not taking sides, I can't see and I can't drive, but I get damn angry when I see in front of Gulf City, he keeping the city alive by beating he wife."
He received encore after encore, as none escaped his wrath. Not the Prime Minister and her flying on the helicopter, not Hilton Sandy and his "Calcutta Ship," faux pas, nor Machel Montano who is facing a possible jail sentence and the anticipation of prisoners to hear the magistrate's ruling.
The competition, held in the Ampitheatre on Harris Promenade, drew a sizable crowd to witness the free show.
The freeness did not escape Lingo who sang how happy he was that the show was free, but hoped the other artistes were getting big money.
Lingo, who never fails to use his visual impairment to elicit laughter from his audience, painted a colourful picture of the just concluded historic Tobago House of Assembly (THA) elections, telling his audience all he saw on TV on the night of January 21, was a sea of red.
The THA election was one of the topics which earned Neil Baptiste, known in the calypso arena as Abebele, the San Fernando Extempo crown.
Abebele, who delved into the agricultural genius of the TOP leader and his pumpkin which got big and grew, convincingly beat defending monarch Hezekiah Joseph to be crowned extempo king and walked away with a trophy and cash prize.
Convenor of the San Fernando Carnival Committee Kenny Phillips did not want to specify what the first prize winning would entail, except to say, "it would be better than last year."
While the competition itself, which attracted only six competitors to come up against the defending king, was not as stiff as in previous years, it was the after-competition which brought the house down.
In an unprecedented move, the new king, along with Lingo and two former San Fernando Kings Brian London and Joseph, took to the stage to do extempo battle with one another.