Ian Wa­son

The ca­lyp­so com­mu­ni­ty is mourn­ing the death of leg­endary hu­mourous ca­lyp­son­ian Don­ric “Mas­ter Fun­ny” Williamson, who passed away at his home on Wednes­day night af­ter a long bat­tle with can­cer. He was 84.

Mas­ter Fun­ny, known for hits such as Fun­ny Win the Lot­to and Ac­ci­dent Pol­i­cy, was a trail­blaz­er who per­fect­ed the art of comedic ca­lyp­so.

Ear­li­er this year, he was ho­n­oured by the Na­tion­al Ac­tion Cul­tur­al Com­mit­tee dur­ing the Young Kings Com­pe­ti­tion for his en­dur­ing con­tri­bu­tion to the art form.

TU­CO North Zone chair­man Mark “Con­tender” John re­mem­bered Mas­ter Fun­ny as a kind and de­cent man.

“I nev­er heard him use ob­scene lan­guage,” John said.

“He came the clos­est to (ca­lyp­son­ian) Spoil­er’s work in terms of cre­ativ­i­ty.”

TU­CO al­so paid trib­ute to the vet­er­an on its Face­book page, de­scrib­ing him as an icon cel­e­brat­ed for his wit, pa­tri­o­tism, and lyri­cal bril­liance.

Born on May 23, 1941, and hail­ing from East Port-of-Spain, Mas­ter Fun­ny be­gan com­pos­ing in the late 1950s and made his stage de­but in 1964. He gift­ed the na­tion time­less clas­sics such as Sweet, Sweet Trinidad and Farmer Brown, blend­ing hu­mour and so­cial com­men­tary in un­for­get­table per­for­mances.
He was a long­time head­line act at Ca­lyp­so Spek­taku­la and joined the Back to Ba­sics tent in 2019, con­tin­u­ing to in­spire with his sharp hu­mour and un­wa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to kaiso.

TU­CO not­ed that al­though he of­ten high­light­ed the strug­gles ca­lyp­so­ni­ans faced, his love for T&T nev­er fad­ed.

His fa­mous line, “When I dead please bury me in the cen­tre of the city,” re­flect­ed his deep con­nec­tion to the na­tion he cel­e­brat­ed in song.