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Thursday, July 24, 2025

Sold-out show at Kaiso Showkase

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2740 days ago
20180121
FERRY TALES: Alicia Richards performs her calypso Ferry Tales at Palms Club, San Fernando on Friday night during the opening night of Kaiso Showkase tent.

FERRY TALES: Alicia Richards performs her calypso Ferry Tales at Palms Club, San Fernando on Friday night during the opening night of Kaiso Showkase tent.

Tony Howell

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Ca­lyp­so tents in North Trinidad have been re­port­ing poor turnout but this was not the case in South as Kaiso Showkase Tent opened at Palms Club, San Fer­nan­do on Fri­day night.

Hun­dreds of ca­lyp­so lovers flocked to the venue for the sold-out show which at­tract­ed pa­trons from the Unit­ed States, Cana­da and sev­er­al parts of the Caribbean.

The first half in­clud­ed 17 ca­lyp­so­ni­ans, many of whom steered clear from nam­ing lo­cal politi­cians.

So­cial prob­lems and eco­nom­ic up­heavals were giv­en promi­nence as Ali­cia Richards sang Fer­ry Tales, fol­lowed by Joanne Fos­ter’s Hard Times and Singing So­nia’s Our Dy­ing Val­ues.

El Dra­go sang Women Rule while Queen Vic­to­ria and Ronal­do Lon­don re­ceived en­cores for their songs Shat­tered Home and To­mor­row.

Steve “Ras Kom­man­da” Pas­cal brought in­ter­na­tion­al pol­i­tics in­to the are­na with his song War of Words, a tongue-in-cheek ca­lyp­so which re­lays the “lyri­cal war” be­tween US Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, and the North Ko­re­an Pres­i­dent Kim Yung Un.

Nine ca­lyp­so­ni­ans sang for the sec­ond half of the show and as with the first half, many of them got en­cores. These in­clud­ed Mr Mack who sang Sam­ple Be­fore you Buy, Ron­dell Don­awa who sang De Prob­lem and Lynn Steele who sang Drag­on La­dy.

Nerukhi, known for his so­cial­ly con­scious ren­di­tions, sang an up­tem­po ca­lyp­so/groovy so­ca ti­tled Ah Need Ah Coun­try Gyal while Count Robin end­ed the show with his tune Ole Time Brass Band. In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Pas­cal said he was pleased by the turnout.

“We are rul­ing the ca­lyp­so tents right now and we are very hap­py. The youths have come out and de­liv­ered and that makes me feel re­al good,” he said.

Com­par­ing the tent to a fam­i­ly pic­nic, Pas­cal said Kaiso Showkase had been un­der­rat­ed for many years. Un­like oth­er events, Pas­cal said there isn’t a need to ad­ver­tise be­cause peo­ple are drawn to the fam­i­ly spir­it of Kaiso Tent. Say­ing there was no racism or stereo­typ­ing, Pas­cal said: “San Fer­nan­di­ans love pi­cong and we re­spect race. We deal with is­sues and we are not afraid to high­light prob­lems.”

He said many Car­ni­val events were fac­ing a poor turnout be­cause tick­et prices were too high.

“Our tick­et price for the open­ing night is $150 but the oth­er nights are $100. If you watch your pric­ing and let all cast mem­bers use so­cial me­dia to ad­ver­tise, you will get a bet­ter turnout,” Pas­cal said.

He said of­fi­cials of the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans will judge artistes on Thurs­day who will then ad­vance to the Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta semi­fi­nals.


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