Ity (left) and Fancy Cat. - Contributed

Ian 'Ity' Ellis remembers the day that 'The Ity and Fancy Cat show', the must-see weekly television comedy show on TVJ now winding up season two, became more than a pilot shown to an audience full of laughter, but not much financing at the Sovereign Cinema.

It was early in a new year, although the idea for the popular live stand-up comedy duo to grow into a television show was far from new. They are clear about when (July 2006), and where (a show in New York) and by whom (Michael 'Money Mike' Williams) the seed for the show was planted.

Williams ended up in Jamaica and insisted to Alton 'Fancy Cat' Hardware that they should do some work together. They had done a show for Orville Hall of Dance Xpressionz and Ity slips into one of his famed impersonations as he relates Money Mike's accented enthusiasm. "I saw you guys at the show for Orville. I saw the chemistry between you guys was great. I was saying you should do a TV show," Ity related.

Money Mike backed up his words with images; he edited their live performance, made a few additions and literally showed Ity and Fancy Cat the possibilities. "I'm like OK," Fancy Cat said. "But when him a mention TV and say 'you guys going to be millionaires!' I'm like 'OK, this a Jamaica y'nuh. Millionaire?' And him a say how much him can get, but me a say 'a Jamaica this' to myself, because me no see it a reach that level.

"Is like when him a tell mi, me a seh America different from Jamaica. We still go through with it, cause yo no waan burn nobody bridge or kill them hopes."

So they went along and Money Mike did a one-hour pilot, which they showed to a group of people whom they had spotted as potential investors at Sovereign. "When we show it an' it finish people deh pon 'run it again!'," Fancy Cat said.

There was a lesson that they did not quite learn, though, and they paid for it in the show's first season. Fancy Cat said, "we never learn seh most of the parts them laugh at was the skits. We assume them jus' laugh at everything. So we start the first season ...". And, just as they tag team on the stage, Ity picks up the tale again.

getting sponsorship

"We spend a year, the whole of '07, a search for sponsorship. That's a very important part of the story y'nuh, sponsorship. We almost give up," Ity said. Money Mike also left Jamaica and "we left with this product now, with potential, but no move nowhere". However, he says Courts, for whom they have worked for many years, was "like a given".

In January 2008 Ity took a "sit-down at me machine and write the letter January 4 to a head of a marketing department at Digicel. And is there it start, January 4, 2008."

The first season began April 2008, although with the sponsorship assistance Fancy Cat emphasised "we still haffi go inna we pocket ... The money we have couldn't even finish the season". And Ity added, "but we finish the season. We establish a product. That was the most important thing we did. And get some feedback."

Ity said that the first season was "lukewarm, fairly successful". Fancy Cat seemed to be the tougher self-assessor. "Out of 10 me woulda give it three and a half," he said. Still, Ity said, "I woulda give it a five because if it did really, really crash an we go to anybody the next year them woulda say, 'mi nuh interested. Yu try, it no work'." And he pointed out that their brand never died, as they continued doing outstanding live shows.

In the second season, 2009, Courts and Digicel stepped up to the sponsorship plate again and this time around they hit the right funny formula.

Ity said in the first season The Ity and Fancy Cat Show was heavy on stand-up comedy. There were also interviews with various celebrities, the emphasis still being on humour. There was also a 'one-skit', as Fancy Cat termed it, the winning element from the pilot played down in the TV show.

It did not take long for them to get it, though. "People in Jamaica like see themselves. And them like see people look like them," Fancy Cat said." Worse when you can go in the ghetto and bring things them can relate to."

glaring difference

"When we bring a Michael Jackson ting to dem or a madman stuff them say yeah, so it go ... We realise them love seeing the skits. Them laugh at the jokes, but them like see the skits. We say OK, mek we do more of it this year."

So for 2009, Ity said they changed the formula "big-time". He said the glaring difference between the seasons is that they do not interview personalities. "As a matter of fact, for this season we don't feature the entertainment as much as we did in the first season. We deh more on the politics side. Not deliberately, but through the style we use this year," Ity said.

Among the many hits this year have been Bob (Marley) Blogs and Reneto Adams impersonations, Ity remembering that for the very first show they used footage of a policeman falling out of a van. It was already funny, but they figured how "we can embellish it and make it even nicer. Me an Cat say mek we imagine that we a di driver in the vehicle".

That first skit hit and "from that, no looking back ... From that firs skit, everybody start watch the show".

blessed and lucky

They do not claim to be the only comedians with ideas for a television show (and have taken advice), but for various reasons the others have not "come to the fore". "I think we are blessed and lucky too to be at a place and time where opportunity meet preparation," Ity said.

Neither do they claim to be the first comedians to have a show on television (although they assert that they are the duo which has had the longest run). However, Ity pointed out that the previous shows were sitcoms, quite unlike the package they have developed.

The Ity and Fancy Cat show has a team of writers which includes Owen 'Blakka' Ellis, Tony 'Paleface' Hendriks, Dr Michael Abrahams, Carlington Silburn chipping in with ideas as well. However, Ity said, "chiefly, the things come from Ity and Fancy Cat repertoire."

The show's two main sponsors are still Courts and Digicel and Ity said sponsors are already committed to next year's third season, plus there are "whole heap of potential main sponsors".

They have not set a specific number of seasons, simply aiming to go "as far as we can take it". Fancy Cat said. "So as the season finish we look forward to do another season."