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Strong TUCO 2007 Extempo Competition
LEFT: Llewellyn 'Short Pants' McIntosh and Phillip 'Black Sage' Murray
TriniSoca.com Reporters
Event Date: February 06, 2007
Posted: February 12, 2007
The TUCO Extempo Preliminaries were held on Tuesday 6th February, 2007, at the Kavemar Pub on Henry Street, Port of Spain. The audience comprised no more than one hundred people, including foreigners and lovers of extemporized Calypso. This was one of the most exciting nights of the Carnival season, despite its relatively small setting, as the extempore competitors showed their mental wit and sharpness by improvising on the spot on their selected themes.
Contestants were judged on lyrics (40 points), rendition (30 points), originality (20 points) and presentation (10 points). They were also given the choice to improvise on any of four extempore sounds: 'Santimanitay', 'Matilda', 'Miss Mary Ann' and 'Big Bamboo'. All the contestants chose the most popular of the four, the 'Santimanitay'.
As goes with the territory, a lot of 'picong' was in the mix. Contenders such as Llewellyn 'Short Pants' McIntosh, 'Myron B' and 'Lingo' all had the audience on the floor with laughter, certainly amazed with their quick responses, sometimes in double entendre form.
Some interesting topics that were extemporized on were "World Cup Cricket in the Caribbean", "Bring Back the Train", "One Song for the Monarch" and "Panorama Finals in South". Both the audience and the judges listened attentively to the contenders who were forced to think quickly and present their ideas speedily.
Out of the seventeen contestants, twelve made it to the semi-final round, which took place that same night. At this point, the contestants were made to engage in an 'Extempo War'. This extempore showdown included the sole female participant, Lesley-Ann 'Lady Africa' Bristo; son of the Calypso legend, 'Bomber', Clifton Ryan Jr.; extempore genius Phillip 'Black Sage' Murray; and popular Calypsonians Llewellyn 'Short Pants' McIntosh and Mark 'Contender' John. Other semi-finalists included: Wendell Etienne, Lingo, Myron B, Hezekiah Joseph, Eurick 'Zano' Manzaro, David Brown, and Francois Ottley.
The other artistes that did not make it to the semi-finals were: Dion Diaz, Dalton Walker, Curtis R. 'Flying Man' Bayne, David Brown and Gary 'Gary Ranks' Thomas.
Two guest artistes, Neil 'Abebele' Baptiste and Christopher 'Black Prince' Howell, greatly entertained the crowd and were excellent at delivering their tunes.
The final round of the Extempo 2007 Competition would certainly be much anticipated. Artistes would compete for a first prize of $50,000; a second prize of $25,000; a third prize of $15,000; a fourth prize of $10,000; and a fifth prize of $5,000. The judges would definitely have a difficult choice in choosing the best of the best.
TUCO Extempo Preliminaries 2007 in pictures:
www.trinisoca.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=55948
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