The Power of Talk Tent

But Keens-Douglas, 74, believes that with support and greater exposure, the tent’s brand of clean, quality comedy and social commentary could do much more for this society.

This year’s edition of Talk Tent will feature spoken-word artistes Kleon McPherson and Brian Carimbocas as special guests, singing MC David Bereaux, and talk calypso from Short Pants (Llewellyn McIntosh), as well as Avion Crooks, Farida Chapman, Miguel Browne, and of course Keens-Douglas himself.

The show will also pay tribute to community activist and actor Hal Greaves, known for his character Roy in the Roy and Gloria series, who, together with his acting partner Dawn Henry (who played Gloria), was a prominent member of Talk Tent. Greaves died last October.

“He will be missed this year, very badly,” Keens-Douglas said.

He explained his process of scouting for talent for Talk Tent, recalling for instance that the comedian “Nuts Landing” (Andre Jilkes) was selling nuts in the National Stadium and would stand up and do a piece about different soap operas. Keens-Douglas invited him to participate in Talk Tent, and his career moved forward from there.

He said some talkers were “over-exposed,” but he prefers to have people who nobody would see otherwise, and who might come third and fourth in competitions.

Performers have to talk for 15 minutes, he explained, but there are some talk artistes who do not have the stamina. Keens-Douglas himself, as a veteran, can talk for two hours straight without a script.

“You have to be totally rehearsed.

I can do a show any time of the day.

Always rehearsing.

Always on top.” Some people are natural storytellers and performers, he said, and only have to be polished on the dos and don’ts. They also have to be brave enough to go on stage and they must have a very good memory. “You can’t go around talk taking [down] what people say like a reporter. Nobody will talk if you around them. You have to absorb and retain, and must be able, when you get back home, to bring out what they said. So you researching all the time when you walking around.” People say some of the funniest and strangest things, he said, and tragedy was one step from humour.

Keens-Douglas stressed that every piece must be “about something”; it must leave something in the audience member’s head and improve their intelligence. It doesn’t necessarily have to be brand new: each year the tent brings back “old stuff,” as part of it is making stories live.

“If you don’t tell stories, they die,” he stressed.

But Keens-Douglas said that as part of the Carnival mentality and “throwaway society,” we create things, throw them away and then look for the new. He explained that stories like Snow White and Cinderella are told for years, but in this country we want a new one every year. In his own performances he mixes his old stories with the new ones.

He explained the purpose of Talk Tent is to preserve old stories and to see the art as an artform.

He pointed out that, other than the Talk Tent, there was no place people could go to see “talkers” in the same way they see calypsonians.

So the plan of the Talk Tent was to imitate a calypso tent, but instead of calypsonians, you have comics, satirists and storytellers.

Instead of singing artistes they had a singing MC and instead of back-up dancers they had backup “laughers,” though the latter were eventually dropped. One thing he lamented was the media coverage of Talk Tent and the lack of critical analysis in reporting, which he said would usually focus on the guest artiste or crowd size, but did not “focus on the art of it.” People overseas would ask him for newspaper articles about his performances, but he does not share them because of the lack of proper analysis.

Every year, material is written only for Talk Tent that will not be heard anywhere else. Asked if this was unfortunate, Keens-Douglas said most of the artistes do not have their material recorded, though Talk Tent shows are taped to preserve the material. But it would need a sponsor to get on television. and while business groups talk about values, they sponsor events like golf and horse racing and not little shows like the tent.

Keens-Douglas said he has a piece this year called The Sponsor, about the artiste as beggar. Overseas, sponsors are proud to be associated with you but in Trinidad some act like they are doing you a favour, he said, adding that the country is so rich with culture that Talk Tent is viewed as “just something down the road”. He also said the National Carnival Commission (NCC) does not recognise shows like this one, “but these shows are the glue that keep Carnival together”.

“Nobody interested in small shows,” he lamented, saying that was necessary as a way of improving Carnival.

So he suggested the NCC could spread $1 million around small shows and to people who are doing things just for love, “sponsor or no sponsor.” Meanwhile, for Talk Tent specifically, it is a struggle to put on the show every year, but it has been lucky to build its own crowd over the years. Then there’s a problem with venues. Keens-Douglas said he is not able to have repeats of the Talk Tent or do storytelling for children. He pointed out, however, that a number of ministry buildings have large conference rooms and a lot of space and could be utilised once there is basic lighting and sound systems are implemented.

Also, the shows are very successful and there is no reason they cannot move around the country and “really educate people and talk to them.” The talk at the shows includes issues such as AIDS, politics and corruption – packaged with humour – and the Talk Tent creates its own world inside of Trinidad with its own values and upkeeps its standards. Everyone should insist on standards in their own areas, he said. After 34 years the Talk Tent is still going strong and still has a following, but Keens-Douglas insisted it needs more exposure and should be able to perform for schools and have its stories put into the school system.

“The rest we leave up to God,” he said.

Talk Tent is being held from March 3 to 5 at Queen’s Hall, Portof- Spain.