June 22, 2001 – Stories, stories and more stories were the order of the evening Thursday at the St. John Festival's Comedy Show/Liars Fest in the Winston Wells Ball Field.
Seasoned performers and comical wannabees joined forces to provide the audience with a patchwork of preposterous prose and poems, ranging from simply silly to absolutely outrageous. In a special appearance, magicians Captain Magic and Doctor Cha Cha Cha amazed the crowd with their mind-boggling telepathy.
The St. Croix scratch band Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights got everyone in a listening mood for the half-dozen men who took the stage with tales to tell.
Organizer Rudolph "Pimpy" Thomas, a seasoned storyteller himself, was master of ceremonies, while St. Johnian Oswin Sewer and Glenn "Kwabena" Davis, a teacher at Eudora Kean High School on St. Thomas, set the standard for the evening. Doctor Cha Cha Cha, the only female to take the microphone, wondered aloud why no other women were performing, surmising that it must just be impossible for women to lie.
Davis told of a boat he and his family were on, before he was born, which was involved in an altercation with a fish "as tall as Julius Sprauve School."
Thomas said the liars fest was the first to be held on St. John since one was rained out a decade ago. More than a dozen performers had been scheduled to take part, but many developed last-minute stage fright.
Nevertheless, the audience of about 60 had a few laughs, and more than enough stories to pass on.
On the St. John Festival schedule this weekend are a senior citizens talent show Friday at 6 p.m., the annual calypso show (rescheduled after last Saturday's rain) following at 8 p.m., the queen competition Saturday at 8 p.m. and a full day of activities Sunday — the coronation of royalty and food fair opening at 1 p.m., boat races from 2 p.m. and a reggae concert at 8 p.m.
Click here for the complete St. John Festival schedule, including ticket information.
