THE launch of season three of The Ity and Fancy Cat Show on Thursday at the Knutsford Court Hotel was more like a comedy — well then again we shouldn’t be surprised — with a host like Owen ‘Blakka’ Ellis and performers Dr Michael Abrahams and Noel Ellis.

The only glitch in the evening’s proceedings was the hour-long delay due to the late arrival of Ity and Fancy Cat! But as Courts’ director of marketing, Janet Sylvester, said, “You want to be mad at them, but one look at their sorry expressions and you can’t hold it.”

Season three of The Ity and Fancy Cat Show will be aired in a new broadcast slot — Sundays at 9:30 pm, starting Sunday, June 6 and the live in-studio links will use a new larger-than-life set created by Scheed Cole of Props and More.

The evening’s interactive live sessions will be recorded at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts.

In speaking about the upcoming season, chief writer for the show, Owen ‘Blakka’ Ellis, says fans can expect a lot of thrills with one of them being Nurse Edith Allwood Anderson getting the chance to “defend herself”.

The launch wasn’t just about comedy — although that was in abundance courtesy of a humourous poem about Tiger Woods’ sexual prowess by Dr Michael Abrahams, Noel Ellis’ belly-cracking poems and Blakka’s biting digs in-between introducing the speakers.

There was also a serious element, too, as guest speaker, Dr Donna Hope Marquis, made some strong points.

“Our society is so wired on negative criticism that we give far too much airspace and newspaper columns (aka free publicity), to things gone awry, rather than to the myriad things around us that we should immortalise and celebrate. Oftentimes, I am so traumatised by the scenes unfolding on the local news on television each evening that I am almost ready to run… run… run and never look back. But there is always another side to life in Jamaica land we love, and The Ity & Fancy Cat Show is an excellent representation of this other side,” she said.

Hope Marquis in her speech said the real success of the popular series lies in the fact that the Ity & Fancy Cat Show is a celebration of Jamaican life and culture. “It’s raw material emanates from the belly of Jamaican people. It is a humorous take on who we are… whether or not we like it.”

Hope Marquis also took time out to praise the Ellis International team for their “innovation and tenacity” as they never gave up when “few believed in the value of this show at its early stages”.