“With hard work, you can make it”. With this philosophy from his mother, the Jamaican comedy king rose from a banana plantation to the TV stage, theatre and stand-up comedy. Despite growing up in poverty, the comedian allowed nothing to block his path as he was determined to grasp as much from the entertainment as he possibly could. The comedian found his love for the stage at seven years old while reading poetry and singing with his childhood neighbour. Samuel’s passion for the art propelled him to enroll in the Jamaican Theatre School where he performed in numerous productions. His breakthrough followed his involvement in the pantomime performance in which he was lauded for his extraordinary performance. This performance opened doors for several other performances by the comedian. This includes several British Broadcast Series such as My Father Son-Son Johnson,” “The Fight against Slavery,” and “Brothers and Sisters”. Today the comedian is busy performing in places such as the United States and Britain where he entertains many “Caribbean patriots”.  

 

Volier Johnson has graced many stages with his many characteristics. Claffy has bestowed on the Jamaican comedian one of his three popular names. The other two are Maffy from “Oliver at large” and Fishead from “Traxx”. He first performed in his first theatrical production a Trevor Rhone-directed version of A Christmas Carol, way back in 1969. In an interview with “Tallawah” the actor explained that “acting was always my pastime. When everybody was playing football I wanted to be on the stage. It’s a natural love I have for the theatre. I never wanted to be a big star; just to be able to do what I love and live a good life.” Today the comedian at 67 can still be seen on many stages with one of his most recent being the Phoenix Theatre where he performed with Oliver Samuels and Dennis Titus in the play “Tenament Yard”.

The passionate and talented Jamaican actor has committed over three decades of his life to the stage. Glen Campbell, popularly known as “Titus” career took after his performance in the Louis Marriott’s 1981 stage production of Playboy. He also gained national recognition after playing the bulging-eyed policeman in the Fabulous Five Inc. music video for “Ring Road”. The actor has been a part of films such as Titus in Town and Third World Cop and in plays like Cindy-Relisha and the DJ Prince (2003). He had theatre roles in historical productions such as Smile Orange in 1993, State of Emergency in 1996, Breadfruit Kingdom in 1999, Class of ‘73 in 2006, Love Games in 2007, and Matey Chronicles in 2017, and is also part of the cast for the movie Sprinter which was released last year. The United Kingdom born actor also joined the likes of theatre professionals like Oliver Samuels after he was awarded the nation’s sixth honour – the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer in 2018. This came 20 years after he was awarded the Actor Boy Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role in Breadfruit Kingdom,  that he has been nominated for more time than any other Jamaican actor.