How has the reception been?
The reception has been really warm and so, so encouraging. People love pum pum! Whether you have a pum pum, wanna get up in the pum pum, or come from a pum pum, it’s something everyone can relate to. People catch nuff jokes, and they always want to share what we do with their people. Often people wonder if it’s a show just for women. But all the guys who come out love it. It’s a show for people who like to laugh. Most of what we do has caught on thanks to word of mouth.
We are known mostly for the live show, which has a loyal following. But since putting the live show up is not always possible, we like to keep it moving with the online content. We are interested in creating an alternate narrative [to] what’s being produced onstage and in mainstream media. We are dynamic women of Caribbean descent — not one-dimensional women we are accustomed to seeing in the stories we’re being told — and we want to see that represented. Luckily for us, our audiences want to see the same things. Everybody loves island vibes. and a show that features talking pum pum – that’s a pair of lips from which you don’t often hear.
You guys are doing a couple shows in New York. Where else have you taken your pum pum advocacy and monologues?
We are doing a one-night only performance at Joe’s Pub Saturday, October 4 at 7 pm. It’s a fresh, funny and irreverent look at womanhood in all its glory: its perils, its pleasures, and all kinda madness in between. Featuring a series of original vignettes and music, Pomme is French for Apple deals with sex, society, and dating from a distinctly West Indian perspective — complete with speechifying straight from the pum pum. The show has toured in various cities in Canada, and we’ve done a couple of shows here in NYC at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, which were some of our best yet: New York audiences are so. Much. Fun. We just returned from a run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the UK, which was a huge deal for our likkle pomme because it’s the largest arts festival in the world. Big tings for two gyals whose whole show centres around Caribbean pum pum. They didn’t even know that word out there! But they do now. Mmmhmm.
After New York, where are you taking your show?
Our run in Edinburgh started some conversations with producers in London, which if and when it comes through will be like a dream come true. Nuff yardies deh a London Town. Dem nevah really ready fi wi. And more New York City! Wherever people want to laugh, feel good and celebrate “pumlife,” that’s where we want to be. And more videos, of course. The Internet is the perfect place to spread di pum. True say we can think of a few other places we could spread it, but in the meantime you can get some pomme at Joe’s Pub on Saturday.