FOLLOWING a successful run of the first season of the comedy show, ‘Bare Rickaticks’, starring local comedians, ‘The Reactors’, the show is scheduled to return in September for yet another season of side-busting laughs. First launched at the beginning of this year, the TV version of ‘Bare Rickaticks’ came to life as a spinoff of a stage show of the same name staged in 2014.
The show aired weekly on E-Networks for three months, consisting 12 episodes of comedic sketches featuring social commentary, current events and satire.
In an interview with The Buzz, member of The Reactors, Randolph Critchlow said that the group has, since its formation, been able to create a name for itself, having toured Guyana for numerous performances.
This popularity, he said, bode well for the TV show. “It has been a great success. Now, everywhere we go, people recognise us; some people even shout out some of the popular lines from the skits,” he said. Needless to say, Randolph noted that many anxiously await the second season’s launch, come September.
The show currently serves as the only running local comedy television show in the country, and its success speaks to the need for more such productions coming out of the local arts industry.
THE BEGINNING
The Reactors was formed in 2013 when Randolph was called upon by local comedian, Chow Pow to write and perform skits for the ‘Chow Pow Comedy Jam’.
“So I wrote a few skits, and then pulled together five other actors to help me stage the productions. And we performed and toured with the Chow Pow Comedy Jam that year,” Randolph said.
Apart from Randolph, the group consists of other well-known names: Mark Luke Edwards, Mark Kazim, Sean Thompson, Leon Cummings and Tashandra Inniss.
After their first stint touring with Chow Pow, the group decided to stay together, and has since been making comedic magic for a starved Guyanese crowd.
“We came up with the name after listening to one of our acting coaches who said that actors didn’t act, they react. So Mark Kazim suggested that we use The Reactors as a name, having been inspired by that,” Randolph said.
On being the only female in the group, Tashandra refers to herself as “a little girl with a big voice”, and admits that she sometimes tries to bully the boys into getting her own way, but doesn’t get through.
“But when it comes to the show and working together, the guys support me a lot,” she said. She added that the camaraderie among the group also helps in creating successful performances, and it translates to a genuinely entertaining performance on screen.
So, when, at the beginning of the year, the group was approached by E-Networks with the proposal to make their stage show into a production, it was easy for The Reactors to agree.
Today, their entire First Season can be seen on E-Networks’ Youtube channel, with episodes amounting to over 100,000 views each. The shows also feature guest performances by other beloved actors, like Michael Ignatius and Nirmala Narine.