FANCY CAT

Fancy Cat, who partners with Ity to form a popular comedic duo, has very little to laugh about these days, as he is mourning the sudden and shocking death of his father, Clifton Hardware.

Hardware, 72, died about 3:30 p.m. last Wednesday, after jumping from a balcony at the University Hospital of the West Indies.

Reports are that Hardware, who had been admitted in hospital for about a week, walked on to the balcony and jumped off, despite efforts by a female nurse to restrain him.

Fancy Cat, whose real name is Alton Hardware, was informed of his father's passing last week while he was in England visiting relatives.

The comedian, who arrived in Jamaica on Monday night, told THE STAR that he was trying to cope with the death and was doing so with the help of family members. He said, "Family is around, so I have support. We just cry on each other's shoulders. We have a really big family."

The comedian said he grew up with his father and they had a "close enough" bond. He said he visited his father before he left the island and told him that he would soon return. At that time, his father had not yet been hospitalised. "Mi go check him before mi leave, cause mi know him did a go through some pressure."

About two weeks into his trip, he learnt that his father had been admitted to hospital because he was having trouble breathing. He said his father had done heart surgery in the past, so when the family got the news that he had passed, they assumed that his heart had finally given out.

"It was shocking," the comedian said about the news, "everybody couldn't believe. Wi neva prepare fi dis." He said before he got the news he was encouraging a sibling to come to Jamaica to visit their father as he was ill.

Fancy Cat said because he had just arrived in the island he had not been able to get much information about the days or hours leading up to his father's death. He, however, said he had been told that his father was "seeing things" and had been imagining that people were out to kill him.

Though facing turbulent times at home, Fancy Cat said he would continue working as this would give him an escape. He said he is to perform in New York soon. "Being onstage is my happiest time," he said. "It allows me to just block out the world."

The comedian lost his mother in 1998.