Bo­bie-lee Dixon

They are a lov­able pair,known for their "off the chain" pro­mo­tion­al con­cept ads. If you guessed, I'm re­fer­ring to Tim Tim and Zu­ki,you're right. Clad in Af­flic­tion T-shirt, jeans and black-and-red Jor­dans, Keron Boodoos­ingh (Tim Tim), along with his trusty side­kick Greg Hen­ry (Zu­ki)–who opt­ed for more flam­bouyant gear: a yel­low Hol­lis­ter Tshirt, three-quar­ter jeans and pinkand- yel­low flow­ered Con­verse sneak­ers–the mas­ter­minds be­hind the an­i­mat­ed duo,sat down with me to tell of their jour­ney to fame.

The back­ground

Many might think the team, whose faces are syn­ony­mous with the Hol­i­day Foods brand, is new to the en­ter­tain­ment world. But Boodoos­ingh and Hen­ry, both res­i­dents of Diego Mar­tin, are now reap­ing the ben­e­fits of their hard work. No stranger to the lime­light, Boodoos­ingh was part of the group Ec­sta­cy, now de­funct, which in­clud­ed long-time friend and neigh­bour, so­ca sen­sa­tion Zan. To­geth­er, they wrote songs for some of the biggest names in so­ca,in­clud­ing De­stra,Tony Prescott and Shal. His suc­cess con­tin­ued when he met Juice, a key key­boardist with Roy Cape All Stars and pro­duc­er Kei­th Is­rael. They pro­duced the songs Dou­bles, So­ca Swing, Splash and Burn­ing Up, which caught the at­ten­tion of Car­ni­val band Leg­ends.

The song was used as their theme song for the road. On the oth­er hand, Hen­ry, who ad­mit­ted to not be­ing much of a singer, said he al­ways want­ed to be a pro­duc­er and pro­mot­er. Hang­ing out with Boodoos­ingh and Zan dur­ing the time of their mu­si­cal suc­cess ex­posed him to that side of the in­dus­try. To­day, be­sides be­ing Zu­ki, he is do­ing just that. Birth of Tim and Zu­ki Hen­ry and Boodoos­ingh re­alised that even though they found suc­cess in mu­sic,there was a need for a pro­mot­er. The idea of start­ing a pro­mo­tion­al com­mit­tee was born. "We be­gan do­ing con­cept ads, as op­posed to the con­ven­tion­al shout­ing ads, for our par­ties Un­faith­ful, and Pass the Cour­voisi­er. This is how we pro­mot­ed our­selves," ex­plained Boodoos­ingh.

He re­vealed that the char­ac­ters Zu­ki and Tim Tim were born af­ter a group of young pro­mot­ers, them­selves in­clud­ed, host­ed a big par­ty ti­tled Inn, which be­came very pop­u­lar and suc­cess­ful. "The con­cept ...was re­al­ly to show how peo­ple try to get in­to fetes." How­ev­er, af­ter re­la­tion­ships be­tween the pro­mot­ers went sour, Boodoos­ingh, Keron and Zan de­cid­ed to host Inn for the sec­ond time, on­ly now call­ing it Een–with a more Tri­ni em­pha­sis. "We cre­at­ed Tim Tim and Zu­ki,two car­toon char­ac­ters who were try­ing to get in­to a par­ty us­ing every trick in the book,"said Boodoos­ingh.

The two were shocked when their an­i­mat­ed avatars, brought to life by graph­ic artist Ger­ard Gomez, caught the ears and eyes of cor­po­rate Trinidad, which be­gan knock­ing on their door for con­cept ads to be done by the pair. Their biggest en­dorse­ment to date: Trinidad Hol­i­day Foods. Their hit, Jump Een/Red Over is get­ting lots of air­play, as these two en­ter­pris­ing young men seem to be mak­ing their mark in every area of en­ter­tain­ment. The song, writ­ten by Boodoos­ingh, Hen­ry, Zan and Ker­nel Roberts, is all about Tim Tim and Zu­ki mak­ing their for­ay in­to the so­ca in­dus­try.The song has al­ready gained them en­trance in­to the In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch semi­fi­nals, as well as a guest ap­pear­ance on the Syn­er­gy So­ca Star fi­nals.

Ac­cord­ing to Boodoos­ingh, they are al­so plan­ning an elite event for Car­ni­val Wednes­day, called Een d Mas, to take place at the Queen's Park Oval. Un­like like those who have fall­en af­ter ris­ing to fame, squan­der­ing their mon­ey, Boodoos­ingh and Hen­ry have in­vest­ed in their own reg­is­tered pro­duc­tion house–All Me­dia Ad­ver­tis­ing/IreStyle, lo­cat­ed at Baden Pow­ell Street in Wood­brook. The busi­ness is like a one-stop shop; clients can get every­thing done there, from con­cept to CD. "We want to be the Fam­i­ly Guy of Trinidad," said Boodoos­ingh."We are plan­ning on do­ing a car­toon se­ries for tele­vi­sion and folks can look out for full mer­chan­dis­ing for kids. We are in­vest­ing in T-shirts, copy books, cups, school bags and more." What's the se­cret to their suc­cess? "We just be­lieve."