Sabrina Jalees

Revival Bar, Toronto ON, September 24

Photo: David Leyes

BY Julianna RomanykPublished Sep 25, 2016

7
After finding success in Los Angeles as a sitcom writer, actress, and comic, Sabrina Jalees was excited to return to her hometown, and the Torontonian audience was proud to claim her as one of their own. Everything was set up perfectly: the show was sold out, there were no technical issues, and Sara Hennessey opened the show with exuberance.
 
Nonetheless, Jalees was off, and she was aware of it. She got mired in minor hiccups like her friend phoning her while she was on stage, she randomly got her brother to come to the front and show off his haircut for no payoff, and she closed her show by awkwardly saying "I'm a lesbian, goodnight," apologizing for the lame ending, then patching over the flub with an average joke.
 
Having said that, she was pricelessly candid about everything she did and she said: "If there are any reviewers here, they can suck on my titties." I get the feeling that the imperfections of this performance didn't get in her head and she'll do better on other nights.
 
Though Jalees stumbled a few times, her hour definitely had its strengths. Her comical tales about her weirdly heterosexual moment of arousal with a male stripper and her scene that involved pretending to put testosterone cream on Gabby Hoffman's clitoris for the show Transparent were as sexually progressive as they were riveting.
 
Likewise, her story about her conservative grandmother growing to like Jalees's partner as she got dementia was great. However, the best part of the night was definitely her story about being caught stealing gum as an 11-year-old. Her description of being red-faced and guilty as she was confronted by the manager was hilarious, as was the surprising ending of the story where she revealed how her strict dad reacted.

Latest Coverage