Comedian Critique: Sabrina Jalees

The audience that attended the Florence Moore (Flo Mo) Auditorium certainly got a laugh full on Tuesday, March 2.

Sabrina Jalees, the young female comedian from Toronto, performed a stand up show at Menlo College. Jalees has done standup for a number of media outlets in Canada, she hosts her own radio show on CBC Canada, and is also a columnist for a newspaper in Toronto.

She has toured many colleges and universities in the United States. According to her website, sabrinajalees.com, Jalees visited over 30 colleges and universities in North America in 2009.

Jalees has been doing stand up since she was 16, when she started performing during armature hour. She quickly grew into one of Canada's most popular comedians. At age 17, she was offered to host "Smart Ask," a comedy show on CBC, the countries leading broadcaster.

At the Flo Mo Auditorium, Menlo College got a small sample of Jalees' comedy. She would often talk about her background, being half Swiss and half Pakistani and how she would be left out of the crowd during her elementary and middle school life.

The response from the crowd was positive. "It was really funny," said Amy Takano, Freshman from Japan. "I loved how she made fun of the audience."

Jalees prides herself on being a feminist. She made several feminist jokes and would often poke feminism towards the audience.

She is definitely funny. You don't get offered shows on CBC at age 17 without having the talent. And because of her young age, she is able to connect with a younger audience.

Yet, even the talented ones have room to improve. As she gets older, she is going to have to learn how to be funny without using a lot of bathroom humor. While younger audiences might look at her standup as being very creative, older audiences might look at her as very unsophisticated.

One of the most important jobs for a comedian is learning to connect with audiences of all ages. If Jalees intends on improving her career, she will have to learn to connect with older audiences as well as younger audiences.

Even so, Sabrina Jalees has already emerged as one of Canada's popular comedians. She is a very talented comedian with the potential of becoming even better.