With her easy going, laid-back style, comedian Sabrina Jalees charmed students on Wednesday in the SUU Auditorium as part of spring semester’s Welcome Back Week.
Amy Shupe, SUUSA activities vice president, said Jalees was found through the National Association of Campus Activities, in Oregon this year.
“We send a couple students there every year to check out the entertainers and stuff to see who would be good to invite to SUU and that’s where we found Sabrina,” Shupe said.
Jalees performed for a full house and didn’t disappoint.
“A lot of people showed up, which was great,” Shupe said . “And she worked really well with the audience.”
As a part of her routine, Jalees asked Shupe if the school had any traditions, which Shupe then told her the story of Old Sorrel.“It was really cool how she took that and used it as a part of her routine,” Shupe said. "It was definitely a hit with the crowd.”
Alexa Smith, a freshman human nutrition major from Richmond, Va., said she loved that Jalees knew things about the university and she said Jalees kept her laughing the whole time.
Jalees has been doing stand up comedy since she was 16 years old. Jalees is half Pakistani, half Swiss and was brought up in the Muslim religion. She uses each of these things as bits in her act.
“My favorite part about her show is when she talked about her dad,” Smith said. “The way she described her relationship with him was priceless.”
Jalees isn’t all about the laughs though. Since she first stepped onto the stage at age 16, Jalees has thrown herself into her career, breaking about every age-related record within the Canadian comedy community.
According to her official Web site, Jalees was the youngest comic to record a Comedy Now special, the youngest stand up comic to perform at the prestigious Just For Laugh’s Festival and at age 17, she broke Mike Myers’ record for being the youngest comic ever hired by Second City.
Jalees’ act fed off the crowd’s reaction and she wasn’t afraid to do a bit of improvisation. She bounced around to members of the audience, giving them nicknames such as “Wikipedia" and "Yeah."
“It was great how she made the audience such a big part of the act,” said Melissa Weber, a freshman music education major from Dublin, Ohio.
For fall semester, SUUSA chose Jeff Dye as the comedian for Welcome Week.
“Jeff Dye kept things cleaner,” Shupe said. “He also kept the audience entertained longer, but Sabrina was different. She was really great with the audience.”
While the two comedians had different approaches, both were a success.
“I liked them both,” said Jessica Beck, a freshman communication major from Sandy. “They both did really well. They each had a different style of performing, but I really liked them both. I’m glad I got to see them.”
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