JENNY SLATE at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre (190 Princes Blvd), Saturday (September 23) at 9 pm, tonight (Sunday, September 24), 7 pm. $35, passes $55-$299. jfl42.com. Rating: NNNN
The Queen Elizabeth Theatre was packed last night for Jenny Slates JFL42 set, which saw her regretting the political situation in the United States of, yknow, Whatever, teasing her artsy-fartsy parents (her mom is a potter, her father is a poet), and unpacking her first sexual fantasies, which, colourfully, went deep into the Disney canon.
Walking out to British singer Jess Glynnes Dont Be So Hard On Yourself, a song Slate continued to call back to for its upbeat messaging about just getting through the day, the comic immediately asked the audience: Have you ever seen someone be cool before?
Slates version of cool is an excellent balance between confident sarcasm (often directed at the patriarchy) while simultaneously exploding as a ball of energy that cant wait to tell you funny stories.
She was also ecstatic to be in a country that didnt inherently bum her out.
Shoot, Im being too negative! she said, before toppling her mic stand and leaving it horizontal for the remainder of the show. Slate went on to talk about kicking her decades long weed addiction and how clear her mind has become, which had some great bits about remembering all the letters and words and new combos she could make.
At one point, she slowed things down to explain why shes afraid of horses, one of her funniest idiosyncrasies: Their feet are hammers, their butts are too shiny, their faces are as long as half a door, their dicks are from hell, and theyre like a table thats alive but too high to sit at.
For some, Slates style of starting and re-starting set-ups and repeating herself for comedic effect may grow a little tiresome (Im fine. Im fine! Im fine, Im fine, Im fine, Im fine, she said at one point, going on for much longer than possibly countable).
Her set always snapped back into focus, though, with cutting burns and vividly ribald remarks that paid off because of how abruptly unexpected they were. Everyone thinks Im someone from their JCC, Slate said, ending her set by wondering if the Beast from the 1991 Beauty And The Beast had a beast body but a pink dick.
Slate appears again tonight (Sunday, September 24), 7 pm, at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.
