“The primary school teacher vibes don’t end here,” Sasha Ellen jokes lightheartedly at the start of When Life Gives You Ellens, Make Ellenade. This show is filled to the brim with dry mockery presents a bleak picture as Ellen pokes fun and speaks to hard truths about the heterosexual dating scene.
Constantly keep us on our toes with her material
The topics in the show focus on the theme of dating after a break-up, which Ellen mixes into a kind of safety PSA, but one that is honest about dating culture and how it feels to be a woman stepping back into the arena. She makes sure to paint really detailed pictures when recounting an anecdote, showcasing and drawing our attention to the most ludicrous examples with her tone, all of which leads us towards a rather major twist, that is incredibly clever considering the set-up that occurs throughout the show. She uses this technique often throughout the show, but in being able to constantly keep us on our toes with her material, she demonstrates the command she has over a joke's structure. Her narration of observations and anecdotes have a kind of disbelieving good-naturedness about them, a kind of outrage that comes from pent up frustration over certain universal truths, but recounted in such a friendly and helpful manner. There’s a sharpness inEllen's jokes, but this only serves to gives us a new way to see the world and to enjoy ourselves when doing it, even if what we are noticing is unpleasant. Throughout this show, the stories she recounts speak to a larger universal truth that women experience on the dating scene, which creates a kind of groupthink where we are able to hear and share tactics and information.
When Life Gives You Ellens, Make Ellenade is the kind of comedy show where it seems like whilst Ellen is talking about her experiences, she is also giving us advice, teaching us through her experiences. This is how the primary school teacher vibe continues to the very end.
