arts & entertainment

NEWLY RENOVATED

AL OUM,IN.K..

We are now 3600 square ft.
Full bar

Homemade bread and
juice bar

Sheila
Kay

Available for private parties
up to 100 people
Catering/carryout

Oh, Kay!

Former Detroiter brings her special
brand of comedy to Dearborn.

MONDAY & TUESDAY

DINE IN ONLY

15% OFF

I

SPECIALS

S

HOUSE WINE
BY THE GLASS $4.00
BOTTLED BEER $2.25

TOTAL FOOD BILL

Not good with any other offer,
not valid on holidays exp 3/31/13.

6096 West Maple Rd. (at Farmington), West Bloomfield

248.539 .0505

www.aloumararestaurant.com

SUN-THUR 11-10 • FRI & SAT 11-11

1815780

Baby Back Ribs

10% OFF TOTAL BILL

Excludes tax, tip and beverages. With this ad. Dine in or Carry out. Expires 3/31/13

•

rw- Brass Pointe

1rior?

(7

•

/frigt,

(4

24234 Orchard Lake Rd., N.E. corner of 10 Mile • 476-1377
Open 7 Days a week for lunch & dinner

44

Ob)

Restaurant

Italian Cuisine

248.476.0044

Buy one lunch or dinner entree I
and get the second 1/2 off
I

Of equal or lesser value
Not good with any other coupons.
Not good on holidays. One coupon per couple. Up to $30 I
Expires 3/31/13

15%

off
total food bill

Not good with any other coupon.
Not good on holidays. One coupon per couple. Up to $30
Expires 3/31/13

Farmington Hills • Corner of Grand River & Haggerty Road
Auburn Hills • 1 miles south of the Palace of Auburn Hills

48

February 14 • 2013

J14

Suzanne Chessler

Contributing Writer

1813010

heila Kay vows she's never had
surgery to uplift anything sag-
ging. But she does vow to use
humor in the stories of surgeries she
has had to uplift any sagging outlooks
among those seeing her perform.
Two faulty cataract surgeries — and
the doctors involved — can make their
way into her upbeat approaches to per-
sonal downers.
Local audiences will see for them-
selves when Kay appears Feb. 22-23 in
the Studio A Comedy Cafe at the Ford
Community & Performing Arts Center
in Dearborn.
"I never actually plan a show, but I do
have a basic set:' explains Kay, 63, in a
phone conversation from New Jersey.
"I've always done stuff about me
whether I'm talking about surgeries,
marriages or menopause. It's pretty
much what everybody can relate to:'
There was a double miss in her
marriages, too, and that enters into
the routine, ignoring the reality of her
successful third marriage. Sometimes,
she takes liberties to add punch to the
stories.
Husband number three, Robert
Gatto, is a phone tech and much
younger man, no less. He's been hold-
ing on for 20 years after being taken
with the comedian while seeing her
onstage.
Kay, who grew up in Michigan, uses
her middle name as her last, which
was Weinberg before those three hus-
bands. She regularly visits the state to
catch up with relatives and head into
the humor spotlight.
"My set now consists of a lot more
material than it used to because I'm
working for Carnival Cruise Lines,
where I put on family and adult shows
as well as short acts to welcome travel-
ers and entertain at brunch.
"I like to go with the flow of each
audience. If it's an audience that loves
the dirt — and I love the blue mate-
rial — then I go with that. If they don't

seem to be there, then I'll give them a
cleaner show:'
Kay, who took dancing and singing
lessons as an Oak Parker graduating
from Ferndale High School, entered
comedy after going to a club while in
her 30s and deciding to try an open
mic night.
With local success, she advanced her
career in California, where her daugh-
ter is a civilian police employee.
"I moved to California seven years
after I started doing comedy:' recalls
Kay, whose professional experiences
have reached from doing standup with
Soupy Sales to accepting small roles
on series television, including Law &
Order SVU and Providence.
"I moved to New Jersey 10 years
ago when my husband got a job
transfer. I started working on cruises
six months ago after an agent out of
Detroit asked if he could try to place
me on a ship:'
Kay, active with B'nai B'rith as a
teenager, now experiences religious
observation on the water with cruisers
and on land with in-laws.
"I was on a ship during Chanukah,
and they held services, lit a menorah
and made latkes; explains the come-
dian, who does serious volunteer work
for animal rescue and relaxes by scuba
diving.
"My husband is Italian, but he has a
sister married to a Jewish guy and an
uncle married to a Jewish woman so
we celebrate a little bit of everything.
"Because I'm from Michigan and
Jewish, there will be references to both
in my act, which also has me talking
to people in the audience and maybe
messing up their relationships, too:'

❑

Sheila Kay performs at 8 p.m.
Friday and Saturday, Feb.
22-23, at the Studio A Comedy
Cafe in the Ford Community &
Performing Arts Center, 15801
Michigan, in Dearborn. $15. (313)
943-2354; www.dearborntheater.
corn.

