Review: Comedy Special 'Mae Martin: SAP' Sweet, but Not Sappy

Abbi Jacobson, co-creator and co-star of "Broad City" and the new TV series "A League of Their Own," directs Mae Martin's effervescent comedy special debut, "SAP," following their critically-acclaimed TV series "Feel Good" (available on Netflix).

The special having been filmed last December in Vancouver, Martin (they/them) appropriately emerges from a real forest in the intro scene into fake woods on stage for this sweet (like tree sap) and witty hour-long special. Their Canadian-ness keeps the observations simple, light, and polite, yet always smart and thought-provoking. Award-winning writer and comedian Martin identifies as bisexual and as British, as that's where their parents are from. "I'm trying not to have a Madonna accent," they note after living in London for 12 years, including during pandemic quarantine.

Their parents pop up throughout the set, including a tall tale about driving under a moose, a story that Martin and an older brother set out to measure and validate. Martin also talks about the details that boundaryless parents have divulged over the years, including how their daughter was created, noting that "it's so bleak to be conceived doggy style." Martin also wonders why so many parents have one big conch shell in the bathroom. Martin talks about dating as well, comparing "normal exes to big exes" and how dating at age 35 "won't properly traumatize your partner."

Martin started comedy at age 13, but also became addicted to drugs and entered rehab at 19. Perhaps that's where the self-reflective wisdom stems from, along with excellent observations about the "colonial gender binary" and the effects of top surgery and hormone therapy. Martin offers a fascinating runner about how humans are "experience hunters" who go on adventures and come back with a literal and/or metaphorical snow globe from where they've been. "Life is showing each other our snow globes" to prove that "I'm me," emphasizing to "take my word for it, I know what I am."

The entire set feels like meeting a new friend while micro-dosing shrooms, a feel-good rumination on trauma and triumph, sexuality and personality, and divisions that have emerged as self-acceptance. There's faith here, too, as Martin says: "I don't know how Wi-Fi works, but I trust that it's there."

"Mae Martin SAP" streams on Netflix starting March 28.