Album Review: Inessa and Sarah, Get You Through The Day

Inessa Frantowski changed the game for sketch comedy in Toronto in the 2010s. Her characters were boundless and shameless, with so much heart and strange regality, such as Rene on the Emmy-nominated cult classic web series The Amazing Gayle Pile. Volumes could be written about her wardrobe on the series and how no one could pull these looks off like Inessa. 

This bolt of lightning found her rod in fellow sketch comedian Sarah Hillier. Hillier is a mainstay in Toronto improv circles and it set her up nicely to be sort of the straight person of the duo. A mother of two, there is a comedic juvenile hyper quality that remains intact that is one of Hillier’s strongest skills. 

For those familiar with their on stage chemistry (and costumes) it could be hard to imagine them in an audio only realm. 

The album Inessa and Sarah Get You Through The Day seems like an expanded version of Inessa's instagram segment “A Bit of Advice with Inessa”, where she would offer reminders with comedic absurdist tilts. 

This album is framed around satire of a guided meditation. Linear as it progresses through real everyday problems remedied with untethered premises. 

It’s a clean album, the type of thing you could play with children around and the humour that was out of reach would do them no harm (but maybe skip the track about how to have sex after a while). Yet even this is rooted in the awkward, not the shocking blue. 

A track titled “Dinner Calls Breakfast” has both performers engaged in perfect comedic sync.  “Grocery Store Interaction” fully utilizes the audio sketch genre. 

A bit of advice: This album feels like the sort of thing two friends in early high school could discover and would be the root of endless inside jokes. This album is not for people who aren’t ready to joke about body acceptance. The issue is taken head on in several tracks.  This album is also not for methodical perfectionists….who need lofty, brooding wit. 

It is a fun, zippy reminder of the bigger picture from a duo doing far more than just getting through their day. 

Inessa and Sarah Get You Through The Day was released February 18, 2022.
Listen to it here.