For more than a year, Sarah has been making a name for herself in the comedy world. She has performed at such venues as the San Jose Improv, Rooster T. Feathers and the Green Room in San Francisco, and has rubbed elbows with such stars as Dana Carvey, George Lopez and Bob Saget. She has attracted a huge following of fans who will drive a considerable distance--even in weeknight traffic--to hear her perform her unique brand of stand-up, and routinely sells out the Tuesday night comedy showcase at the Blue Rock Shoot in Saratoga, leaving a line of disappointed fans around the block who have to be turned away.

Not bad for a seventh-grader.

Yes, Sarah Kay is only 12 years old.

A typical day for Sarah's mother, Shari Kasrovi, often involves fielding phone calls from comedy clubs around the country, negotiating offers for movie and TV roles and fending off drooling talent agents as they fight to sign her daughter.

And this is just what goes on while Sarah's in school.

By day, she is Sarah Kasrovi, a seventh-grader at Hillbrook School in Los Gatos. At 3:30 p.m., when the bell rings, she becomes Sarah Kay. She may head home to practice her comedy routine for an upcoming gig, or get picked up by her mother and whisked off to an important audition.

The future certainly looks bright for this pre-teen who got her start a little more than a year ago, right in her hometown of Saratoga.

Bitten by the comedy bug

A year ago this month, Sarah got her start as a stand-up comedian and performer at the Blue Rock Shoot. Another aspiring local comedian, Dan Edwards, had recognized that there were virtually no local venues for a young entertainer such as Sarah--many establishments are either restricted to age 21 and over, or they booked comedians whose routines are a little too sophisticated or vulgar for the likes of a middle schooler.

Therefore, Edwards convinced the Blue Rock Shoot to partner with him and host Comedy Night on Tuesdays, and he decided to devote certain Tuesdays to Clean Comedy Night when Sarah and other comedians with "clean" routines would be invited to perform.

Since she first performed at Clean Comedy Night a year ago, Sarah's popularity has mushroomed. Her appearances have become so well attended that people often have to be turned away, as maximum capacity in the relatively small coffee shop is reached quickly. The show now sells tickets and reserves seats ahead of time, and it sells out every month.

Sarah has shown that comedy doesn't have to be X-rated. She cracks up audiences from a kid's point of view, yet even adults can relate to her subject matter and get a chuckle out of it.

"I talk about being a kid in the 20th century, but having parents stuck in the 16th century," Sarah quips. "Having teachers that have trouble speaking English, how my mom's always going on a diet."

In fact, her family is often the butt of her jokes. Sarah will joke about her mother's constant whining about her weight, about how she seriously doubts 1,500 is the number of Weight Watchers points one is supposed to eat in a single trip to the movies, and she begs her audiences to please tell her what a "carb" is. In a performance, she says she is constantly fascinated by commercials for the latest cure-all pills, and their laundry lists of side effects, which are always read at lightning speed at the end. And, of course, she laments about how her parents constantly embarrass her in public--a nightmare everyone can relate to.

"The thing is, she'll just exaggerate," Shari explains. "Like she'll joke that I'm a loner or that I'm lonely, but anyone who knows me knows I have a lot of friends. And honestly, I am always on a diet, so that part's so true. And I am always asking her dad how I look. She'll just exaggerate it to an absurd level."

"I make fun of my mom the most out of everyone, but she's really good about it; she's nice and doesn't get mad," Sarah says. "I also do some of my friends and my teachers, but I try not to do my teachers when they're in the audience."

Yes, both Sarah and her mother admit that her talent for making jokes can sometimes cause problems in the classroom.

"My teachers are nice, but in class I make jokes about them," Sarah says, admitting the teachers can get a bit exasperated with her for it. "And it's hard to focus sometimes because I think about how funny it is that they just said this or that, and how I could make it into a joke, and then I'm not focused on the project I should be doing."

One special night Sarah got the chance to meet George Lopez backstage at a comedy show in San Jose.

"I remember George Lopez said, 'Sarah, the talent you have is both a blessing and a curse,' " Shari recalls. "It's a blessing because, obviously, you're so talented, but it's a curse because every time you look at someone you're thinking, 'how can I make fun of them?' "

Through all of this, however, Sarah still manages to do well in school, and no matter how many times she uses them as fodder for her jokes, Sarah's parents are always right there in the front row, laughing just as loud as everyone else.

"I love it! She's so funny," says Shari.

Her growing fame

At Clean Comedy Night on Nov. 29, Edwards recognized Sarah's one-year anniversary performing at the Blue Rock Shoot and presented her with a special trophy.

"It's been a joy watching her grow as a performer. Her confidence and stage presence is impressive. She is inspiring other young people to set aside their fears and explore their creative talents," says Edwards. "If you look around at most of the comedians today, they are the result of repressed and painful childhoods, and that darkness is evident in their comedy. A large part of [Sarah's] charm is that she portrays a happy and supportive family environment. It is a kind of message that people need to hear and I hope that she will always keep some of that in her act."

In the past year, Sarah has also broadened her horizons and moved beyond the Blue Rock Shoot. She has earned spots in showcases and comedy competitions at venues such as the San Jose Improv, Rooster T. Feathers and San Francisco's The Green Room. She receives countless offers to perform for groups like the Cupertino Rotary Club, the Saratoga Lions, the Soroptimists, the San Francisco Library, the Saratoga Street Dance, Willow Glen Middle School, Intero Real Estate and more.

Recently, she entered the USA World Showcase, an entertainers' competition in Las Vegas for models, actors, singers and comedians. Sarah was one of those accepted out of more than 40,000 entertainers who entered, Shari says. She performed along with comedians of all ages from all over the country, and took the cake. She won her comedy category, and was the only one out of more than 150 comedians to get three callbacks to perform--for an audience of several hundred.

"There were people from everywhere. We talked to people from Florida, Nevada, all over. That was really exciting. When she was selected to go, I remember she was so nervous," says Shari. "When she got the award, it was so unusual, she was the only person out of 152 people that was asked to perform a third time. They told me, 'we've never had someone come back for a third time.' She had already gotten the award, but they wanted her to perform again for entertainment."

Even more exciting, the competition was filmed, and will air on the PAX TV network on Jan. 2, 12:30 p.m.

Such accolades garnered Sarah much attention in the entertainment world, and it seems the phone just won't stop ringing, says Shari, who acts as Sarah's manager and booker. Sarah has been offered auditions and roles in many projects in both Los Angeles and New York, but has turned many of them down in favor staying in school. However, Sarah will audition soon for a Disney Channel project that is looking for a young girl to host a children's show using many different accents--a talent Sarah is known for, especially since she can speak several different languages--and a late night talk show segment on talented kids.

In addition, Sarah has recently appeared in two independent movies that are being submitted to the Sundance Film Festival.

I the Movie was filmed on Treasure Island in San Francisco and directed by John Sullivan. "It was a sci-fi movie," Sarah says. "It was about this boy and I was the main girl in it, who had a crush on the main boy. The boy was an alien from outer space."

She also appeared in My Ambition , directed by Keith Dinielli, which was filmed in L.A.

"There was a school and the main character was a boy who was obsessed with vampires. I was a girl in his class, and I watch him when he goes up and reads his composition in front of the class," she explains.

Sarah also filmed a commercial for Kids' Beer, a Japanese soft drink that may soon be hitting American shelves.

Shari says they could easily live in the L.A. area during summers and vacations when Sarah is not in school, since they have a relative with a house in Encino. With all of the offers rolling in for projects down there, they may just do that, she says.

Sarah also frequently spends downtime from school attending many workshops and training programs around the country. She previously took lessons with John Robert Powers' Kids on Camera in San Francisco, and has since graduated to more sophisticated, big-name programs at places such as the Second City Comedy Club in Chicago, which has spawned many famous comedians. Sarah attended that program this past summer, and says it helped her hone her skills in both improvisational and sketch comedy.

"Improv is good because it teaches me to think on my feet, and the sketch comedy helped me to further develop my writing style. And it's a great place, a lot of the Saturday Night Live stars got started there," she says.

Sarah has also received advice and coaching from Kurtis Matthews at the San Francisco Comedy Club, and says the adult comedians who perform clean comedy with her at the Blue Rock Shoot are always happy to pass on knowledge from their experiences.

"I'd really like to thank Dan Edwards, because he really established the whole Clean Comedy Night for me once a month, so I'm really thankful for him," Sarah says.

"I know that soon she will be far beyond the Blue Rock Shoot, but I will provide a safe and nurturing place for her to perform as long as she needs me," Edwards says.

Looking toward the future

Somehow, Sarah says she manages to balance it all and lead a normal life.

"I'm just like a normal kid. I like to go to the movies, hang out at the mall with my friends, and tennis and basketball are my favorite sports," she says. "My friends are always supportive of me; they think it's cool. They're always asking me what's going on and I tell them and they come out to support me."

These days, Sarah is trying to take it all in stride. New and exciting opportunities are always presenting themselves. Just last week, a producer called after seeing her at the Blue Rock Shoot on Nov. 29. Shari says he "threw out a number of ideas," such as making a documentary about Sarah, or booking her for the San Francisco Comedy Competition, and Shari says they will talk again after the holidays. However, her family tries to limit her performances to around two per month so she can remain focused on school and lead a somewhat normal childhood.

One of Sarah's ongoing goals is to continue to support research to find a cure for scleroderma, a chronic, degenerative disorder that affects multiple organs in the body and causes them to shut down--the very disease that took her grandmother's life when Sarah was younger.

"She's been very generous; she is always sending in money for scleroderma research," says Shari, who says Sarah first started showing an interest in making people laugh after her grandmother's death, as a way to make the family laugh again.

"I always donate a percentage of the money I make from comedy to the Scleroderma Foundation," Sarah says.

"I have so many dreams. I wish I could be on the George Lopez show, and I wish I could perform in the Cool Comedy Showcase, which raises money for scleroderma research, in honor of my grandma. Someday, " Sarah says.

Sarah says Lopez is the comedian she has always looked up to the most.

"The reason I like him, I think he's a lot like me. His family is all immigrants with accents, and he's an only child. And he jokes about his family like me," she says, referring to her parents' Persian and Russian heritage, although they have lived in Saratoga since 1988. "My dream would be to be a guest star on his show; he's my favorite comedian. He's so nice."

As a step in that direction, when they met in San Jose, Lopez told Sarah and her mom that he will look into having a guest-starring role written in the show for her next season, if possible.

These days, 2006 is already starting to heat up for Sarah Kay--she has shows booked at both the Laugh Factory and the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. The Laugh Factory is where young TV and film star Amanda Bynes got her start, and the Comedy Store is where Roseanne Barr got her big break, Sarah says.

However, the circle of drooling talent agents always seems to be lurking right outside their door.

"We're not interested in that yet," says Shari. "People are always saying, 'there's this agent, or we know that one,' or people call who are interested [in representing her]. The offers are continuous. But I just feel like, if you sign up for an agent, you're committed to go on all these auditions, and she just doesn't have the time. At this point, she gets projects, she likes them, they're manageable, and if they're in good compatibility with her school schedule, we let her do it."

It certainly seems like the sky's the limit for Sarah Kay--but for now, she's keeping her feet on the ground.

See the 'USA World Showcase' on PAX TV on Jan. 2 at 12:30 p.m.; check listings for the local cable channel. The next Clean Comedy Night with Sarah Kay is Jan. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Blue Rock Shoot, 14523 Big Basin Way in Saratoga.