Sarah Silverman
Sarah Silverman (born December 2, 1970) is a stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. She is sometimes credited as Big S or Sarah 'Big S' Silverman.
Her innocent look and sometimes sing-song delivery is in direct contrast to much of her material, which deals with controversial topics such as racism, abortion, rape, body hair, scatology, and child abuse, among others; her comedy-acts are sometimes performed from a caricatured or stereotypical Jewish-American perspective.
Career
Silverman was born in Bedford, New Hampshire to Donald and Beth Ann Silverman, and is of Russian, Polish, and Jewish descent. One of Silverman's earliest roles was as a 12-year-old starring in the title role of a Community Players of Concord production of Annie. She did stand-up in her teens — for an October 2005 profile in The New Yorker, her sister Susan recalled an early gig at a Mexican restaurant where the 17-year-old Sarah sang a song (to the tune of “Memories...”) called “Mammaries,” about wishing she had breasts [1]. Silverman attended New York University, leaving after a year to concentrate on her stand-up career.
Within three years Silverman got a major career break -- she earned national exposure during the 1993-94 season of Saturday Night Live. She was a writer and featured player at this time, but was fired after one season because she had written only one sketch that survived through to dress rehearsal and none which made it to air. Bob Odenkirk, a former SNL writer who knows her from her stand-up in Los Angeles, commented on why she was fired [2]: “I could see how it wouldn’t work at SNL because she’s got her own voice, she’s very much Sarah Silverman all the time. She can play a character but she doesn’t disappear into the character–she makes the character her.” Silverman states that she was fired by SNL in an undignified manner -- via fax.
She then moved on to the HBO sketch comedy show Mr. Show with Bob and David, where she was a featured performer. Silverman made guest appearances on such programs as the two part time travel episode "Future's End" of Star Trek: Voyager and as a series regular on the TV show Greg the Bunny (2002), playing serious characters, as well as the voice of character Hadassah Guberman on the salacious puppet television comedy Crank Yankers. She has also had bit parts in movies such as There's Something About Mary, Say It Isn't So, School of Rock, The Way of the Gun, Screwed, and Heartbreakers, again playing serious roles. On November 11, 2005, her stand-up comedy act was released as a feature film, Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic. As part of the publicity blitz surrounding the movie, Silverman made several high profile appearances, including online in Slate, as the cover subject of Heeb magazine, and performing on Comedy Central's roast of Pamela Anderson.
In Jimmy Kimmel Live, she parodied sketches from Chappelle's Show as a point of view what happens if she plays Rick James, Tyrone, or the Pilot Boy Productions-like logo called Pilot Girl Productions. This segment is based on a rumor that Silverman is replacing Dave Chappelle.
Controversies
Silverman caused a brief controversy after using an ethnic slur in a comedy routine on the July 11, 2001 episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In the offending interview, Silverman explained that a friend had advised her how to avoid jury duty by writing a racial slur on the selection form, “something really inappropriate, like, 'I hate Chinks'.” However, Silverman said that she ultimately decided that she didn't want to be thought of as a racist and instead wrote, “I love Chinks.” Even though Silverman claimed to be making fun of the racist thought process, NBC issued an apology, though Silverman did not. She said in an interview on NPR's Fresh Air that she was asked to repeat it on Politically Incorrect among other places so that eventually she felt compelled to drop it from her act because it was getting stale.
Silverman has since turned the complaint into grist for her stand-up act, saying that the experience helped teach her the important lesson that racism is bad: “And I mean bad, like in that black way.” Her stand-up act is similarly charged with outrageously ironic racist statements, delivered in a perfectly serious manner:
- "Everybody blames the Jews for killing Christ, and then the Jews try to pass it off on the Romans. I'm one of the few people that believe it was the blacks."
Another classic snapshot of Silverman is what Paul Provenza called a “disconcerting and uncomfortable” [3] performance of the infamous joke called The Aristocrats in Provenza's documentary of the same name. In her version of the joke she accuses Joe Franklin of raping her, in a perfectly deadpan manner; it is a perfect Silverman moment, in that the audience is not sure how to respond, causing as much discomfort as laughter. Franklin has said he is considering suing her for defamation of character, which, deliberately or not, is the perfect punch line for this postmodern gag.
Personal life
Silverman is currently in a relationship with Jimmy Kimmel, host of Jimmy Kimmel Live. It's a relationship she refers to in some of her material:
- “I wear this Saint Christopher medal sometimes because—I’m Jewish, but my boyfriend is Catholic—it was cute the way he gave it to me. He said if it doesn’t burn through my skin it will protect me.” [4]
Silverman was romantically linked with Colin Quinn during her Saturday Night Live stint, which is also referred to humorously by both parties.
Silverman has three sisters: Susan Silverman, a feminist rabbi and author of Jewish Family & Life: Traditions, Holidays, and Values for Today's Parents and Children, actress Laura Silverman, and screenwriter Jody Silverman.
Silverman has been very open about her lifelong battle with clinical depression, crediting her current freedom from attacks of despair to her use of prescription Zoloft, which she says was urged by her mother and aunt, both psychologists.
External links
