Sarah Silverman

Sarah Silverman
Sarah Silverman at the Tribeca Film Festival
Birth name	Sarah Kate Silverman
Born	(1970-12-01) December 1, 1970 Bedford, New Hampshire
Medium	Stand-up, television
Years active	1993 – present
Subject(s)	American culture, bigotry, racism, sexism

Sarah Kate Silverman (born December 1, 1970) is an American comedian, writer and actress. Although usually credited as Sarah Silverman, she is sometimes credited by her nickname Big S or Sarah 'Big S' Silverman. Her comedy deals with topical humor and satire, societal taboos, and controversial topics such as racism, sexism and religion.

Her comedy acts are sometimes performed from a caricatured or stereotypical Jewish-American princess perspective, in which, according to Village Voice writer Michael Musto, she mocks bigotry and ethnic or religious stereotypes by endorsing them ironically. Silverman was first noticed as a writer for Saturday Night Live. She now stars in and produces the The Sarah Silverman Program, which debuted February 1, 2007, on Comedy Central.

Personal life

Silverman talked about having dated Dave Attell on one of her appearances on the Howard Stern radio show. Silverman was also romantically linked with Colin Quinn during her Saturday Night Live career, which is referred to humorously by both parties. In her first appearance on the Stern show in June 2001, she said she was dating someone named Tom who wrote for SNL.

During a Rolling Stone interview, Silverman joked: "I didn't lose my virginity until I was 26. Nineteen vaginally, but 26 what my boyfriend calls 'the real way.'" Since 2002, Silverman has been in a relationship with Jimmy Kimmel, host of Jimmy Kimmel Live. It is a relationship she refers to in some of her comic material:

I'm Jewish, but I wear this Saint Christopher medal sometimes; my boyfriend is Catholic — but you know … it was cute the way he gave it to me. He said if it doesn't burn a hole through my skin it will protect me.

On the Comedy Central Roast for Hugh Hefner in 2001 -

Jimmy Kimmel, everyone. He's fat and has no charisma. Watch your back, Danny Aiello!

Silverman is a fan of Jenny Lewis and appeared in one of Lewis' music videos. She is also a fan of comedian Steve Martin, who was one of her major inspirations as a younger comedian.

Silverman is very open about her lifelong battle with clinical depression, crediting her current emotional health to her use of prescription drug Zoloft. Silverman has said that she does not consume alcohol, because it nauseates her. Silverman says she does not want to get married until same-sex couples are able to. She also says she doesn't want to have biological children to avoid the chance that they might inherit her depression. She enjoys playing Internet Scrabble; one of her regular opponents is Alyssa Milano, who lives in the same building.

On The Howard Stern Show, she admitted to struggling with bedwetting when she was a teenager. She said the last time she wet her bed was when she was fired from Saturday Night Live.

In October 2007, on The Howard Stern Show, Silverman volunteered to smell writer Richard Christy's scrotum after he had not showered in four days. Silverman attempted to match her description of the smell with other members of the Stern show staff. Silverman gagged a few times before describing the smell; "It was a hint of raw sourdough dough in a vat of mayonnaise, that was in a trunk of like a 70's car for the summer".

She credits comedian Tig Notaro as one of her best friends in The Advocate

Career

Silverman received national exposure after earning a role on the 1993–94 season of Saturday Night Live. She was a writer and featured player at the time, but was fired after one season because she wrote only one sketch that survived to dress rehearsal, with none ever airing. Bob Odenkirk, a former SNL writer who knew her from her stand-up act in Los Angeles, explained why she was fired: "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 claims being fired by SNL in an undignified manner (via fax), upset her greatly. The situation was parodied when she appeared on The Larry Sanders Show episode "The New Writer", in which she plays Sander's new staff writer, whose jokes are not used because of chauvinism (and associated bias of the male chief comedy writer), who favors the jokes of his male co-writers. She had a recurring role on Larry Sanders for its last several seasons.

Silverman worked on the HBO sketch comedy show Mr. Show with Bob and David, where she was a featured performer. She made guest appearances on such programs as the 1997 Seinfeld episode "The Money", 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 small parts in films such as There's Something About Mary, Say It Isn't So, School of Rock, The Way of the Gun, Overnight Delivery, Screwed, Heartbreakers, Evolution, School for Scoundrels and Rent, playing a mixture of comic and serious roles. On November 11, 2005, her stand-up comedy act (one-woman show) was released as a feature film, Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic. As part of the publicity campaign surrounding the film, Silverman made several high profile appearances, including online in Slate, as the cover subject of Heeb magazine, and performing on the Comedy Central roasts of Pamela Anderson and Hugh Hefner.

She was a guest star in a second season episode of the USA cable program Monk, playing an obsessed fan of a fictional television detective. The show therefore featured a good deal of meta-humor, of which she had a core part. She returned as the same character in the sixth season premiere. According to the audio commentary on the Clerks 2 DVD, director Kevin Smith offered her the role that eventually went to Rosario Dawson, but she turned it down out of fear of being typecast in "girlfriend roles." However, she told Smith the role was "really funny" and mentioned that if the role of Randal Graves was being offered to her she "would do it in a heartbeat".

On Jimmy Kimmel Live, Silverman parodied sketches from Chappelle's Show, from the perspective of what would happen if she played Rick James, Tyrone, or the Pilot Boy Productions-like logo called 'Pilot Girl Productions'. This segment is based on a popular rumor that Silverman was a planned replacement for Dave Chappelle after the apparent demise of his popular television show Chappelle's Show.

Silverman made the cover of the March 12, 2006 issue of The Observer with an article titled "If women aren't funny, how come the world's hottest, most controversial comedian is female?"

In 2005, she played a therapist in a skit session with Josh Homme of the band Queens of the Stone Age. This interview was on the bonus DVD of their album Lullabies to Paralyze. In 2006, she placed #50 in the annual Maxim List. In 2007, she placed #29 and appeared on the cover of the magazine's Hot 100 List issue.

On June 3, 2007, Silverman hosted the MTV Movie Awards. During her opening act, she commented on Paris Hilton's then-upcoming jail sentence with Hilton being in attendance: "In a couple of days, Paris Hilton is going to jail [...] As a matter of fact, I heard that to make her feel more comfortable in prison, the guards are going to paint the bars to look like penises. I think it is wrong, too. I just worry she is going to break her teeth on those things."

On September 9, 2007, Silverman appeared at the MTV Video Music Awards. Subsequently Silverman mocked Britney Spears following her comeback performance, saying she's "Wow, she is amazing. I mean, she is 25 years old, and she has already accomplished everything she’s going to accomplish in her life. It’s mind-blowing," and called Spears' children "the most adorable mistakes you will ever see".

Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic

On November 11, 2005, Silverman's concert movie, Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic was released. Based on her one-woman show of the same name, it was directed by Liam Lynch and distributed by Roadside Attractions.

Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 'fresh' rating of 64 percent with 54 positive reviews and 30 negative ones, with the "cream of the crop" giving it a rating of 67 percent.

It made $124,475 on its opening weekend, showing on seven screens. The box office performance led to an expanded release in as many as 57 theaters, resulting in a box office take of more than $1.3 million. The movie released on DVD on June 6, 2006, with an official soundtrack released on the same day. The soundtrack featured songs in the movie, some of her standup from the movie, and some previously unreleased songs.

The Sarah Silverman Program

Silverman's own sitcom, The Sarah Silverman Program, debuted on Comedy Central on February 1, 2007. It is similar to the The Larry Sanders Show in that it presents a fictionalized version of the actress.

The show proved to be a ratings success, scoring the highest premiere ratings that a Comedy Central show had in three years, with 1.8 million viewers and the highest 18–49 rating of the night on cable.

Controversies

Sarah Silverman with Jesus Dress Up magnets, April 28, 2006.

Silverman caused a brief controversy after using the ethnic slur "chink" in an interview on the July 11, 2001, episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. In the interview, Silverman explained that a friend had advised her on how to avoid jury duty by writing a racial slur on the selection form, "something inappropriate, like 'I hate chinks'." However, Silverman said that she ultimately decided that she did not want to be thought of as a racist, so she said, "I wrote 'I love chinks' – and who doesn't?" Silverman said that the joke satirizes the racist thought process. Guy Aoki, co-founder and head of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA), objected to her use of the slur, saying that NBC's airing of it was inexcusable. NBC and O'Brien issued an apology, but Silverman did not, later appearing on Politically Incorrect on July 26, and August 22, 2001. During the former episode, actress Kelly Hu stated that she understood the point of the joke, and did not object to it, and Silverman questioned Aoki's sincerity, accusing him of exploiting the opportunity for publicity. During the latter episode, Aoki appeared with Silverman, and stated that he did not accept Silverman's explanation, saying that it was not successful satire, that she should have substituted "chink" with "Chinese person", and that comedians should consult with groups such as his before performing such material. Silverman stated in an interview on NPR's Fresh Air that she was asked to repeat the joke on Politically Incorrect, among other places, but she eventually dropped the joke from her act because she felt it was becoming 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."

Filmography

Features:

• Who's the Caboose? (1997)
• Overnight Delivery (1998)
• Bulworth (1998)
• There's Something About Mary (1998)
• The Bachelor (1999)
• What Planet Are You From? (2000)
• Screwed (2000)
• The Way of the Gun (2000)
• Black Days (2001)
• Say It Isn't So (2001)
• Heartbreakers (2001)
• Evolution (2001)
• Run Ronnie Run (2002)
• School of Rock (2003)
• Hair High (2004) (voice)
• The Aristocrats (2005) (documentary)
• Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic (2005)
• Rent (2005)
• I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (2006)
• School for Scoundrels (2006)
• Fired! (2007) (documentary)
• Certifiably Jonathan (2007) (documentary)
• Futurama: Bender's Big Score

Short Subjects:

• Strippers Pole (2002)
• Nobody's Perfect (2004)
• Supermarket (2004)
• Give The Jew Girl Toys (satirical music video)

Television work

• Saturday Night Live (cast member from 1993–1994)
• Star Trek Voyager (1996) (Two episode arc, "Future's End")
• Seinfeld (1997) ("The Money")
• Smog (1999) (unsold pilot)
• Late Last Night (1999)
• Futurama (2000, "The Cryonic Woman")
• Super Nerds (2000) (unsold pilot)
• Rocky Times (2000) (unsold pilot)
• Greg the Bunny (2002–2004)
• Crank Yankers (2002— ) (voice)
• Frasier (2003) (Jane in "Maris Returns")
• Pilot Season (2004) (miniseries)
• Entourage (herself, 2004)
• Aqua Teen Hunger Force (2004, "Robositter" [credited as "Big S"])
• Drawn Together (2004, "The Other Cousin" Episode 1.5)
• Monk (two appearances, 2004 and 2007)
• American Dad! (2005), "Stan Knows Best" (voice)
• Tom Goes to the Mayor (2005, Episode 11 "Pipe Camp")
• The Andy Milonakis Show, herself (2007)
• The Sarah Silverman Program (2007— )

Sources

• Grossberg, Josh. "PC Police Bust Conan O'Brien Show" E!. July 18, 2001.
• Paul, Pamela. Sarah Silverman Interview Slate. November 10, 2005.
• Anderson, Sam. "Irony Maiden" Slate. November 10, 2005.
• Daniel Robert Epstein. Suicide Girls interview—Sarah Silverman.

External links

• Sarah Silverman at IMDb
• Sarah Silverman biography on Comedybox
• What I've Learned interview with boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel for January 2007 Esquire.
• Sarah Silverman at the Television Critics Association on her Comedy Central series The Sarah Silverman Program.