Comedian Sarah Silverman’s career has been defined by her deadpan demeanor and willingness to say or do anything, and is mostly concerned with making sure you don't think she is fat.
Sarah Silverman . Fame Pictures, Inc - Santa Monica, CA, USA
Comedy Central is bringing The Sarah Silverman Program back Thursday, February 4th at 10:30 on Comedy Central.
Silverman is a veteran of Comedy Central’s Crank Yankers and Cartoon Network’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Robot Chicken, along with several cameo appearances on HBO's Bill Maher, a fan, and the 2005 feature film of her stand-up material, Jesus is Magic.
This Thursday, February 4, all the scatological ribald humor is back, as the abusrdism that is Sarah Silverman's fake life is dramatized for posterity.
There will be peeing in mailboxes, as well as Nazis and retarded adult babysitting to look forward to.
Sarah Silverman's “character” is an unemployed mooch who manipulates her younger sister (real-life older sister Laura Silverman) and her husband (Jay Johnston).
Her comic relief in her wide-open days of not working are her Ginger Gays: Brian and Steve (Brian Posehn and Steve Agee).
During a recent press conference call, Monsters and Critics listened to Silverman discuss the third season premiere and offer some details about what the new season holds for her fans.
This season, what is in store for us?
Sarah We do, although I don’t think we ever really go, “What can we tackle this season?” I think that would kind of be a slutty way to go about it. We just continue to still try to just write stuff that makes us laugh, and when a bunch of comics are in a room, it takes more to make us laugh; or less. I mean, aggressively stupid goes a long way in the room and on the show.
Let’s see, I find out I was born with both looks and personality? No, it’s weird to not have anything coming back. I’m imagining you all laughing on mute. What else? My imaginary friend from childhood comes back as an adult and we have a lesby affair. Steve and Brian have a great … this season; their love as well as Jay and Laura; there’s some wedding action, and it’s very funny; there’s a new mayor in town who makes gay sex and brunch illegal. I should just look through the—let’s see, I go on “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
Andy Samberg plays my imaginary friend this year. Ed Asner is in an episode as a Nazi war criminal. It was really, really—let me tell you something about older actors. Ed Asner is about 80, and Murray, who is on our show, Gershams, is 87, and they’re such pros that when they’re not shooting, they are in their chair sleeping. Just like containing their energy. And we have some really great pictures of elderly Nazi war criminals in set chairs sound asleep.
Billy Crudup plays himself on the show in an episode. I know you didn’t ask who guest stars were. Let me think. There’s some heavy psychedelic drug-taking in an episode. There’s a lot of drugs this season, actually.
I know I’m forgetting like eight episodes. There’s one episode; our eighth episode actually is a Steve and Brian story line that, you’ll actually, dare I say, cry at the end.
It was written as a drama. Rob Schrab, actually, who directs most of the episodes, and writes so much and created the show with me, wrote this episode; and he wrote the “A” story like it’s a drama. I don’t think it’s like a very special “Family Ties,” but I think you might get choked up at the end.
What crazy stuff do you pull this season?
Sarah: We never go for shocking if it’s not funny to us. I mean, I think that we go for aggressively dumb, but I don’t know because that has been what really makes us laugh in the room lately, like the biggest compliment you can get is, “That is so … dumb.”
But shock—I don’t think we go like, “Ooh, that will really shock them.” I mean, does anything shock anyone anymore? I think we kind of hopefully reach beyond that a little bit with our fart jokes, no. But, I think that this season there is actually growth and character arc and stuff. Hopefully still just really dumb and funny and silly. And anything smart you can infer from it from you smart brain is great. I don’t know that it’s pure shock value. I don’t know how long that can last, and maybe that’s what you’re saying. I feel like we’ve got a really, really full season.
What can we expect?
Sarah There’s musical—it’s very uneven. We’ve just kind of went organically with how it went, so there are a couple episodes that have no music. There’s an episode that has, I think the second episode has three songs. It’s just kind of however it works with the story and however we’re moved when writing the outline.
Usually in the room, someone will just start, get a snag in their brain of a—there’s an episode where Steve writes a song that becomes famous called, “I’m glad you hurt your hand because Brian like hurts his hand.” That just came from the writer’s room of me. Rob Schrab hit his hand, and I was in an extra obnoxious … mode, and I just started going, “I’m glad you hurt your hand. I’m glad you hurt your hand.” Then Rob wrote it into the script.
If you didn’t make it into comedy, what would you be doing?
Sarah I would probably work with retarded adults. Yeah, I like being around the mentally handicapped.
That sounds like a good episode for your show. Maybe season three?
Sarah You know what? It is an episode this season, but it’s not exactly that. It’s less. But there is an episode this season where I get in trouble for peeing in a mailbox, and I get sent in to work at this place called, “The Little Buddies Program” which works with retarded adults; but I think I’m paired with a mentally handicapped adult, and she thinks she’s paired with a mentally handicapped adult, and we’re so condescending to each other that we never realize who’s retarded, because it’s like, “Do you like ice cream? I love ice cream!” “Do you like ice cream? I love ice cream!
Since you were nominated for an Emmy, has that created higher expectations for yourself, and for the show now?
Sarah Well, we’ve always had high expectations for the show. Not in terms of accolades, but we work on it the same. I think everyone that works on it has this awesome love for it. I know it’s so corny when people say that, but we really are like a group of friends. We stand on the set, not just the cast and the writers, but the crew. With all our huge, crazy insane gaps in production, all the crew works their way back to the show because we just have such an awesome time. We stand around going, “Oh my God. We’re making show business. Like this is going to be on TV.”
We didn’t expect it so much, that none of us knew they were even announcing the Emmy nominees. I just woke up to my alarm clock and looked on my phone, and saw like eight calls, and I thought there was an emergency. It just never occurred to us ever, and then it was so great. We couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it, and we’re so happy that anyone, especially the hoity-toits, would appreciate our show as much as we do. It was awesome.
It would have been great to have some sort of momentum with the other award shows in the season, but we weren’t eligible for any of the others; Golden Globes or SAG Awards, or any of that stuff because we weren’t on the air in 2009, at all. It will have been 14 months since the last time we were on when we air on February 4th. You’d think we were “The Sopranos” or “Lost” with these gaps, and not a 21-1/2 minute show about fart jokes, but we’ll take it. We really love it. We love being together and making this super-super dumb, funny, silly show.
Do you think Conan got a raw deal?
Sarah Yeah. I mean, I feel pretty confident that he’s going to end up on top somehow, but totally. I just can’t get my head around it. The guy has done so much for NBC and for Late Night, and has made such a success. If you remember, any talk show starts out super slow. No talk show has ever been a hit from day one, ever. And to switch from 12:30 to 11:30 seems like no big deal, but it is. It’s a whole different animal. Not that I know, but from what I know, from what I see. To have him move his whole family and hundreds, over a hundred, hundreds, maybe, of staff, taking their whole lives and moving to L.A. Getting their kids in schools out here, and then only giving it six months? That’s … crazy. They should never be able to use the words, “The NBC Family.” Ever.
But, that said; people go, “Well, he got so much money,” and that’s nice that he got money, but he loves that job. Also, he got the money, but the rest of the whole crew doesn’t, and he’s got …. He’s a good guy. I think they all probably feel real displaced, and abandoned. And they have every right to feel that way.
I can’t help but hope that he lands at FOX or somewhere, anywhere. Wherever he lands, he’ll always have an audience. I just thought that that was a real … move on NBC’s part. And then on top of it, of course the last week or two of the show was just amazing, you know?
How difficult is it for the writers to create the show in your voice?
Sarah I’m there the whole time. I’m one of the writers. There’s just like five of us, so there’s never a problem. There hasn’t been much turnover; it’s been like Dan Sterling and Rob Schrab and I, and then John Schroeder, tall John, he’s 6”10”, and Harris Wittels and Chelsea Peretti, and our writer’s assistant, Eric Schaer, who’s written two great scripts in the past two season. But, it’s just a small group. We work out of my apartment usually the first three weeks, because we never have office space when we finally get picked up.
but sometimes it’s such a fine line that I’ll go, “Eew, I don’t want to do that.” And I’ll do something so very similar to it, but it’s just one of those things that there’s no rule book. It’s just kind of by feel, and that’s it. Some writers get far more excited about—you know, I mean, writing for Jay is super fun—like everyone has such a specific voice; between Laura and Brian and Steve and Jay. I know Dan Sterling loves writing Jay’s stuff, his professions of love—is that right? Professions?
How many episode ideas have been shot down by the network?
Sarah None. None. I could complain about Comedy Central about plenty of things, I guess, but they are super cool about the most important thing, which is content. They may have gripes or they might complain or try to lure us away from a topic, but they never put their fist down and say, “No.” It’s awesome. They really have not meddled with any of the content we like to do.
How do you feel about your gay fans?
Sarah Well, they saved us. We wouldn’t be on the air if it wasn’t for Logo. Not that that’s the only reason why, but I mean—it’s funny because I was talking to some gay friends of mine, and they were just like; it’s not just that Steve and Brian are gay, it’s just kind of the subversive humor. It’s that kind of like absurdist stuff is I guess up, the cup of tea of a lot of people in the gay community; maybe more in general than the straight community. I don’t know, but yeah. I’m just so grateful.
I know that gays belong to Kathy, but any fall over, I’m not going to take. I’m just so grateful to Logo. They didn’t even think twice about helping us, and in terms of the content, never, ever had even a request. They really are amazing over there, and I can’t express how grateful we all are for them, because we wouldn’t have had a third season without them, and they asked for nothing in return. The fact that their end of the bargain is that they get to air the episodes, it’s like really? It’s amazing to us, too. Its so win-win and we’re just so grateful. So totally grateful.
Did Franklin ever make up?
Sarah Yes. Actually he did. He came to Caroline’s once when I was there, and his guy goes, “He’d like to introduce you when you go up,” and I don’t know why, but I go, “Nah, that’s okay.” I should have just let him. I don’t think he ever was angry. My take on it was that he just was super excited and wanted to milk it for all that it was worth; which I don’t blame him for. It was just a riff. I think I had just seen Broadway’s “Danny Rose,” and his name was fresh in my head.
Is there anything taboo to you? Some subject or person that you won’t touch; and if so, why?
Sarah Well, I don’t like to make fun of people, real people, and the only times I’ve done that is if it’s a Roast or stuff like that. You know what I don’t like? When people ask me that, I always think of the same thing, which is I don’t like jokes about fat women. I don’t like fat jokes about women, and it’s just not tit for tat, you know? Like fat women in white America don’t deserve love, and I don’t think that’s anything to make fun of, you know what I mean? It’s a bummer.
Actually, there’s a quote from “Family Guy,” that’s so brilliant about that, that encapsulates exactly how I feel about it, which is like—oh, I’m not going to say it right, but it’s—you know the father, Peter, and the son—Chris is like, “Well, we’re fat,” and Peter goes, “Chris, fat guys aren’t fat. Only fat women are fat.” It’s just so true in our society, and it bums me out, it never makes me laugh, it just makes me go, “Ugh.”
Do you have any personal slang words you’d like to see become popular?
Sarah I was just kind of saying something about that. ….
What was he like to work with Steve Buscemi, and what was the movie like to work on?
Sarah Oh, he is so amazing. I’m so happy to know him now, and he’s just the kindest, most sincere, but like also the silliest man. He just takes my breath away. Sometimes we’d be doing a scene, and I would just be watching him. Like you forget you’re part of it, because you just want to sit and just watch him.
But he’s such a great guy, and he’s so in love with his wife and his kid. Whenever his phone would ring and he would see it was one of them, he’d just go like, “Oh!” and it’s so cute. I just loved it; to work with him and Peter Dinklage and Romany Malco, who is like, I want him to be my life coach. He’s just got everything figured out. He’s such a neat guy.
But, it was a blast. We had a lot of fun. It was nice to play somebody nice, and I actually was replacing a woman who was—I can never remember her name, she was great. She was in Lovely and Amazing.” Anyway, she for some reason had to leave; she had a family emergency.
The only bad story I have from that is I flew in to New Mexico. I mean, I just took it right away, because I was like, Steve Buscemi, okay, whatever. I flew the next day, and I had to go straight from the airport to wardrobe. And we started trying things on and nothing fit. The wardrobe woman just starts tearing up, literally getting choked up with tears, and she goes, “I got all size 0s, and you’re like an 8.” I was just like, “Oh, I’m sorry.” So humiliating, but what are you going to do?
It ended up being super fun, and even she was really nice, but it was hard to feel like you hurt someone’s feeling because you’re too fat. But it was really fun. I’m so happy it’s coming out. I just started seeing ads for it on TV, and I was like, “Oh my God.”
Regarding your bouts of depression, how do you continue to think and write comedically?
Sarah You know what? I think the best answer to that is just practice. Practice, you know, when you do it every day, and it’s part of what you do. You’re able to channel it through whatever mood. And also, I think my sadness or my happiness, or any kind of manic thing; it forms whatever kind of work I do in that day.
Sometimes it’s hard. I have dark times. Honestly, I’m pretty much a happy person, and I like being happy. I like being content. I think people that romanticize it don’t really know how bad it is, like sadness.
There was a time, actually—you know when you’re just like—I don’t cry a lot, but I felt like tears had been filling me up for days, and I’d been pressing down. Then I was shooting one morning, a bunch of the …, so I’m in my pretend bed with my real dog, and we’re about to shoot all the good nights, and it just happened where literally Rob said, “Action” and I went to talk and nothing came out. And just like tears. I felt so—and it was just one of those things where I said, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” It just almost became totally physical. I just was like—and they were, “It’s okay. Let’s take five.” And half of me is crying, I don’t even know why, and half of me is crying because I just feel so bad for holding things up.
It’s just so cool, because my real life sister plays my sister, and she was there to do the scene after that, and so they were like, “Do you want us to get Laura?” And I was like, “Yes.” And she came in and she got into my pretend bed, and just rubbed my hair and told me stories about when I was little, and it just made everything better. It was just such a sweet, weird, bizarre, but homey, almost, experience. And then I felt better, and I was like, “I feel better, but I’m afraid to call the crew back, because I know when I see their faces, I’ll cry. Because they love me.”
But we ended up making the day, no problem. It was good. It was just one of those big cries that you don’t expect every couple years, and it was so weird. But I think of it almost fondly, because I just love those guys so much, and to have my own sister right there was nice.
How much is the character of your sister like with you and your sister’s relationship in real life?
Sarah Similar, only she, I think, I hope to think we take care of each other more. More of an equal—Laura is actually in real life older than me, but I make her my younger sister because; one, she looks … really good, and two, I decided it would be funnier for me to be mooching off of my little sister.
But there’s four of us, four girls, and we’re all really close. Sometimes I just feel bad for people without sisters. I remember one time I was having a fight with a boyfriend, and I was like forwarding all our emails of stuff to my three sisters. And we’re having a whole conversation by email about, “If he said this, and you should …,” and I accidentally copied him in one, and he literally saw the whole thing. But I was just like, “You know what? Whatever you say to me, you should assume that all of my sisters can hear. That’s how you should talk to me. I don’t take it back. That’s how it’s going to be. So watch it.”
How do you challenge yourself when it comes to the shows?
Sarah Gosh, I can’t say that I’ve really stood outside of it and thought about it, and deconstructed it to that level, but it just kind of happens, haphazardly. There are like, two episodes this season. You’ll only notice it if you look for it. In one of them, it’s just kind of a fading thing, but I have a real thing with necks. Like, why isn’t there bone there? There’s so much important stuff in there. Like in your neck and your throat. It’s crazy that evolution didn’t put something there to protect it. It makes me mad.
So anyway, there’s like some times when I talk about it, and it became into this episode where I get hit with a Frisbee in the neck, and it becomes my obsession. Actually, I think it’s the second episode, if you were sent it. It turns out that, oh yeah, I have to be looking up and not anticipating a Frisbee is about to be thrown into my neck. My biggest fear. It’s mean, it’s not … with dolphins, or whatever that was.
And just in terms of acting? This is really corny, but I try to—as corny, or as absurd, or as aggressively … stupid something is, I know that I try to play it real, because without that contrast, if I was acting like, “Whew, I’m crazy,” there would be no contrast to how stupid the material is. I am kind of aware of that.
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