Being Sarah Silverman
WHERE to if you’re a comedian famous for a video titled F*@#ing Matt Damon, offering to scissor (a sexual position that involves two people – usually women – rubbing their groins together) a wealthy Republican donor to lure him to the Democrat camp, and you’ve drawn the ire of Asians, rabbis and conservatives everywhere and encouraged the aged and students to buy guns?
Why Disney of course. Where else?
“I was surprised and thrilled,” says perennial pot-stirrer Sarah Silverman, who stars in Disney’s upcoming animated extravaganza Wreck-It Ralph.
“I’m a fan of Disney and was glad they could see past my explicit nature. Eddie Murphy was the dirtiest comic of the ’80s and he’s done fine for Disney!”
Silverman, who arrives in Australia next week to perform her solo show Sarah Silverman Live, got her start as a writer and bit-player on Saturday Night Live in the early ’90s.
Following her sacking – none of the sketches she wrote made it to air – she took to the stage doing stand-up comedy and one-woman shows and began popping up on TV shows ranging from The Larry Sanders Show to Seinfeld.
She has also appeared in films such as There’s Something About Mary, School of Rock and, more recently, Take This Waltz. In 2007, Silverman debuted The Sarah Silverman Program (TSSP), a show she wrote and starred in that portrayed overblown versions of herself and her sister Laura Silverman.
The show was a hit with plot lines including: having sex with God and then not calling him; a quest for remote control batteries so she could turn off a show about gravely ill children in Africa; joining a radical anti-abortion group; having her dog Doug confiscated for licking his behind in public.
The show ran for three seasons and Silverman says that despite its popularity, there are no immediate plans for a return to the screen.
“Maybe someday, but the show is cancelled. We got 32 great episodes out of it and the best friends a girl could ever ask for. God, we had so much fun,” she told The AJN.
Besides, what would TSSP be without her trusty sidekick?
“Doug is 18 now. Poor guy is blind and deaf.”
But Silverman is perhaps best known for her online videos made in support of American President Barack Obama during his two campaigns for the White House.
The Jewish Council for Education and Research enlisted Silverman in an effort to get Democrats to the polling booths – what she produced caused something of a stir.
In one video she encourages black people, elderly Jews and students to buy guns so they can use their firearm licenses as ID to vote. The video was made in response to Republican legislation that outlawed certain forms of ID, making it harder for demographics that would likely support Obama to vote.
“Make sure everyone you know gets the ID necessary to vote. Even it means taking nana to get a license to kill,” Silverman says in the video.
In another video she offers to perform sexual favours for casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson in exchange for the $100 million he pledged to Mitt Romney’s campaign going to the Obama camp.
“Do you know how many Republican billionaires are giving money to Romney? All of them. How many of them are getting scissored by a bikini-bottomed Jewess with big naturals?”
But using her sexuality to make unsuspecting citizens recoil in horror is well-worn ground for Silverman.
“Girls should not be ashamed of the body parts they have that are different than men’s but, at least in the US, that’s what’s happening, with legislators trying to take away women’s rights over their own bodies, access to women’s healthcare. And yet there’s this gas in the air that also tells girls their sexuality is their only worth.”
As for the future, the 41-year-old is determined to maintain an appropriate work/life balance.
“[I’ll continue] doing stand-up, writing a movie, daydreaming about what I wanna do next TV-wise, making videos on the internet. Also, naps. Lots of naps.”
Sarah Silverman LIve is on November 30 at the Sydney Opera House and on December 8 at the Palais Theatre, St Kilda.
Wreck-It Ralph is in cinemas on December 26.
REPORT by .Adam Kamien
PHOTO of Sarah Silverman with her dog Doug.
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