Speaker 1: What do you do when life doesn't go according to
Speaker 1: plan that moment you lose a job, or a loved one,
Speaker 1: or even a piece of yourself. I'm Brookshields and this
Speaker 1: is now What, a podcast about pivotal moments as told
Speaker 1: by people who lived them. Each week, I sit down
Speaker 1: with a guest to talk about the times they were
Speaker 1: knocked off course and what they did to move forward.
Speaker 1: Some stories are funny, others are gut wrenching, but all
Speaker 1: are unapologetically human and remind us that every success and
Speaker 1: every setback is accompanied by a choice, and that choice
Speaker 1: answers one question, Now, what when you started in comedy?
Speaker 1: It really and it less so now I think, I mean,
Speaker 1: you tell me, but was really a boys club?
Speaker 2: Yea?
Speaker 1: What personage did you put on to be level with
Speaker 1: the boys?
Speaker 2: When I first started stand up, the guys all told
Speaker 2: me you have to talk about stuff that guys are interested,
Speaker 2: and you can't talk about like the female experience, which
Speaker 2: I don't think they put that in those words even,
Speaker 2: and they explained they had a very good reason. They said,
Speaker 2: because women are there on dates and they will only
Speaker 2: laugh if their date lasts, so you have to make
Speaker 2: the men laugh. That it has to be your priority,
Speaker 2: and I bought into it. I mean, because they were
Speaker 2: grown ups.
Speaker 1: In my mind, my guest today is a comedy icon.
Speaker 1: She's also an actor, a best selling author, a podcaster,
Speaker 1: and so much more. Sarah Silverman has been on the
Speaker 1: scene for thirty years, and I suspect many of you
Speaker 1: have an opinion about her work and her sense of humor.
Speaker 1: Mine is this. I think she is brilliant and I
Speaker 1: have watched in admiration as she's done it all. Award
Speaker 1: winning stand up specials, her own shows on Comedy Central
Speaker 1: and Hulu, dramatic turns in films like I Smile Back,
Speaker 1: and Yes, even in musical about Wedding the Bed. Sarah
Speaker 1: is insanely talented. She's kind, engaging and generous with her time.
Speaker 1: I feel so fortunate that we got to spend some
Speaker 1: time together chatting, just one on one, and I'm so
Speaker 1: excited for you to hear that conversation. So without further ado,
Speaker 1: here is the one and only Sarah Silverman. Thank you
Speaker 1: for giving me of your time. Of course, I always
Speaker 1: get excited when I know I'm going to get a
Speaker 1: chance to see you. Oh my god, even hang out
Speaker 1: a little bit I just wanted to ask how you're doing.
Speaker 1: I know you have family in Israel.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're all alive, and but it's so scary, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, my youngest niece is in the army. I
Speaker 2: mean you have to do the army, you know, so
Speaker 2: she's still in it and right girding a bass.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It's just like, oh my gosh, terrifying. They all have
Speaker 2: friends that were murdered. You know. I'm usually pretty good
Speaker 2: at compartmentalizing.
Speaker 1: Well, you have, I mean you have to, you have
Speaker 1: to anyway. I just I'm my heart and soul is
Speaker 1: I just feel I'm putting my version of prayer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, whatever however that looks to everybody, Thank you.
Speaker 1: My heart's with you. That's all. The other thing I
Speaker 1: also want to start off with, Yeah, you are spectacular
Speaker 1: in my strung.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, you really.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm not surprised. It's like I always get, oh,
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to stuck. But you're good.
Speaker 1: That's not what I that's not what. I'm not so
Speaker 1: prized at your talent. I'm just I was so glad
Speaker 1: that you were cast in that part, and it's such
Speaker 1: a standout part. I'm so personally attached to that character,
Speaker 1: just because I did Wonderful Town on Broadway and I
Speaker 1: got to meet I got to meet her actually wow,
Speaker 1: when she was still alive, and oh, she just said
Speaker 1: Adolph would be so happy.
Speaker 2: But that's amazing.
Speaker 1: I think she would have just loved just from the
Speaker 1: teeny teeny that I knew her, I think she would
Speaker 1: have just loved what you did with the character.
Speaker 2: It's a very rare time where Adolph would be so happy.
Speaker 2: Is actually a lovely thing to say.
Speaker 1: It's a good thing. Yeah, no, true, But anyway, I
Speaker 1: just congratulations on that. And you have a new stand
Speaker 1: up special which is on HBO. It's called Sarah Silverman
Speaker 1: someone you Love. Yah. But what's weird is I don't
Speaker 1: think that was the case with the other ones, but
Speaker 1: with this one, I thought it was really interesting that
Speaker 1: you you had to create this one on a deadline.
Speaker 2: For h oh. Yeah, I've never done it like that.
Speaker 1: And that's not how it normally works.
Speaker 2: A lot of comics do that. I've never done that.
Speaker 2: I've always first of all, for some reason, specials never
Speaker 2: occur to me. I never think about the future. I mean,
Speaker 2: of course I have the I have anxiety where I
Speaker 2: tkle what if, what if? But I never I rarely
Speaker 2: have dreams or goals. I just do stand up, you know.
Speaker 2: I just never think about it. Like I have friends
Speaker 2: that are on their like fourteenth special. Like this last
Speaker 2: special was my fourth special. I've been doing stand ups
Speaker 2: since I was, you know, seventeen, professionally nineteen. I'm fifty two,
Speaker 2: thirty whatever, thirty three years. So this time I had
Speaker 2: done a pilot for HBO before, right before the pandemic,
Speaker 2: and part of that was a special. The pilot didn't go,
Speaker 2: but I still had them a special. But then the
Speaker 2: COVID came and then that passed and I just started,
Speaker 2: I'm like starting over, like just figuring out what I have,
Speaker 2: and they were like, we won our special, you know,
Speaker 2: Oh my god. So I like did everything I had
Speaker 2: at Largo, and I had thirty six minutes, and of
Speaker 2: course not all of it is like stuff I want
Speaker 2: to necessarily do, like, you know, So I just booked
Speaker 2: the road and rode it on the road and it
Speaker 2: was really fun.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if this is a source
Speaker 1: of constant pressure, but to constantly come up with new
Speaker 1: material has got to be both thrilling and a pressure cooker.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, listen, you know I've been going on
Speaker 2: stage saying, listen, my special just came out. I'm starting over,
Speaker 2: and I have to be willing to disappoint you. So
Speaker 2: basically I'm 'dibly brave right now, you know, Like, but yeah,
Speaker 2: you have to, like I mean, and I really I
Speaker 2: always like, I always mentioned Chris Rock because he's such
Speaker 2: a great example of someone who does a special, murders
Speaker 2: it whatever, and then gets back, you know, takes some
Speaker 2: time off, gets back out there, walks into the comedy celler.
Speaker 2: Everyone goes crazy standing ovation for like four minutes, and
Speaker 2: then he starts and he's just trying stuff, and you know,
Speaker 2: sometimes it's the audience is just like, oh, you know,
Speaker 2: like and he knows that he's going to disappoint them,
Speaker 2: and he's not going to do bits that they want
Speaker 2: him to do that they know he's just gonna and
Speaker 2: if he finds one thing that's like a kernel of something,
Speaker 2: it was a success, you know, And you have to
Speaker 2: be willing to do that. It's really hard for comics
Speaker 2: who are people lasers.
Speaker 1: Especially when you get a laugh. The tendency used to
Speaker 1: want to get that laugh for us.
Speaker 2: You go, I know I have material that can kill,
Speaker 2: but I've already done it. I can't go back on
Speaker 2: the road, and because people will just supplement what you
Speaker 2: don't have that's new with old stuff. You know works,
Speaker 2: and that's so smart. But one I don't like my
Speaker 2: brain won't remember it. And two my fear is that
Speaker 2: I'll figure I'll figure out that joke. Like I did
Speaker 2: some shows after I recorded the special, I had still
Speaker 2: more dates on the road, and it was so frustrating
Speaker 2: because of course, now there's a part of me that's
Speaker 2: so loose and so you know, so free with the
Speaker 2: material that I figure out the perfect tag or and
Speaker 2: that's maddening.
Speaker 1: But there is something that happens when I mean, I've
Speaker 1: done shows for six months at a time on Broadway,
Speaker 1: and what is quite unbelievable to me is when you
Speaker 1: find something that you never knew what's there, even on
Speaker 1: the last performance after eight a week for six months,
Speaker 1: and to me, that just signifies, oh, it's a live
Speaker 1: it's a live, tangible thing. Yeah, just to start a
Speaker 1: little bit back in the early days, I think all
Speaker 1: parents are extremely formative, but your dad just seems to
Speaker 1: be in particular to someone who just was such a
Speaker 1: support of yours and really supported you as a comedian.
Speaker 1: And I was curious what his sense of humor was like,
Speaker 1: and did that shape you at all?
Speaker 2: One hund, I mean, it's I'm such a combination of
Speaker 2: him and my mom. You know, it's he's he was
Speaker 2: so funny. I mean, I don't know if I told you this,
Speaker 2: Like on his deathbed, he Jeff Ross came to visit
Speaker 2: because there you know, a lot of people came to
Speaker 2: visit him, came to visit him, you know, Oh, it
Speaker 2: was pretty amazing. And Jeff Ross, well, first he came
Speaker 2: and he said, Schleppie. Everyone calls me Dad, Schleppe Schleppie.
Speaker 2: I've got bad news. I don't think you can be
Speaker 2: my emergency contact anymore. Theoddy. And then so then he
Speaker 2: Jeff introduced my parents to this guy, Bernie Shine, and
Speaker 2: they became very good friends with him. That he's a
Speaker 2: magician that Jeff is friends with. Of course an older guy,
Speaker 2: and so he put him on FaceTime to say like
Speaker 2: goodbye to my dad, and my stepmother had just died
Speaker 2: a week before, and he said, and her name was Janie,
Speaker 2: and he holds the camera and my dad goes, Bernie,
Speaker 2: your show was so bad. It killed Janice, And I'm
Speaker 2: not feeling so hot either. He was killing on his deathbed.
Speaker 2: It was amazing.
Speaker 1: My mother used to do this thing where she'd, you know,
Speaker 1: she'd see a dog like tied up to a post
Speaker 1: or something outside a store or a restaurant or something, and
Speaker 1: she'd get down to the dog and she'd say, they're
Speaker 1: never coming back. She's so sick. My mother. My mother's
Speaker 1: humor was so like it was hysterical. Were there any
Speaker 1: other people growing up or comics that really and your comedy?
Speaker 2: I mean, my dad was a big one, you know,
Speaker 2: because he was very big and funny, and my mother
Speaker 2: was kind of covertly funny. And to me, I was
Speaker 2: my number one was Steve Martin, you know, I just
Speaker 2: worshiped him. As a matter of the house I grew
Speaker 2: up in with my mom, I lived, I had a
Speaker 2: room in the attic and on the ceiling and pencil
Speaker 2: I wrote, I Love Steve Martin and it's still there
Speaker 2: all these years later, and they, you know, after my
Speaker 2: mom died, my sister sold the house and then I
Speaker 2: did a show in Boston like a year later, and
Speaker 2: the realtor who sold the house came and he brought
Speaker 2: this picture that they had like painted the whole house,
Speaker 2: but they kept that one thing on the ceiling where
Speaker 2: I lived, where my room was.
Speaker 1: You talk about this in your books, and especially in
Speaker 1: bed Weather, the brilliant book, you talk about the struggle
Speaker 1: that you had with wedding the bed. Now I wet
Speaker 1: the bed, but for very different reasons. Now I went
Speaker 1: the bed because I'm a fifty eight year old woman
Speaker 1: five sneeze in my sleepers. But what do you think
Speaker 1: that was? I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, I went the bed like
Speaker 2: deep into my teens, and you know, I think it
Speaker 2: was probably emotional. I think also it was physical. Like
Speaker 2: I was very small for my age. I looked like
Speaker 2: a little kid when I was like a teenager, and
Speaker 2: then I turned like seventeen, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: I had like boobs. But I didn't get my period
Speaker 2: until I was almost eighteen. So it's just like I
Speaker 2: was little for my age, and then I went, yeah,
Speaker 2: like exploded out. You know. It's always funny to me
Speaker 2: when I've like dated men who don't know how to
Speaker 2: do laundry, because I had to learn at a very
Speaker 2: young age, had to wash my sheets and stuff, you know.
Speaker 2: But uh, yeah, it was torture. I thought I was
Speaker 2: positive it would be the biggest shame of my life.
Speaker 2: And of course you know it's not.
Speaker 1: You know, but there were but it didn't happen in
Speaker 1: the day, no, like at school or anything. So it's
Speaker 1: just just in bed. Well, I I mean, listen, I've
Speaker 1: gotten hammered before and and and and pe you know,
Speaker 1: woke up and thought I was in the bathroom.
Speaker 2: And was funny because the year after I got fired
Speaker 2: from Saturday Night Live, I was twenty three and I
Speaker 2: went the bed three times that year. Wow. Yeah, And
Speaker 2: I want like, I don't know if it was some
Speaker 2: kind of like regression or something, but I was in
Speaker 2: the I was in a bed. I was in bed
Speaker 2: with a man all three times. And there were three
Speaker 2: different men.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, they'll get to know you and then
Speaker 1: and then those who stick around, you know, says a lot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And actually one of the men was not like
Speaker 2: a lover. It was my friend day of Wrath, who
Speaker 2: I was just staying with him. And if you didn't
Speaker 2: hook up with the girl that night, I would sleep
Speaker 2: next to him in bed. Otherwise I'd sleep on the couch.
Speaker 2: And this was a long time ago, and so I
Speaker 2: but I slept next to him. We went to a
Speaker 2: party and you know, and I uh pete and I
Speaker 2: woke up and I remember like thinking, oh my god,
Speaker 2: I have to tell him. Like if I don't tell
Speaker 2: him now, I'm going to be too embarrassed. And I
Speaker 2: was just like, Dave, I peed in your bed. He's
Speaker 2: you know, such a men. She was like, I just
Speaker 2: put a towel down, and I was like, oh, not
Speaker 2: that embarrassing for all. I guess.
Speaker 1: How do you how do you think that shaped you
Speaker 1: as a kid, having to sort of live with that.
Speaker 1: I read a quote where you mentioned that that experience
Speaker 1: helped you be less afraid of sort of sucking on
Speaker 1: stage exactly. You know.
Speaker 2: I mean it's like when you suffered that kind of humiliation,
Speaker 2: you know, you sleep over this or that, you know,
Speaker 2: and you're and you wet your bed wetterre you know,
Speaker 2: and you're way too old to be and you're at
Speaker 2: that age where kids like break your heart, you know,
Speaker 2: like if you're weird. And yeah, like when I started
Speaker 2: doing stand up, but you know, the first time I
Speaker 2: did a stand up. I was seventeen in those early years,
Speaker 2: I sucked, but it didn't deter me because it was
Speaker 2: just it could it nothing compares to the humiliation of
Speaker 2: being a bedwetting kid, you know, an older kid especially,
Speaker 2: so I think it was easy to to persevere for
Speaker 2: me like through.
Speaker 1: That, and it probably breeds a certain type of resilience
Speaker 1: to any type of criticism once you've felt it on
Speaker 1: that vis oral level.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and also just between that and being like this
Speaker 2: very hairy Jewish kid in a sea of strawberry blonde
Speaker 2: you know, Christians. This is unique to me but completely
Speaker 2: ununique to all comedians, which is I think developing skills
Speaker 2: at an early age to survive childhood, and those skills
Speaker 2: were being funny. I knew how to be funny. I
Speaker 2: knew how to get my friend's parents to like me
Speaker 2: and not fear me. I mean, it's funny because you know,
Speaker 2: you're from New York City, so it's like Jews are
Speaker 2: like whatever. I mean, you probably went to so many
Speaker 2: bar mitzvahs. I went to zero. I didn't even know
Speaker 2: what a bar mitzvah was, you know, Like I was
Speaker 2: raised by atheists. The only way we knew we were
Speaker 2: Jewish was because we were different from everyone else. Like
Speaker 2: my sister, who's now a rabbi, would always say, like,
Speaker 2: I thought being Jewish meant being a democrat, because that's
Speaker 2: how we were different where we live. And so you learn,
Speaker 2: like I have a friend Brian Moses, who's black and
Speaker 2: grew up around a lot of white people, and we
Speaker 2: both have that thing that was just innate in us
Speaker 2: that we didn't realize what it was until looking back
Speaker 2: as adults, which is just we knew how to make
Speaker 2: our friends' parents not worry about us, not worry about
Speaker 2: having their kids with us, to make them realize without
Speaker 2: a doubt that we are safe to be around and kind,
Speaker 2: and you know, like it was, you know, it was
Speaker 2: just kind of a thing that you I knew innately,
Speaker 2: but I didn't know intellectually, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean I can identify with that only as I
Speaker 1: always had to make myself relatable and that was through
Speaker 1: hures and making fun of myself and then then I
Speaker 1: was not a threat, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean you're the example of that, because you were
Speaker 2: this baby star and in order to make friends you
Speaker 2: must have had to be like, no, I'm just goofy.
Speaker 2: I'm just not you know, you know, to or even
Speaker 2: to diminish.
Speaker 1: Yourself completely completely. And I know that you're workshopping currently
Speaker 1: the musical version of your memoir.
Speaker 2: And we had a runoff Broadway last spring, and we've
Speaker 2: done a workshop since, and then the plan is we're
Speaker 2: gonna do an out of town run and then to Broadway.
Speaker 1: Are you in it or just no?
Speaker 2: In it?
Speaker 1: It is so we don't get to hear your voice
Speaker 1: eight times.
Speaker 2: A week, well not your voice, not literally. But I
Speaker 2: co wrote it, and I co wrote the book and
Speaker 2: the lyrics with brilliant writers. But it's it's it's called
Speaker 2: The Bedwetter. And I think some people who went without
Speaker 2: knowing what it was just thought it was like the
Speaker 2: whole book, or you know, the book covers like into
Speaker 2: comedy and you know, from from birth to like you know,
Speaker 2: by being a young comic. This is just the year
Speaker 2: I'm ten. So there's this this tiny me and a
Speaker 2: tiny one sister. I only have one sister in it.
Speaker 2: I was like, I had to tell my other sisters,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, you don't exist.
Speaker 1: In this amalgamation of service three sisters. Yeah, I know.
Speaker 1: No Chekhov already did that. Have you gotten no offer?
Speaker 1: You must have gotten offers to do Broadway shows or
Speaker 1: come into shows.
Speaker 2: I have and I'd love to, but it just hasn't
Speaker 2: been the right Oh.
Speaker 1: And it's grueling.
Speaker 2: I mean it is, but I've not really loved that.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I mean I my mom was
Speaker 2: a theater director, and you know I love that. I mean,
Speaker 2: not on Broadway in New Hampshire, but still.
Speaker 1: It's funny. My daughter is, my younger one is looking
Speaker 1: at colleges and she was looking at n y U.
Speaker 1: And it was funny because I said, you know, I
Speaker 1: was kind of not lobbying really, but just sort of
Speaker 1: you know, the mom thing where one's already gone and
Speaker 1: I'm like, how can I keep the other one close by?
Speaker 1: Because I'm ameshed. But I was interested around that time
Speaker 1: because you dropped out after a year. Yeah, did you
Speaker 1: hate it?
Speaker 2: I loved it, but I was I was working every
Speaker 2: day from four pm to two am, passing out flyers
Speaker 2: on the corner of McDougal and West Third, and I
Speaker 2: was sleeping through my classes and it was torture. I
Speaker 2: was like pinching myself awake. It reminded me of like
Speaker 2: sleepovers as a kid, pinging myself awake to try to
Speaker 2: so I wentn't went to bed, but I was just like,
Speaker 2: I felt horrible and teachers going like, Sarah, are you
Speaker 2: you know? Like I couldn't keep my eyes open. It
Speaker 2: was horrible. And I was a drama major, which made
Speaker 2: me feel so guilty because it's such an expensive school
Speaker 2: to be a drama major, Like that's luxurious, you know.
Speaker 2: So you know, I was passing out flyers for a
Speaker 2: comedy club to get to be able to get time
Speaker 2: on stage. So I pat I worked there and I
Speaker 2: got paid ten dollars an hour, which was a lot.
Speaker 2: So I was making one hundred bucks a day and
Speaker 2: then getting on stage. But I was sleeping through school
Speaker 2: and so I took a year off to focus on
Speaker 2: stand up. My plan to go back was to change
Speaker 2: from drama to arts and sciences because I wanted to
Speaker 2: get knowledge, you know. So I signed up and then
Speaker 2: like three weeks before I started my sophomore year, my
Speaker 2: dad called and said, listen, if you drop out and
Speaker 2: just focus on you know, what you want to do,
Speaker 2: because I you know, I'll pay your rent for the
Speaker 2: next three years as if it's your sophomore, junior, senior year.
Speaker 2: And so I said, deal, he paid my rent and utilities.
Speaker 1: But what was his end of the deal. Was it like,
Speaker 1: but you got to hit it hard and really commit
Speaker 1: to this.
Speaker 2: Well that was I was. I mean, I know, I
Speaker 2: went out with friends. I never every night, I was
Speaker 2: at clubs trying to get on every single time. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's all I wanted to do. Was that was like
Speaker 2: not a commitment. He needed to press me on. I
Speaker 2: was all in.
Speaker 1: So you did that. What was the first what do
Speaker 1: you view as the first sort of real achievement that
Speaker 1: you made professionally?
Speaker 2: Well, they're allways little ones, like passing at the comic
Speaker 2: strip when I was nineteen, you know, and then I got,
Speaker 2: you know, to sign up for I got to have
Speaker 2: do paid spots. You know, there were ten dollars a spot,
Speaker 2: you know. But and then I you know, I got
Speaker 2: I became a writer at you know, by the time
Speaker 2: I would have been a senior in college where the money,
Speaker 2: you know, my dad stopped paying for my rent. I
Speaker 2: actually got hired to write for Saturday Night Live, so
Speaker 2: I supported myself since I was twenty two. And that
Speaker 2: lasted a year, and then I got fired, and I
Speaker 2: was shocked. You know, it never occurred to me. I'm
Speaker 2: you know, I'm it never occurs to me. I'm going
Speaker 2: to get fired. I've been fired many times. Never occurs
Speaker 2: to me. It never occurs to me, like a boyfriend
Speaker 2: would cheat on me. Never, And that's happened, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. But I kind of prefer living this way,
Speaker 2: you know. But it's always a shock. It was always
Speaker 2: a shock. You know.
Speaker 1: Well, I call this show now What because it's about
Speaker 1: those moments. They're not always bad. I mean sometimes they're
Speaker 1: a good now what moment? But those are now what moments?
Speaker 1: And how do you How did you internalize that and
Speaker 1: continue for it?
Speaker 2: Was like I'm I guess I'm not in show business anymore.
Speaker 2: I'm just just like I was stunned. I remember just
Speaker 2: thinking like, who am I without this? Which is interesting
Speaker 2: because that kind of happened in the Double Strike too.
Speaker 2: I think with a lot of people recently just like
Speaker 2: who am I without this? And that's a scary question
Speaker 2: and probably an important question, you know, because I still
Speaker 2: feel like, I mean, if so. But what I realized
Speaker 2: then was like, well, I'm a stand up, you know.
Speaker 2: I just kept my head downe and did stand up,
Speaker 2: which is you know something I'm very lucky can be
Speaker 2: a constant in my life.
Speaker 1: Were you surprised at how shocked people were by your comedy?
Speaker 1: At first?
Speaker 2: I was because in the household I grew up in,
Speaker 2: the comedy was very dark and like hard, you know,
Speaker 2: And so when people were shocked by me, there was
Speaker 2: a little bit of like what who mey? But there
Speaker 2: was some genuine what whomy about it? Like because I
Speaker 2: just that really was my experience in my home.
Speaker 1: Is there one thing that when you look back at
Speaker 1: your comedy and also now that you're especially proud of.
Speaker 2: Well, I think I'm proud of like, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: proud of all of it. I'm cringey at a lot
Speaker 2: of it, you know, I mean, you know, it's comedy
Speaker 2: is not evergreens. I haven't seen my first special Jesus
Speaker 2: is Magic, but I know that it's problematic on several
Speaker 2: levels levels now. But I think I'm proud of the
Speaker 2: changing and being brave enough to lose fans, you know,
Speaker 2: to get new fans, to just be true to like
Speaker 2: whatever I'm into in this moment, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that that's the most important thing
Speaker 1: is to be able to pivot. And I also think
Speaker 1: that it's so interesting because most, I believe great comics
Speaker 1: have to sort of be polarizing. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I mean, if you're too vanilla down the center, it's
Speaker 1: sort of I don't know. It doesn't comics.
Speaker 2: Who are very you could say, like very clean or
Speaker 2: very vanilla, that are brilliant because it's authentically them, you know,
Speaker 2: I mean Seinfelder, Jim Gaffigan, or people who are like
Speaker 2: very clean but brilliantly funny. I mean, there are a
Speaker 2: lot of dirty comics that suck, you know, I mean
Speaker 2: it's all you know. But but yeah, I mean there's
Speaker 2: there's clear.
Speaker 1: About what they're point. Yes, But I mean I think
Speaker 1: that that's so those two things I think are always
Speaker 1: very close. But I want to ask you the now
Speaker 1: walk question again because I am so interested in those like,
Speaker 1: oh fuck, now what do I do? And in our
Speaker 1: personal lives and why some people go in one direction
Speaker 1: and why other people you know, get stagnant or can't.
Speaker 1: But it's and I understand the professional ones. Are there
Speaker 1: any personal now what moments that stick out for you?
Speaker 2: You know? I will say getting older as a woman,
Speaker 2: and also as someone who like in my younger years,
Speaker 2: I was like the kid and I was like, you know,
Speaker 2: I used my sexual prowess as a you know, it
Speaker 2: was a power. It was the power I had, and
Speaker 2: you know that goes away when you're not like young
Speaker 2: and dumb, and I had to learn all the other
Speaker 2: parts of myself, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Well also it's I mean I used to see
Speaker 1: you predominantly just at Gary's basketball games, and I remember
Speaker 1: saying to Gary channeling our loved mutual friend who I
Speaker 1: met through my husband, who has passed away. But I
Speaker 1: remember saying to Gary. When Gary invited me, I said, like,
Speaker 1: women don't go, and it was it was funny because
Speaker 1: you were the only girl playing with them. And when
Speaker 1: you when you started in comedy, it really and it
Speaker 1: less so now I think, I mean, you tell me,
Speaker 1: but was really a boys club?
Speaker 2: It was?
Speaker 1: It was boy How did you what personae did you
Speaker 1: put on to be level with the boys? You know,
Speaker 1: you were like alone.
Speaker 2: When I first started stand up, the guys all told
Speaker 2: me you have to talk about stuff that guys are
Speaker 2: interested and you can't talk about like the female experience,
Speaker 2: which I don't think they put that in that word,
Speaker 2: those words even, and they explained they had a very
Speaker 2: good reason. They said, because women are there on dates
Speaker 2: and they will only laugh if their date laughs, So
Speaker 2: you have to make the men laugh that it has
Speaker 2: to be your priority. And I bought into it, I mean,
Speaker 2: because they were grown ups in my mind, you know.
Speaker 2: But at the time it was it was really all men.
Speaker 2: It was very rare to see other women. Of course,
Speaker 2: there were women who came before me, so many, but
Speaker 2: on the ground it was very male. And but you know,
Speaker 2: the thing I love about stand up, especially now, is
Speaker 2: that it's it's so diverse. I mean it's it's so
Speaker 2: diverse every kind of person. There's comics, and we're just
Speaker 2: like this island of misfit toys. I always think of
Speaker 2: it because it's like when you meet a comic, even
Speaker 2: if you've never met them before, you're already like mishbooka.
Speaker 1: You know, well, you always seem like you're someone who's
Speaker 1: really open to growing and changing and being changed and
Speaker 1: open to people and material and life. And if you
Speaker 1: were to look back at your life, what would you
Speaker 1: say Your through line.
Speaker 2: Is give me an example, what do you mean? Okay,
Speaker 2: the content totem.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean mine is perseverance. So mine is like
Speaker 1: every time I get knocked down, I get up again,
Speaker 1: like that song, but it's like I'm I'm like that.
Speaker 1: Ye just come of.
Speaker 2: People tobble, but they don't fall down exactly.
Speaker 1: So that for me would be my through line professionally beautiful.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think just evolving and being okay,
Speaker 2: not knowing stuff, being okay with the stuff that is
Speaker 2: just too big to comprehend.
Speaker 1: That was Sarah Silverman. If you want to hear more
Speaker 1: from her, go check out her latest special, Sarah Silverman
Speaker 1: Someone You Love, streaming now on Max, or go listen
Speaker 1: to the Sarah Silverman podcast on the iHeartRadio app or wherever.
Speaker 2: You get your shows.
Speaker 1: Now. What with Burke Shields is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: Our lead producer and wonderful showrunner is Julia Weaver. Additional
Speaker 1: research and editing by Darby Masters and Abu Zafar. Our
Speaker 1: executive producer is Christina Everett. The show is mixed by
Speaker 1: Baheid Fraser.