Sarah Silverman is set to reinforce her reputation as a powerhouse in stand-up comedy with her current U.S. tour, Sarah Silverman: Postmortem Tour, which kicked off in September and comes to the Charleston Music Hall on Nov. 7.
Silverman is no stranger to using personal experiences as comedic material. For example, she released an autobiography titled The Bedwetter in 2010 (which she adapted into an off-Broadway musical in 2022), recounting her experiences “growing up Jewish in New Hampshire, losing her virginity, learning to curse at 3 years old and being a bedwetter until she was old enough to drive.”
And that unfiltered approach is evident throughout her diverse body of work, which spans from podcasting and acting to comedy and writing — Silverman is, in fact, defined by her willingness to “go there” and talk about intimate and typically taboo topics.
She first rose to prominence as a cast member on Saturday Night Live in 1993 and was fired after one season, something she has credited in interviews as giving her a thick skin. Former SNL writer Bob Odenkirk remarked to The New Yorker in 2005, “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.”
Using personal experiences to connect with others is “kind of everything in art,” Silverman shared in an exclusive interview with the Charleston City Paper ahead of her first-ever performance in Charleston.
Connecting through comedy
“If I may quote my go-to guy, Mr. Rogers, he told me this through the TV when I was very young, and I held on to it,” Silverman said. “I think it’s key for artists — ‘If it’s mentionable, it’s manageable.’ Boom. Whatever you think is your deepest, darkest secret or shame, people can relate to, I promise. And it’s manageable if you talk about it.”
In her new comedy tour, Silverman is again turning a dark topic into jokes.
“My last special, Someone you Love, came out [on HBO] right after my parents passed away [last May] — like, two weeks later — so I was at zero with stand-up material,” she recalled. “My stepmom and my dad died nine days apart. It was a wild experience. My dad was my best friend. So I did his eulogy, and the eulogy was pretty funny. I started doing stand-up talking about it, and it turns out there was a lot of comedy there.
“This is like the worst ad for a comedy show, but I promise it’s funny, and it’s very dark.”
It’s also an opportunity to figure out what jokes will work for a planned taped special. Every show is a bit different, Silverman said of bringing the Postmordem Tour across the U.S., and she pays attention to what her audiences respond to as she considers which material will ultimately make the cut.
“It’s a real experiment. I’m on the road figuring this show out. You know, I need Charleston,” she said. “Every city is really crucial to figuring out what the show is. And I’m constantly tinkering, and always hoping I haven’t written my best joke yet. … I definitely count on the audience to show me what’s working [and] what isn’t working.”
When asked if the cliche about laughter being the best medicine has proved to be true, Silverman said, “Definitely. I love feeling connected to the audience. And in this show I feel extra connected, because I’m showing them my baggage. … I never think of myself as necessarily relatable, but [this show] is really relatable. It’s been cathartic in an interesting way.”
In the Postmortem Tour, Silverman focuses her ultra-personal lens on a universal topic: grief. For artists who want to use their own unique and darker experiences in their work, she advises fearlessness: Trust your gut, and don’t be afraid to fail.
“Make choices,” Silverman said. “There’s a Sondheim song from A Sunday in the Park with George called ‘Move On.’ The whole play is about art. And this song is about how perfect is the enemy of good. … You’re paralyzed, because you want your thing to be perfect, so then you don’t try it. You’re too afraid to put pen to paper.
“Make the crappy version. The choice doesn’t have to be right, but until you make it, you don’t know if it’s right or wrong. And if you find out it’s wrong, then you change your choice.”
Silverman said her hope is that the Charleston audience will leave the show feeling catharsis from some real hard laughs and a deeper connection to the friends who joined them.
“I mean, I may have gotten soft, but I’m still hard. You know, come for the emotionality and stay for the c*m jokes. I don’t know if you can put that in your paper, but I’ll say it anyway.”
Sarah Silverman brings the Postmortem Tour to the Charleston Music Hall at 7 p.m. Nov. 7. Tickets start at $62 at charlestonmusichall.com.
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