Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic

I don't care that Sarah Silverman dates a painfully unfunny slob like Jimmy Kimmel or that she often says offensive things just for the sake of being offensive. Ever since her short stint on "Saturday Night Live", I knew she was a brilliant comedienne. Part of her appeal is her natural good looks and charming nature. She seems sweet and innocent, but what comes out of her mouth is often filthy and offensive. She delivers it straight with a style that is both perky and deadpan. She has a contradictory self-deprecating confidence that makes her rather unique in the world of stand-up comedy.

There's some misguided musical numbers and "skits" that are never quite as funny as they are conceptually. It's the stand-up bit that had me rolling in the aisles. Sarah pokes fun at everything from AIDS to the Holocaust to 9/11 and she wears her badge of political incorrectness with pride. In terms of her racial humor, she's more than just the white Jewish female version of Dave Chappelle, she's downright hilarious, and her unique delivery is what makes the off-color jokes go down so smooth. The film is brief at 72 minutes, so be sure to stay for the credits as they contain some funny bits.

I walked into the theatre fully expecting and eagerly anticipating the type of offensive, edgy humor Silverman is known for. And while there were certainly some great jokes (and songs!) that had me bursting out laughing, the rest of the movie only raised a smirk and an occasional chuckle. The ending felt particularly flat.

Some jokes just weren't creative enough to be funny, and I'm guessing Silverman hoped the shock value alone would get laughs. When you're sitting in a packed theatre and a "funny" joke/moment comes up, and you can only hear one or two people discernibly laughing - sorry, those are pity laughs. And there seemed to be quite a few points in the movie where this occurred.

So while I was walking out of the theatre thinking of several funny lines, as a whole Silverman's stand-up was so-so. I've laughed much harder and longer at other comedians' routines.

Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic (2005), written by Sarah Silverman and directed by Liam Lynch, was shown at the High Falls Film Festival in Rochester, New York.

Sarah Silverman is a unique comedian, and the movie is unique as well. Silverman is strikingly beautiful, and startlingly filthy-mouthed. The result is comedy that is not actually funny per se, but is funny because of the incredible contrast between what you expect and what Silverman delivers.

I've noticed that most reviewers can't refrain from quoting some lines from her performance. The problem with that practice is that if you read enough reviews, you've basically seen the movie. I'm going to refrain from revealing any part of her act. I'll just say that Silverman makes jokes about matters that society assumes can't be funny--9/11, racism, world hunger, AIDS.

Silverman delivers her act in a neutral, confidential way. The contrast between Silverman's straightforward, level manner and the nature of her comedy is what makes her unique.

My guess is that Silverman's humor would wear thin on repeated viewing. However, for the 72 minutes of this movie, she's very, very funny.

Notes:

Silverman was profiled in the 10/24/05 issue of The New Yorker magazine, in an article titled "Quiet Depravity."

Stay for the credits. They contain some funny bits.

I've seen Sarah Silverman in plenty of films and TV appearances, but this is my first time seeing her stand-up act in its entirety. Altogether, I enjoyed the film. I'm sure this won't appeal to all tastes, especially if you're easily offended. I wouldn't say Sarah is nearly as good as George Carlin or Richard Pryor or other classic envelope-pushing comedians, but she is good and definitely has a unique comic style (not something I say about many comedians nowadays). I like the way she delivers her profane, offensive humor in such a mundane fashion. I think it makes the jokes even funnier. The flaw in her comedy, in my opinion, is that despite her significant intelligence and wit, Sarah does have a silly, absurd side. Some of the musical numbers definitely bordered on the silly side. Altogether, the film is hit-or-miss, thankfully with more hits. And of course, Sarah is quite easy on the eyes, which is part of the fun of seeing her in a starring role.

Sarah Silverman--with her gummy smile, coltish stance, and clear voice which bubbles up from deep within her chest--wants to come on like a huggable shock comedienne, yet she's more performance artist than stand-up personality. Cleverly and carefully (one may say 'precisely') dropping taboo words into her stories, Silverman gets laughs by pretending to lead the audience in one direction and then undercutting those expectations with a surprising low-keyed zinger. Silverman doesn't overwork a punchline--which are often nestled in the context of her stories anyhow--although she returns to older topics too often. Also, she relies far too much on pseudo-cute facial expressions and aw-shucks body language to soften the blows of her words, though the topics (9/11, the Holocaust, AIDS, vaginal sex versus anal sex) are tiptoed through in a facetious yet frisky manner. The fantasy edits, imagining Sarah in different manners of celebrity, work well, better than the purposefully-wooden prologue and epilogue with friends. Still, one expects to laugh more with such touchy material. Silverman is so laid-back and blasé, it's clear to viewers she is giving them a made-up creation. Other shock comics manage to make audiences feel as if they are hearing something true, but this personality that Silverman is displaying (playful, naughty, grounded, unaffected) is unabashedly artificial. This is entirely deliberate on Silverman's part, yet is tends to render her act phony: smoke and mirrors prodding at the national funny bone. *1/2 from ****