Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic

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 ****

I've never seen a stand-up comedy hour get national theatrical distribution before, but I know why this one did. Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic is some of the most subversive, brutal, politically-incorrect, and brilliant stand-up comedy out there. Silverman splices up the stand-up routine with silly and obnoxious musical numbers, and it works. Though it may not make $1 million at the box office, Jesus Is Magic will undoubtedly become a comedy classic along the lines of Eddie Murphy: Raw and Bill Cosby: Himself.

What makes Silverman so ballsy is fearless take on race ("The best time to conceive, of course, is when you're a black teenager"), religion ("The only time religion matters is when you have kids and you're deciding what to teach them. If my boyfriend and I ever have a kid, we'll just be honest with it. We'll say that mommy is one of God's chosen people, and daddy believes that Jesus is magic!"), rape ("I was raped by a doctor… which is kind of bittersweet for a Jew"), the Holocaust ("The Holocaust would never had happened if black people lived in Germany in the 1930s and 40s… well, it wouldn't have happened to Jews"), and 9/11 ("I think American Airlines' new slogan should be: We were the first to hit the twin towers") – every topic you're NOT supposed to joke about. Obviously these jokes are better on screen than read in print.

Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic is comic genius. Your cheeks will hurt from laughing so hard. It's the perfect cure for the holiday blues.

I saw this movie on opening night last night with moderately high expectations and not a lot of knowledge about Sarah Silverman. I left amused but disappointed. Ms. Silverman is entertainingly acerbic, but ALL of this movie's strong moments come from her stand-up, and the air completely goes out of the film when she goes into her mediocre, poorly integrated songs and set pieces. (And what's up with her repeating the same punchless lines over and over in her songs?)

In the end, "Jesus Is Magic" bogs down under the weight of its own pretension. It would seem better as an ordinary cable special, especially if you removed the fluff and focused on her stage show. The movie wants to present Silverman as something more than a mere comedian, but unfortunately fails -- the haphazard presentation and (especially) the atrocious-looking digital video (I challenge you to find a single sharply focused object in the entire movie) make it unworthy of a cinematic event.

In other words, it's worth seeing, but wait for cable or DVD.

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.