Sarah Silverman is performing at Mystic Lake Casino this weekend, with Minnesota’s own Lizz Winstead on stage for an opening set. Ahead of the show, I chatted with Silverman about touring a comedy set about grief in the midst of an election year, her perspective on failure, and what she finds funny right now. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Sheila Regan: How are you doing right now with the lovely election results we’ve just had?
Sarah Silverman: It’s been crazy. I was on the road the whole time, and I’m going to be on the road through February. So it’s wild to be not home through all of this but interesting to be all over the country. I was in Ohio on election night, and the whole time I was going, Trump could very likely win. I think deep down in my core, I did not believe that. Once again, the smile was wiped right off my face. I went from going, what am I doing? Why am I on the road? I want to be home in a ball. I did remember another time that I was home in a ball and not wanting to do stand up, and Chelsea Handler yelled at me and said, “Get your shit together. This is what you do. You’re a comedian. This is the most important time to be a comedian, and you’ve got to get your shit together now.” And she made me open for her at the [Hollywood] Pantages. And it was a really good lesson. I really value it.
Listen, I don’t want to read your think piece, I don’t want to read the news. I don’t want to know about his cabinet. I’m opting out, and that’s what I’m deciding to do for a little while.
SR: I get it that you’re saying about opting out, but I mean, on your Instagram, you’re talking about abortion.
SS: I mean, when I say opt out, I’m still, like, pretty totally involved. I’m just trying to not bring my health into it. I’m trying not to get to that place where I can physically feel the dread and the pain. I am trying to stay well. I am retweeting voices. I’m getting information out there. We have really great organizers in this country. People are going to come together. I hope. I’m not even talking about Kamala when I say this election has proven to me that this country deeply, deeply hates women. But anyway, come out to my show!
SR: Is there a support network of women comics?
SS: Massive. Yes, massive. Women are really dominating in comedy, as well as queer, nonbinary, also just cultures that we hadn’t seen in previous years, really coming to the fore of comedy. Comedy has always been the cultures and people that struggle — that are marginalized. A lot of times those voices are the most important voices.
SR: Last April, Jerry Seinfeld said comedy was being ruined by “PC crap.” [He later retracted the statement]. What you were talking about seems to run counter to that. What would you say?
SS: I’m just so proud of him because he came out and said that was wrong, I disagree with what I said. I think I was full of shit. And for a comic, and especially, I will say a male comic or a male person, that’s really hard to do. I don’t mean to coddle him but I always think it’s cool when anyone can publicly go, hey, I want to correct something. I was wrong here. I just think that’s awesome and oddly brave. I’ve never really personally had a big problem with apologizing when I’m sorry. It’s so easy, but I do know that there are people I love that have a very difficult time with it.
SR: You’ve talked about failure, about being able to accept when you’ve made a mistake. That’s not something that everybody can do.
SS: Yeah, it’s bizarre that they can’t. But I know that there’s real reasons that, for some reason, I didn’t get afflicted with. The brilliant thing I said about failure is not my words: It’s a quote by Charlie Kaufman. I always point to that because it inspired me. It’s “Let’s not worry about failure. Failure is a badge of honor; it means you risked failure.”
My boyfriend says he’s always impressed, because if I do stand up and I eat shit, I don’t hold on to it very long. I figure out why, and that’s a great thing to learn. I spent so much time bombing in my early career. If that held me back, I wouldn’t be a comedian.
SR: I did want to ask you about grief. I know you’ve had some losses recently — I’m very sorry to hear that. Was it something where you had to deal with first and then look at it using comedy, or was comedy your way through it?
SS: It’s both. It was partially just timing. My dad and my stepmom both died nine days apart, a year ago last May, which was right when my last special came out. So I was starting over. When your special comes out, you start over. You have no material, you start from scratch. And the only thing on my mind was my parents dying. As a matter of fact, my eulogy at my dad’s funeral was when I went — hmm, there’s something there. Which is fucked up, but if anyone would appreciate that, it would be my dad. So that was organically what my next set became was talking about this and finding the humor in it, which is certainly in our family what we do, and kind of a Jewish thing. Any kind of adversity is food for comedy. Then, randomly, at this moment in time in our country, I’m touring with a show that has no politics at all, and that’s lovely, because what it is about is something that none of us can avoid and all of us have to deal with.
SR: Are you working toward another special at some point?
SS: Yes, I’m actually shooting it during the tour. In January, and then I’ll have two more weeks of tour, which is a comics’ biggest fear — you shoot your special and you still are touring it, before it comes out, and that’s when you figure out all the places where I’m like, I need something here. If there was no end point, I would just hone forever. So I like having an end point where I’m going to shoot a special for Netflix and it will be done. I’ll start again.
SR: How often do you revisit older material from when you’re a younger comic?
SS: I’ve only just started to for the first time. I never have before, but I’m posting little clips from different specials and my old shows and stuff. I don’t post the stuff that does not hold up. Listen, comedy is not evergreen. And I am at the forefront of not evergreen comedy. I don’t mind seeing myself in a movie or TV or something, but watching my own stand up — I find it excruciating. Editing is just the worst. When you do a special, you have to sit and watch your stupid face for so long.
SR: I would imagine in the case of a special, you’re much more a part of the editing, as opposed to a film where you’re not a part of the editing process usually.
SS: Right, You’re excited to see it. But this is like, if I have to look at this face one more time I’m going to puke. I record myself because I have to, because I’ve got to listen back and figure things out when I’m on the road, but it’s torture. Torture is an extreme word, but, it’s not wildly pleasurable for me. It’s the work you got to do for it, but it’s worth it.
SR: What’s making you laugh, personally, right now?
SS: Oh, God, so much really. “I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson” is a brilliant meditation on toxic masculinity. And then I went back and watched the show he did before that, with Sam Richardson, “Detroiters.” If you haven’t seen it, please watch it tonight. It’s pure joy. Just the love between two male best friends is something so beautiful to see. I think there’s such a need for a men’s movement, other than the ridiculous ones that are happening in various places, but a true men’s movement, where they are allowed other emotions besides rage, because it’s killing us. It’s killing women.
It’s hard for me to watch comedy now. I watch more comedy than I used to, but I’m in comedy, so it’s more stressful than fun. I like murder mysteries, but oh my god, I love “Detroiters” so much. I love “Hacks.” I love “What We Do in the Shadows.”
SR: When you write comedy, do you use a recorder, or do you write it at long hand? Or do you type?
SS: Sometimes I write longhand, and then I’ll put it in my phone, in my Notes app. I’m not very sentimental, but I have a trunk full of all my old comedy notebooks, and since it’s gotten digital, it’s just an app. There’s something so unromantic about it, but it’s very convenient. Then I’ll print it out sometimes. I still don’t know what works for me. I’m still always exploring. If somebody asked me what’s my process for writing a joke, I’d be like, I don’t know. Sometimes I have a bulletin board. I’ll put cards up and then move it around and see what connects. I try everything.
SR: I use the Notes app too. I don’t really know how to save them.
SS: I don’t have folders within those but the great thing is, you can search them. If you know the date, or if you know a word that was in it. I just did something about Joan Rivers. I just typed in Joan Rivers and everything I’ve ever written down about Joan Rivers was there.
SR: What was it that you were trying to remember about Joan Rivers?
SS: I just did a little interview — they’re doing a Joan Rivers special on NBC, and I wasn’t available to do the performance honoring her in New York, and I was on the road, and I couldn’t, so I came home for a couple days and I just did a little interview. I’ve spoken about Joan before when she first passed, so I looked to see what I had jotted down, and any random thing I may have had. She gave me a coat once because I told her it was so ugly. It was the ugliest coat I’ve ever seen. And she made me take it. The pockets are filled with crumpled tissues and mints that I will not touch.
SR: Oh, my god, that’s amazing. Sarah, thank you so much for doing this interview. I appreciate it so much.
SS: Oh, my joy. I feel like I’m never funny in these but I love talking about comedy. I swear the show is funny.
Sarah Silverman: Postmortem performs at Mystic Lake Casino Saturday, Dec. 7, at 8 p.m. ($52-$192). More information here.
Sheila Regan
Sheila Regan is a Twin Cities-based arts journalist. She writes MinnPost’s twice-weekly Artscape column. She can be reached at [email protected].