Comedy legend Sarah Silverman caught up with ListenSD ahead of her upcoming performance at the Civic Theater on November 15th. Sarah shared her journey into comedy, the challenges and joys of turning her memoir into a musical, and her unique take on how laughter connects us all. Don’t miss her hilarious show this Friday at the Civic Theater!
ListenSD: Was there a specific moment when you realized you wanted to pursue comedy?
Sarah Silverman: I didn’t know comedy was a job at first, but when I was three, my dad taught me swears, and I would shout them at the supermarket. Strangers would laugh, and it made me feel ecstatic. That was my first addiction to surprising people and making them laugh.
Later, in third grade, I wrote that I wanted to be a comedian, actress, or masseuse. I also thought I had a “natural talent” for massaging my sisters, so they’d ask me to rub their shoulders.
In terms of comedy, I started out with a lot of surprise, especially with my first special. But over time, when audiences began expecting surprises, I had an identity crisis. I realized comedy “dies in the second guessing of what your audience wants,” and that you just have to keep growing and evolving.
ListenSD: Your comedy often touches on mental health and vulnerability. How has that shaped your creative process?
Sarah: Humor is a universal bridge. My current tour covers some of my hardest experiences, like losing my parents. Finding humor in those moments is challenging but cathartic. It’s about being real and trusting the audience to understand the intention behind it. It’s great when comedy opens people up. Mr. Rogers taught me, “If it’s mentionable, it’s manageable.”
ListenSD: How did it feel to turn The Bedwetter into a musical? What was it like translating your story into a stage production?
Sarah Silverman: It’s been such an amazing experience. The creative team has been incredible, and we’re gearing up for a DC run soon and hopefully, it’ll make its way to Broadway in the fall. It’s been such a long process, but so joyful. I love working with the team. Sadly, my collaborator Adam Schlesinger, who we lost to COVID, was one of the first big losses. But we kept going. It ran off-Broadway, and now it’s still going strong.
It’s focused on just the year I was 10, when I was a little kid. It’s really funny and kind of heartbreaking like Dirty Annie. It’s been a long road, and the creative team is incredible. We’ve got David Yazbek, Josh Herman, and Annie Kaufman directing—such brilliant people. We’ve been working on this for years, and theater moves so slowly, but it’s amazing.
ListenSD: What role do you think comedians play in bringing important social issues to light, especially in such a politically charged time?
Sarah Silverman: It’s interesting to see the rules that comedians are judged by versus the rules that politicians are judged by. Comedy has always been one of the most honest reflections of history, sometimes more so than history books, because history is written by the winners. For example, they’re just now revealing that Socrates’ teacher was a woman—she was erased from history once Christianity took over. Crazy times, you know?
I remember touring during the election—specifically, I was in Ohio on election day, and then in South Carolina and North Carolina. I thought, What am I doing here on tour right now? I just wanted to go home. But I remember another hard time, Chelsea Handler said to me, “Shut the f*** up. Your job is to entertain people. They need it more than ever.” And she was right. So I went out there, and even though I felt like I didn’t know what to say, I reminded myself that people were coming to forget about the craziness of the world for a little while.
ListenSD: Love that. So as a comedian, you obviously make a lot of people laugh. How do you think laughter plays a role in today’s society?
Sarah Silverman: I feel like it’s one of our last bastions of pure connection. You know, I did that Hulu show I Love You, America, and the whole idea was we’re so divided, but if you put us all in a room and we told our most embarrassing stories, we’d be family immediately. It’s silly, but we’re all connected—whether we want to be or not. We can pretend we’re not, but we are. We’re all just playing roles on a rock in outer space.
Nothing matters—just have fun, find joy wherever you can, and help people wherever you can.
ListenSD: I love that. It’s funny because laughter is so universal—it connects people no matter what language you speak, no matter what you look like.
Sarah Silverman: It’s this beautiful connector, and as a career, I love it more and more. I’m so grateful for it because there’s no perfect age to be a comedian. There are brilliant comedians who are 19, and there are genius comedians who are 98. Joan Rivers once said she didn’t feel like she really hit her stride in comedy until she was in her 70s, and I just think that’s so rad. You can feel old or young, but you never know where you are in your comedy career.
ListenSD: Totally. And just to be able to spread joy and laughter like that—it’s so cool. It’s all about sharing stories and being vulnerable, creating that connection with the audience.
Sarah Silverman: Yes! The best shows are when you feel completely in sync with the audience. It’s magic.
Listen to Sarah Silverman’s podcast here and grab your tickets to see this legend live on Friday, November 15th at the Civic Theater!
