Best Of: Sarah Silverman / Cole Escola
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What is Sarah Silverman's new special about?
From WHYY in Philadelphia, this is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Sam Brigger. Today, comic, actor, and writer Sarah Silverman talks about her new Netflix comedy special, Postmortem, which is funny and emotional. It's about the death of her father and stepmother nine days apart. Also, we'll hear from Cola Scola, creator of the Broadway comedy Oh Mary. It's an intentionally ridiculous reimagining of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. It portrays her as having become addicted to alcohol, not because of the Civil War, but because she's desperately yearning for her only true love.
You are not going back to that. It has a name. It doesn't deserve one. Say it. No. The thing I love more than anything on earth is cabaret. Yeah!
Plus, Ken Tucker reviews new albums by Willie Nelson and Ken Pomeroy. That's coming up on Fresh Air Weekend. This is Fresh Air Weekend. I'm Sam Brigger. Terry has our first interview. I'll let her introduce it.
I'm happy to say that comic writer and actor Sarah Silverman is back for a return visit. Her stand-up comedy is always original, brave, and funny. Whether it's talking about sex, abortion, being Jewish, racism, or just daily life, she's willing to take risks to make a point and make it funny. She regrets a few jokes she told in the past and later apologized for them. She has a new surprising comedy special, which I'll tell you about in a moment. But first, more about Sarah. She was a writer and featured performer for one season on Saturday Night Live. She played a writer on The Larry Sanders Show. From 2007 to 2010, she starred in the series The Sarah Silverman Program. From 2017 to 2019, she hosted the Hulu series I Love You America, in which she had conversations to help her understand people she didn't necessarily agree with. She's been in several movies, and she's a regular on the animated series Bob's Burgers. She recently roasted her friend Conan O'Brien at the Kennedy Center ceremony, at which he was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Her memoir The Bedwetter was adapted into an off-Broadway musical. It was recently reworked, played at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and she's hoping it will move to Broadway. Now she has her fifth comedy special. It's called Postmortem. Toward the beginning of the special, she's talking about sexual fantasies and sex talk. Not surprising territory for her. And then she quietly makes an abrupt turn to this.
Oh, my dad and my stepmom Janice both died last May, nine days apart. And, oh, that one needs work. Um... But they really did, and I was really close with both of them, and my dad was my best friend, and they both gave me so much, and most recently about an hour of new material, so let's do this.
Sarah Silverman, welcome back to Fresh Air. I think this is a very meaningful and funny special, and I'm grateful that you did it. Thank you. Sarah, I don't remember you ever doing anything as emotional as this new special. What made you think about doing a special about your parents' death?
Oh, well, it wasn't something that I sat and thought about and decided. My last special was coming out as they were dying, and so... After they passed and I started doing stand-up again, I was at zero again, which is where I'm at right now. So the only material was what was going on in my life, which was, you know, I remember going to Largo, the club out here that I work at, and I had just, I had come straight from cleaning out their apartment with my sisters. And so that was just what I was talking about. And, you know, I had spoken at my dad's eulogy. And of course, there were a lot of funny things in there because he was hilarious. And I so I kind of that was the starting point for starting over again with my stand up. And it just grew and grew and built from there.
Did you use anything from the eulogy in the comedy special?
Oh, yeah.
Did you tell the Jeff Ross story in the eulogy?
Probably, probably, yeah. Would you tell that story? Just like all the funny stories about, oh, you know, people came to say goodbye as my dad was dying. And Jeff Ross, who's, of course, the hilarious roast master general, he was very close with my parents. And he came in, and he's comfortable with this stuff. He's very comfortable with...
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