On the Verge of True Stardom, Is Sarah Silverman Ready to Take Her Act to the Next Level?

She presents her opinions like a New York City private school 7^th grade boy, yet the tone of her voice and her appearance resembles a thirty-something politically correct Jewish single. This duality has been a mixed blessing for Sarah Silverman. She is certainly one of the most brazenly funny and talented comedians in America, yet the fact that Silverman’s delivery is so shockingly uncouth has been the major appeal of her comedy as well as the major roadblock in her path to true stardom. With Jesus is Magic, Silverman has gone for indie film market appeal, a goal which has certainly been aided by her recent appearance in The Aristocrats. In Jesus is Magic, it’s easy to see how Silverman has developed a cult following, yet has also has a hard time finding a mainstream fanbase. Barely five minutes into the movie, Silverman says, with a completely straight face, “People ask me if I have any reasons for doing this, and I do. For instance when I was young I was raped by a doctor…which is so bittersweet for a Jewish girl.”

There’s a lot going well for Sarah Silverman right now. Her relationship with Jimmy Kimmel has, for better or for worse, catapulted her to higher profile status due to her recurring appearing on national television. Furthermore, the success of The Aristocrats helped no comedian better than Silverman. While most comedians giggled at their own filthiness, Silverman described her lecherous story with an aging talent agent with a straight face with a look that hinted anguish, culminating in the line “Joe Franklin raped me.” It was a moment that simultaneously was disturbing and hilarious, and became the most controversial and memorable moment of the movie. The controversy surrounding that scene—Joe Franklin is considering suing Silverman for slander—has typified the mixed appeal of her entire career. Unlike any comedian since Andy Kaufman, Silverman has blurred the line between comedy and reality, making people laugh and then regret it seconds later.

The hit-or-miss nature makes it hard to review Jesus is Magic. I find Silverman hilarious, but I know there are plenty of people who don’t understand her appeal, and even more who find her flat-out offensive. To look at Jesus is Magic from a purely cinematic viewpoint, however, there are some noticeable flaws in her approach to the film. The majority of the movie is Sarah’s standup routine, which takes up about fifty minutes of the seventy-two minute film. Fifty minutes is the typical length of an HBO Special, and Jesus is Magic probably would be more successful had it simply been a special. While the extra content certainly fits Silverman’s outrageous nature, it’s a little bewildering, and really didn’t serve the film well at all. Featuring among other things, the notion that Silverman made up the show in one afternoon, examples of her prima donna tendencies (such as cursing out her stage manager for providing Volvic water as opposed to Fiji), and juxtaposing her delivery of her routine with that of an understudy. While they may be intended to be a supplement to her stage performance, they end up being more of a distraction.

Also, there are problems with her style of delivery that goes well beyond the subject matter. One of Silverman’s greatest strengths is that, even though she turns conventional serious discussions into obscenity throughout her show, she always manages to convince her audience, even if it’s just for a second, that she’s being sincere. While it’s remarkable that she can maintain our trust, this inverting of assumptions leaves her character on stage rather empty. We have seen what she doesn’t stand for, yet we have no idea what she does stand for. It’s understandable that she’s mocking racism, anti-Semitism, societal standards, and the easily offended, but if none of those are acceptable to Silverman, what is? This problem is certainly not one that affects Silverman’s rise to fame, but it’s an issue, now that she is finally beginning to receive the recognition she deserves, that she must eventually address in her development as a comedian.