Sarah Silverman: Playing The Dummy For Laughs

This week on Fresh Air, we're marking the year's end by revisiting some of the most memorable conversations we've had in 2010. This interview was originally broadcast on April 22, 2010.

Comedian Sarah Silverman wet the bed until she was 15 years old.

"It was humiliating," she says. "I was sent to sleepover camp since I was 6, and it was a recipe for disaster. But, you know, I guess the silver lining is, 'There's not much to lose in life after that.' [When I was] doing stand-up when I got a little older, the prospect of bombing was like 'Who cares?' "

Silverman shares her experiences as a bed-wetter, a little sister, a Jewish kid growing up in New England and an aspiring stand-up comic in her memoir, The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee.

She has been called the "funniest woman in America" by Rolling Stone, but one of the most poignant chapters in the book is about the first time Silverman bombed, years before she would ever step on a stage. Growing up, she often heard stories from her older sister about another sibling, Jeffrey. Jeffrey accidentally suffocated to death in a crib several years before Sarah was born. When she was 5, Silverman decided to test a joke about Jeffrey on the rest of her family.

"My grandmother picked us up for our Sunday breakfast at a local diner, and she said, 'Everybody buckle up.' And thinking I was going to kill, I said, 'Yeah, we don't want to wind up like Jeffrey,' and [there was] just silence. My sisters turned and looked at me like I was crazy, and my grandmother just burst into tears," she says.

Silverman says the incident taught her that there are consequences in comedy -- and she thinks of that memory when writing her boundary-crossing material.

"I think I've been called edgy -- but in all honestly, there is a safety in what I do because I'm always the idiot," she says. "Unless you're just listening to buzz words and not taking into account the context of the situation, you see I’m always the ignoramus. So no matter what I talk about or what tragic event, off-color, dark scenario is evoked in my material, I'm always the idiot in it."

Silverman appears in the films Jesus is Magic, The Aristocrats, School of Rock and There's Something About Mary. She also stars in her own show on Comedy Central, The Sarah Silverman Program.

Transcript

DAVID BIANCULLI, host:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm David Bianculli of tvworthwatching.com, sitting in for Terry Gross. Happy New Year.

We wrap up a week of our best interviews from 2010, and herald the new year with two female comics who broke barriers a generation apart. First, Sarah Silverman.

Her fearless social comedy turns off some people, but has also won her devoted fans. On the surface, her comedy may seem offensive to Jews, African-Americans, Latinos, gay people, but that's because she's in persona as someone who is clueless, uninformed but certain in her beliefs. Her Comedy Central series, "The Sarah Silverman Program," ended a three-season run this year.

Not being shy about herself, Sarah Silverman has titled her new memoir "The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee." Terry Gross spoke to her last April, when the book was published.

A little later, we'll hear about the bedwetting problems that plagued her when she was growing up, but let's start with a clip from "The Sarah Silverman Program." Sarah is in a restaurant, at a table with her sister Laura, who is played by Silverman's real sister Laura; and Laura's boyfriend, Officer Jay McPherson, played by Jay Johnston.

(Soundbite of TV show, "The Sarah Silverman Program")

(Soundbite of music)

Mr. JAY JOHNSTON (Actor): (As Jay McPherson) Did you tell Sarah the news?

Ms. LAURA SILVERMAN (Actor): (As Laura Silverman) Oh, it's nothing.

Mr. JOHNSTON: (As Jay) Nothing? What, have you flipped your lid or something? Come on, tell her.

Ms. L. SILVERMAN: (As Laura) Well, I'm creating a Holocaust memorial for Value Village.

Mr. JOHNSON: (As Jay) How adorable is that?

Ms. SARAH SILVERMAN (Actor): (As Sarah Silverman) Why would you have a memorial for something that never happened?

Ms. L. SILVERMAN: (As Laura) That's not funny, Sarah. You know, a joke like that just demonstrates that you don't understand what it really means to be a Jew.

Ms. SILVERMAN: (As Sarah) I think I know what it means to be Jewish, Laura. Check this out. Excuse me, these pancakes are ishy.

Mr. JOHNSTON: (As Jay) Laura is right. You really should be more interested in the Holocaust. I mean, I'm not even a Jew, and I love the Holocaust - uh, love reading about it because it's so interesting and stuff, the things that happened.

Ms. L. SILVERMAN: (As Laura) You know, you should really think about becoming more invested in our history. You know, there's a great class that you could take...

Ms. SILVERMAN: (As Sarah) Oh, Yawn Kippur. You know, Laura, I am getting extremely bored at you, and I will not tolerate it. Never again!

TERRY GROSS, host:

Sarah Silverman, welcome back to FRESH AIR. So I have to ask you, are you good for the Jews or bad for the Jews?

Ms. SILVERMAN: I'm good for the Jews, I believe.

GROSS: How do you know? How do you know?

Ms. SILVERMAN: I think that whenever a Jew has any kind of notoriety, good or bad, the Jews find it to be good. You know, it's like - you know Son of Sam? Jewish.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. SILVERMAN: You know, so I think Jews tend to hold me in fairly high regard. I don't think that I - you know, and also because Jews tend to be able to take a joke. You know, it's kind of like, there's a difference between...

GROSS: When it's coming from Jewish people.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. SILVERMAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah, or it's good-hearted.

GROSS: I want to play another example of your humor. And this was -people might remember in the 2008 presidential campaign, that in support of Barack Obama you did a video called "The Great Schlep" - to get out the older Jewish vote in Florida. And the excerpt we'll play explains the premise of "The Great Schlep." So here it is. This is Sarah Silverman.

(Soundbite of video, "The Great Schlep")

(Soundbite of music)

Ms. SILVERMAN: If Barack Obama doesn't become the next president of the United States, I'm going to blame the Jews. I am, and I know you're saying, like, oh my God, Sarah, I can't believe you're saying this. Jews are the most liberal, scrappy, civil-rightsy people there are.

Yes, that's true, but you're forgetting a whole large group of Jews that are not that way, and they go by several aliases: Nana, Papa, Zaidie, Bubbe, plain old Grandma and Grandpa. These are the people who vote in Florida, and the Florida vote can make or break an election.

If you don't think that's true, why don't you think back to two elections ago, when a little man named Al Gore got (bleep) by Florida? I'm making this video to urge you, all of you, to schlep over to Florida and convince your grandparents to vote Obama.

GROSS: So that's Sarah Silverman. So what kind of reaction did you actually get from the two audiences that this was aimed at - the grandchildren who were supposed to convince their grandparents to vote, and the grandparents who were supposed to be convinced to vote for Obama?

Ms. SILVERMAN: You know what? It was universally positive. It really was. I don't remember...

GROSS: Wow, have you ever had anything that was universally positive before?

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. SILVERMAN: No, no. And you know what? I mean, I said stuff like: Get off your fat Jewish asses. And you know what I mean? And like, I made -but I guess you're right. Coming from a Jew, you know, it eases the blow.

GROSS: OK, so you've titled your book "The Bedwetter," and some of your book is devoted to the fact that when you were young, you used to wet your bed just about every night, which was a horrible humiliation for you, particularly for like, sleepover parties, camping trips. How long did this last?

Ms. SILVERMAN: You know, I was a bedwetter until I was about 15, and it was humiliating. You know, I was sent to sleepover camp since I was 6, and you know, it's a recipe for disaster. But, you know, I guess the silver lining is, there's not much to lose after that - in life, you know?

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. SILVERMAN: I think, you know, doing stand-up when I got a little older, the prospect of bombing was like - who cares? You know?

GROSS: As long as you're not peeing on stage accidentally.

Ms. SILVERMAN: Please, yeah.

GROSS: So what did you do to cover up when you were young, and you were going to sleepover parties or summer camp?

Ms. SILVERMAN: A lot of it was just denial. I think I pretended it didn't happen more often than not. You know, at camp I would just make my bed over it. I would take my clothes off and put it deep into the hamper, and I probably reeked of pee.

At sleepovers, I would kind of pinch myself awake and try to not drink anything too late. Eventually, your body gives in when you're a little girl, and you fall asleep even deeper than ever. So it was usually unfruitful - or fruitful, in a bad way.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is Sarah Silverman, and she has a new book called "The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee."

In your book, you write about how, before you were born, your parents had a baby who died as an infant. The baby was staying over at your grandparents' house, and got accidentally strangled in the crib by the way it...

Ms. SILVERMAN: Yeah, it was a faulty crib, and yeah. He - it had broken, and the baby had slipped down into the corner, and had suffocated in that space.

GROSS: A really horrible thing. Did your parents talk to you about this as a child?

Ms. SILVERMAN: You know what? Maybe they did. The way I remember it is my oldest sister, Susan, who was older than Jeffrey, she knew the story. And we were all very young, and she kind of told my sister Laura and I -told it to us almost like a ghost story. You know, we were kids.

And that chapter's actually called "The First Time I Bombed" because it's about how, you know, my father taught me how to swear when I was little, and I saw how adults would be shocked but give me - you know, I got approval from it. And it was addicting.

You know, I saw this way that I could get approval, and I killed all the time, you know, as a very young kid. And I call that chapter "The First Time I Bombed" because my sister told us the story of Jeffrey, and shortly after, my grandmother, who picked us up for our Sunday breakfast at a local diner, and she said, everybody buckle up. And I - thinking I was going to kill, I said, yeah, we don't want to wind up like Jeffrey.

And just silence. And my sisters turned and looked at me like I was crazy, and my grandmother just burst into tears, which I had never seen before, and I thought - what did I do, you know?

GROSS: That interested me so much, since so much of your humor is about saying things that seem horribly inappropriate and potentially offensive, but it's not personal in the way that this is.

I mean, your grandparents felt so guilty because the baby died at their home. And so this was hurtful in a way that your humor now is not. What did you learn from that experience?

Ms. SILVERMAN: I think - you know, I've been called edgy, but you know, in all honestly, I think that there is a safety in what I do because I'm always the idiot. And unless you're listening to the buzzwords and not really taking into account the context or the content of it, you see that I'm the idiot always, the ignoramus in the scenario. So no matter what I talk about or what tragic event or, you know, off-color, dark scenario is evoked in my material, I'm always the idiot in it, you know.

GROSS: Because your persona is the idiot, yeah.

Ms. SILVERMAN: Yeah, yeah.

GROSS: So can I ask you a personal question? Do you want to have children?

Ms. SILVERMAN: Probably. I love children. I'm embarrassingly baby-crazy. I could be in the middle of any intense conversation, and if somebody walks by with a baby, I'm gone, you know, just - but and also, you know, I'm - I'm not going to have a baby. You know, I happen to think that there are already tons of perfectly good babies out there already born. And I don't necessarily need to see a little me and like, do it right this time. I'm already trying to do it right this time with me.

You know, so I can see myself adopting. I'm not in a rush to do it. I'm 39, I know, but I do love kids, and I'm very good - I've got a lot of really good moves.

Like, a 3-year-old girl - 3 to 5 or 6, I've got a really great move. This is what I do. I go: I'm going to tell you something, but you can't tell anybody - and I know you're not supposed to tell kids to keep secrets, but that's part of the rebellion.

And then they go, OK. And I say: I'm a princess.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. SILVERMAN: But I dress normal because I want people to treat me regular. And their brains explode. It's really fun.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. SILVERMAN: And I went really far with it with my friends Sam and Nicki's daughter. I did that whole thing where I say I'm a princess and don't tell anybody, and I said when I come visit you in New York, I have some of my old princess stuff that doesn't fit me anymore. Would you be interested in it? Yes, yes I would.

So I came to New York, and I bought a bunch of 3-year-old, you know, size three little-girl princess stuff, and I took it out of the package and mussed it up and put it in a trash bag, and brought it over. It's the little pleasures.

GROSS: Sarah Silverman, it's been great to talk with you. Thank you so much.

Ms. SILVERMAN: Thank you so much. It's always exciting to be on FRESH AIR with Terry Gross because I'm an avid listener and fan.

BIANCULLI: Sarah Silverman's memoir is called "The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee." Next up after a break, comic Joan Rivers. This is FRESH AIR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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