JESUS IS MAGIC

[Vic Sage]

I just saw comedian Sarah Silverman's performance film, JESUS IS MAGIC, and i must say i was greatly disappointed.

I've seen her in small doses on other shows, including THE ARISTOCRATS, and i thought she was sexy, smart and funny... the trifecta!

Here, however, when exposed to an hour of her standup, i was totally bored.

Her shtick is based on being transgressive... she is basically portraying a a character who is a vicious, racist, vain, self-involved Jewish comic, but trying to shock or to transgress is not funny just by itself... you also have to say funny things. And i don't think her material is that funny.

Joking about rape, the holocaust, aids, "niggers and chinks", aging, and other such topics still requires either a punchline (ala Don Rickles), or humanity, like Carlin or Pryor. Silverman lacks both.

Her shtick feels like performance art, not comedy. To me, the best comics are the ones that tell the truth. They put themselves on stage, and bare their souls. Pryor, Carlin, Robin Williams, Lewis Black. She is more of the faux-comic character comedy styling school of Steve Martin... but instead of just pretending to be a stupid banjo player who mistakenly thinks he's a wild and crazy guy, she's a hateful bitch who sings songs to old people about how they're going to die soon.

Don't get me wrong. I like transgressive art. Its just that a little of her act goes a looooonnnng way. Like much other performance art, its better in concept than execution, and the idea of her is better than the experience of her.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Lewis Black is hysterical. He's funny because what he says is true.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Haven't seen this but the previews were hilarious -- she had the S-F-S Trifecta for me.

Joking about rape, the holocaust, aids, "niggers and chinks", aging, and other such topics still requires either a punchline (ala Don Rickles), or humanity, like Carlin or Pryor.

Michael O'Donoghue seemed to pull it off without punchlines or humanity. I'm sure Silverman isn't in his universe but he was the meanest, darkest comic of all time.

[Vic Sage]

Michael O'Donoghue seemed to pull it off without punchlines or humanity. I'm sure Silverman isn't in his universe but he was the meanest, darkest comic of all time.

O'Donoghue was a satirist, a writer, a filmmaker, a sketch performer... but he was not a standup comic trying to relate to a live audience. And that is sort of my point about Silverman. She is, at times, a brilliant social satirist, a daring writer, and a pretty good performer, but as an artist she is closer to Karen Finley than she is to George Carlin, or Bill Hicks, or Pryor, or any of the other transgressive comics who are actually funny.