Sarah Silverman in a Few Easy Points

While I am waiting to attend a conference call, here's an easy point-form rattle-off for the Sarah S. show we saw last night:

- no photos, as I couldn't even really make out her face for most of the night (blame failing eyesight, pencil in optometrist appt);

- it was at the casino. Slightly odd for being outside of Vegas, but not quite as odd when you note Diana Ross is playing there in May;

- the show was sponsored by mainstream FM, and correspondingly introduced by a female radio host. This prompted a 'shirts off'-type holler, which, given that most of the crowd were Sarah Silverman fans, may have been that 'irony' I hear about. (Note: this is countered with the fact that many of the audience were also drinking heavily);

- sat in front of two ladies who provided running commentary through the warm-up, "Fucker!" and "He's funny!" being the main observations;

- Sarah Silverman is one of few celebrities who appears exactly in person how she appears on screen (note caveat above re: eyesight);

- it is odd when comics do recorded material live. It is usually fine, in that sort of respectful way: a good joke is a good joke is a good joke. But hearing bits a second time through is usually not as delightful, particularly when a certain level of shock is involved as with Silverman. In general, it tends to fare well only when nostalgia is attached, eg. Cosby, Kids in the Hall (who are also playing said casino);

- many people like to yell things out during a set. This is entirely offputting, in that it assumes I will think said audience members are more funny than the funny person I have paid to see. Usually, they are not, though Silverman used this fact to good effect;

- I like being able to drink in the theatre; I do not like other people being able to drink in the theatre;

- Silverman's songs are generally not as funny as her non-song material, but only in that musical comedy has left such a general bad taste in my mouth;

- Silverman has toned down the race content, perhaps in light of her comments from this NY Times piece:

"(From the AO Scott review of Jesus is Magic): She depends on the assumption that only someone secure in his or her own lack of racism would dare to make, or to laugh at, a racist joke, the telling of which thus becomes a way of making fun simultaneously of racism and of racial hypersensitivity,” he wrote. In short, he added, 'naughty as she may seem, she’s playing it safe.'

"Ms. Silverman said the review articulated a point that she had felt, but had been struggling to express. 'That was something that always festered in the back of my mind that I never talked about,' she said. Her crowds are usually liberal ones, 'and we know we’re not racist,' she said. 'But the whiter the crowd, the more that kind of voice in the back of my head comes toward the front, and I feel grosser doing that kind of stuff.'"