Sarah Silverman
Written, Produced and Directed by Jason Goodman
Sarah Silverman turned out to be a really fun project. At first, Sarah was uncomfortable being the subject of a Biography, and I spend the first few weeks interviewing other comics and trying to figure out a way into her inner circle. Finally, I stumbled upon her weak spot – her proud Jewish family. I found a link online to her sister, Rabbi Susan Silverman, who was thrilled to do the interview – except she was living in Israel. But that didn’t stop us – we arranged for a crew to go four hours into the desert to meet up with Susan. After we shot the interview, Sarah called us
to say her mom had yelled at her because no one had asked to interview her – so off I went to New Hampshire. The show really opened up then, and I think we were able to capture a pretty
honest picture of an often misunderstood entertainer.
Click here to watch my favorite act. Click here to watch the whole show.
Biography: Sarah Silverman • My Favorite Act • Written and Produced by Jason Goodman
I really enjoyed all the comedians I got to meet making this episode – especially Gary Shandling – one of the few celebrities to ever give me swag (and cool swag!) after doing an interview.
In most Biography shows, filmmakers wrestle with how to present the childhood years, which often times, are unexceptional. But every once in a while, you can see the whole person in that mini version, and suddenly it all makes sense. We were given these old videos Sarah had made at her New Hampshire private high school. On the tape, a 15-year-old Sarah is telling a story about being in community theatre when she was five years old, and having to pee so bad that she just let it go onstage. And then took great delight in watching all the other kids onstage walking through her pee. Barefoot. If you ever though Sarah worked blue purely for shock value, here’s the proof that she’s only being true to herself.
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[watch the whole show].
Biography: Sarah Silverman • Written, Produced and Directed by Jason Goodman
Funny how tame old crisis seem. When we were making this show, one of the “sensitive” areas revolved around Sarah being accused of being a racist by an Asian Anti-Defamation group for what was, no matter how politically incorrect, a joke. Now with charges of racism becoming commonplace – often made by people who are themselves clearly racists – the brouhaha over Sarah seems a little quaint.
