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Sarah gives us a post-election pep talk. Plus, she lists off obscure comedy specials, has fun with a handheld vacuum, and hears from a fan who’s dying of brain cancer.

Listen to Todd Glass’ special, ‘Thin Pig,’ here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4KRPtfGfjMT49A8lymEdjA

Watch ‘Detroiters’ here: https://www.netflix.com/title/80165019

Watch ‘Knock Knock, it’s Tig Notaro’ here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvCRncqBHFg

You can leave a voice memo for Sarah at speakpipe.com/TheSarahSilvermanPodcast.

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Transcript

SPEAKERS

Bill, Jeannie, Sarah Silverman, Sender 2, Kelda, Lindsey, Eric, Michael, Jeannie’s relative

Sarah Silverman  00:15

Hey, everybody, it’s your old pal Sarah coming to you from the road. I was in Yellow Springs, Ohio on election day, and, you know, I said all along, he could absolutely win, but I just, I don’t think I really believed it in my core, so I was, yeah, pretty stunned. Almost shook my head right off my neck, and still might. And you know what the election revealed to me, I guess not really revealed, but certainly illuminated more than ever, is that we live in a country that, above all, hates women, deeply racist, pretty anti semitic, bigoted against LGBTQAI plus, but above all, really just fucking hates women period and women’s periods. They’ll be tracking it soon. So here’s my question, why do I love it here so much? I just do I love the United States of America. Fucking hate it, but I love it. I hate it like you hate a sibling or, you know, but I love it. I think because, I mean, listen, Mr. Rogers said, in times like this, look for the helpers. And there are so many helpers. There are so many beautiful people doing beautiful things, and communities coming together. And I think that’s what it’s going to be. But you know, right now, in this moment in time. Right now, I’m pretty much disassociating as much as I can. I have no interest in listening to news and reading news stories. I don’t want to read your think piece on how this happened or what should have been, or what you know, how we could have avoided it, or what the you know, I don’t, I don’t want to, and you can’t make me. I’m obviously very concerned about the women and girls here, as well as everyone that isn’t straight and white and sisfully male. Look, we know, we know that he has no guardrails this time and and he’s angry, and he’s made it very clear that he’s vindictive, that he plans to punish his detractors. I don’t know we seem to pretty swiftly be turning into Iran, just with different religious extremists at the helm, you know, starting ever since the overturning of Roe v Wade, boy. It’s just very similar, it seems. But my advice, or what I’m gonna do anyway, I’m gonna make my world really small for a while, family, Rory, friends and most of all, myself, myself, self care is number one right now for this guy, you can’t help others until your life jackets on. You know, I think our I think our savior is going to be community. People will come together. And I do, I accept that this is what is. It was an election, and Trump won period the election is over. We start from here. We got to take care of ourselves and our people and our neighbors, regain our strength and continue to fight. You know, gotta stay strong and healthy if you’re gonna be at all helpful in this new world. My Rabbi’s sister Susie, she texted me Wednesday morning after the election, and she said, she said, history has really hard times, and we face them together and come through. And I know she’s right. I hope she’s right scary times. And I know this feeling, I know the rage. I know it like I feel it eating up my insides, and I just, I don’t want to make myself sick, so I gotta get Zen, and I’m doing it, you know, I have to, or I will not be able to help others, let alone myself. So please do what you got to do to maintain a balance. Take care of yourself. Take care of your heart. Do not let them have your health. So I don’t know. In conclusion, grab Joy wherever you can find it, whilst fighting like hell for each other. I guess. I don’t know who knows what fresh hell awaits us, but we are here together right now, and my job is to entertain y’all and I’m gonna so let’s take some calls.

 

Eric  05:39

Hi, Sarah, this is Eric from Harvard Square. We’ve talked before. Love your show. I had a quick deep dive that you might be interested in, because back in the September, late September show, you were talking about the theme song from Gilligan’s Island, and you said it was the skipper and the rest. And for me, I had always heard the millionaire and his wife, the movie star, the professor and Annie, are here on Gilligan’s Island. No what, and it turns out that the head, I think his name was Bob Denver, who was the original Gilligan. Yes, he had the song changed from and the rest to the professor and Annie, because he felt it was an ensemble cast and everybody should be included. So just a little footnote to your observation about Gilligan’s Island. It did actually get changed. Love the show. Hope all is well bye.

 

Sarah Silverman  06:48

Eric, you are such a dichotomy because you have this very inside information on Bob Denver, aka Gilligan, insisting on naming all the characters and yet you don’t know Mary Ann, who the fuck is Annie? There’s no Annie, it’s the professor ran Mary Ann, come on. How can you have an inside, detailed fun fact about a show that you think the woman besides ginger is Annie. I’m sorry, Eric, I’m disappointed. I’m disappointed in you. I’m not angry. I’m disappointed. All right, what else?

 

Sender 2  07:41

Hi, Sarah. I can’t wait to see you in January in Austin, I am calling in response to the reverse cowgirl toilet pube trimming caller, and also I may have a solution to your awkward bathroom trash can trimming. So I used to be a toilet pube trimmer myself up until a few years ago, and I would sit the normal way on the toilet, but still, for some reason, it occurred to me to look up to see if it’s okay to be flushing pubes and it seems like the answer is no. It’s not good for your local water system, because the hair basically never decomposes, even if it doesn’t clog up your own pipes in your house. It’s just not good for your municipal water treatment. So I came up with a solution where I basically put two kind of long paper towels on the floor in my bathroom, and then I sit on them and kind of like lean against the wall and do my trimming like that, because I didn’t want to do it over the trash can, because I was like, the hair’s going to get everywhere. Get everywhere. It’s gonna be all messy. So anyway, then after that, I just wad up the paper towels and throw them away, and voila, no mess. Anyway, I love you, bye.

 

Sarah Silverman  08:54

That’s a very good idea. You could probably just shake them out over the trash and then use them again to, like, wipe down the counter or something, just to get some use out of some paper towels. You know what? Lately I what I do is I have a little one of those little handheld vacuums, and then it’s fun to just vacuum it up. Oh my god, the fun I have.

 

Michael  09:18

Hey, Sarah, it’s your best friend Michael in Asheville, North Carolina, my home was recently destroyed by Hurricane. My family was lucky enough to make it out very last minute with our lives and even with our dogs, I had to cut a hole through the roof of my home into my attic to pull our dogs up.

 

Sarah Silverman  09:48

Oh, my God.

 

Michael  09:48

It was all very surreal, and now we’re being told by the insurance company that the difference between the hurricane hitting our house directly. And the hurricane hitting the river and then the river flooding our house, is the difference between being covered and not being covered. And that’s a that’s a nuance that’s a little difficult for me to digest. I guess I’m just wondering if you have any sort of advice, I don’t know. Hope you’re well.

 

Sarah Silverman  10:21

I’m shocked that is awful fucking insurance companies. I mean, my God, I do know there’s the Department of Insurance. Is a government department, and you can call North Carolina or reach out to North Carolina Department of Insurance. That’s a government agency, so check it out, because I think they deal with this kind of stuff. I think so fucked up like your your house wasn’t the eye of the hurricane. I mean it your house was ruined because of the hurricane, like they’re getting into semantics. That’s so shitty. That’s awful. Will you call back and let us know what happened and what the deal is, and if there are places that will help you, that’s fucking ridiculous. I’m so sorry. I’m so glad that you’re alive and well, including the dogs and man, oh man. Shevitz, I wish I had a solution for you. So let us know what happened. I’m gonna be real curious. That’s disgusting. I’m so sorry. All right, what else?

 

Kelda  11:48

Hi, Sarah. This is Kelda from New Hampshire.

 

Sarah Silverman  11:51

No way.

 

Kelda  11:54

Actually, I didn’t grow up in New Hampshire. I grew up in New Jersey, but my husband did. My husband grew up in Bedford, and actually, we live in Bedford now, and we’re raising our three kids here anyway, so one of our favorite things to do is to watch stand up comedy specials we like every weekend, we watch at least one, usually, you know, the biggest one that’s just come out on Netflix or HBO. We’ve watched a ton of even more obscure comedies, comedians on like on YouTube, like their YouTube special stuff like that. And we’re kind of just drawn a blank now, like our pool is getting smaller and smaller of things to watch. And I was growing up, we used to watch the HBO comedy hours on Saturday nights and stuff. And for the life of me, I just can’t remember all the ones that I would watch. So I was wondering, what were some of your favorite comedy specials from the 80s and 90s that you watched that you just loved either influenced you or didn’t even have to influence you, just like made you laugh and you know, always stuck with you. And things you would recommend for us to kind of fill in those Friday, Saturday nights, thanks bye.

 

Sarah Silverman  13:16

Well, if you went into my house on County Road in Bedford, New Hampshire, the house I grew up in. You could look on the ceiling of my little bedroom in the attic and see in pencil, I love Steve Martin with a heart around it, which apparently is actually still there, even with new owners, they painted the house, but they left that little patch on the ceiling. So obviously Steve Martin, like, the stuff I listened to growing up is a lot of stuff my mom was into and stuff that I fell in love with, like Albert Brooks and Woody Allen and blah see, I’m gonna give you so much hilarious stuff to watch on your Fridays and Saturdays. Let me think, oh, there’s a special slash kind of documentary hybrid that take notaru did with a comic named John door. They’re both so fucking funny. And the whole thing is like they’re on the road and they’re trying new material, and the new material is great, but the biggest laughs are just them in the car driving from gig to gig. And like, you know what comics do in the day when they’re hanging out at New in New Towns, I love it so much. And then I would just go online or wherever you see like clips of Conan and watch every TIG notaru appearance on Conan. They are all amazing. And she went on to promote that with John Doerr. I was just talking about this, where they went on Conan, and it’s the premise of the appearance was that TIG had never, she didn’t grow up with, like, children’s stories, and she had never heard. Story of The Three Bears. And so John door tells her the story of The Three Bears. And she has really good questions. While he’s telling, like, you know, she’s like, little girls running, you know, walking through the woods. And she’s like, alone, yeah well, how old is she? He’s like, um, I don’t know, 10 really, she’s just alone in the, you know, like, it’s just, or, like, when she sits in the chair and it’s too big, and then take is, like, what is a chair that? How do you know if a chair is too big? You know, like, I don’t know. I’m not doing it justice, but it every appearance is so fucking funny. Um, you have to watch, I think you should leave with Tim Robinson on Netflix. 16 minute episodes. They are so fucking brilliant. I’m, I was late to the game of coming to it. It’s, it’s just awesome. And then once you’ve fallen in love with, I think you should leave with Tim Robinson, and you’re like, oh, I need more Tim Robinson. Go back to what’s Comedy Central stuff on, like, Paramount plus and find Detroiters. He did two seasons of this sitcom. I guess really, that was on Comedy Central before he did I think you should leave. It really seems like something he would have done after. I remember Rory pointed that out. So true it seems like the natural progression, but he had done it before. It’s called Detroiters. He stars in it with his real life best friend, Sam Richardson, who’s so brilliant. And it’s, I don’t watch a lot of comedy, just because, you know, it’s, I like the murder stuff and dramas and thrillers. It’s so good. It’s just, I didn’t know it makes you happy. It made me happy to watch it. I would watch everything. Todd glass. Look for specials. I think he has a couple specials on Netflix. One, I remember the name of thin pig, but he has a million specials. I think they’re on Netflix, or you can look it up. His name is Todd glass. Very under the radar should be famous, brilliant comedian. He’s one of my favorites. Not enough people know about him. Start there and call back. Let me know what you think, what else?

 

Lindsey  17:21

Hey, Sarah, it’s Lindsey in Atlanta. When you were asked what other job you would do, you kind of perfectly described my job and where I work, so I thought I would share, in case it hits other people in the same way. But I work at a nonprofit called chaste and Horse Park in Atlanta, and we make horseback riding possible for those with disabilities who have kids and adults. And I work on the mental health side of things. I’m a therapist in training, and I incorporate health care with mental health care and and horses. We also have physical therapy and occupational therapy incorporated with horses, and we always need volunteers. And I know there are centers all around the world that do this. So if your listeners are interested, or you you can look up the path International website and find a center near you. And if you’re ever in Atlanta and you want to make all those things come to life, I will make that happen for you, and you can cuddle a mini horse or just make your dreams come true. All right, thanks.

 

Sarah Silverman  18:36

That’s amazing. I you know animals for therapy and for people’s souls, is seems to be really successful. You know, from from bringing dogs to nursing homes or to children’s hospitals and this horse stuff, I know that Whitney Cummings did a lot of, like, horse therapy, because just that I saw posted on her Instagram, and it’s from what I’ve heard it’s really, it makes sense to me that connecting with animals is good for your soul. You know, I remember Rory said something, because when he worked at The Daily Show, and when I went over the daily show recently, they it was the same way. They are a dog friendly show. So people with dogs are running through the hallways. People are playing with different people’s dogs, you know? And it’s, it’s such a great environment. And Rory said, and maybe he said it because John Stewart once said, I don’t know if he was quoting someone, but he said something about how, like, you know, dogs don’t give a fuck how famous you are or how rich you are, or what your story is. You. They only care about love and care. And darn it, if those aren’t the two most important things in life, but we often don’t see it and we need, we need it so lovely, and also just, I remember years ago when I was with Kyle Dunnigan and we had read something about how cedrs had a program for these babies that were without parents or babies. For some reason, babies in this unit that they needed volunteers to hold them, they needed human touch, you know? And we went, Oh, my God, we’re gonna sign up for this. And we call, and they had, like, over a year long waiting lists. And sure, people care about babies, but what it told me was there were a lot of people like me who who needed themselves, that human touch, they needed to hold babies, that holding these babies is therapeutic for these babies. There’s no doubt in my mind it’s therapeutic for the people volunteering, because I know it was for us. And part of why we wanted to do it, of course, we wanted to help, but we wanted to hold a baby and just give all our love to this, this thing, this little, tiny human. So it’s interesting, isn’t it? Thanks for calling in. We are going to be in Atlanta, so I don’t know. I tend to do nothing when I’m in a town, but I might be there an extra day or something, I’m not sure. And if we are, maybe we’ll go check it out.

 

Bill  21:56

Hey, Sarah, this is Bill. I’m a big fan of your stand up, and I love seeing you in movies and TV shows. I’m kind of new to your podcast, so I want to say I’m sorry if somebody has already asked this question, and maybe you’ve answered it, but when I was growing up, I was a bed wetter. Went to bed till I was 12, and two years ago, I was in New York City visiting, and I got to see your your music called the bed letter, and I loved it so much. I just found it really cathartic, and it was really funny and sweet, and it made me cry. And it wasn’t just your script, it was, it was the songs too. And, you know, I’m a big fountains Wayne fan, and I love Adam Schlesinger, and I miss him. Still makes me cry to listen to fountains of Wayne. So I wanted to ask you, do you have any favorite memories of Adam that you could share when you were working on that musical? Thanks again. Hope you’re good. Bye.

 

Sarah Silverman  22:55

Well, thanks and thanks for coming. And I’m sure you heard Adam’s sound in every song. I mean, he’s just so present in that show. You know, it’s just he is such a sound. Even though he can write in any genre, it’s always unmistakably him, if for people who don’t know Adam Schlesinger is a brilliant songwriter and musician who was in fountains of Wayne, and he wrote, like all the songs for crazy ex girlfriend, and collaborated with Rachel bloom on a lot of the songs. And I think Rachel Bloom’s like one woman show is all about him and their relationship. And we wrote, he had the idea to make my book, the bed winner, into a musical 13 years ago, and so that’s what we’ve we’ve been working on that ever since. And so he’s amazing. He was amazing. So talented, so funny. And I loved being with him. When we had to work on a song, we would fight so hard, and by the end of the day, we always had the song, and we both loved it. It just always worked out. And I always appreciate that in a collaborator, you know? I mean, it’s not like, fuck you fuck you do, but it’s a little bit, I mean, if we got that bad, we’d probably be like, half smiling. But, you know the creative process, you know what? This is so funny, because when we were working on the Off Broadway, we’re hopefully going to Broadway in the fall, and we’re doing a little run over the winter in DC, but the Off Broadway theater, which was wonderful the Atlantic, but it was so funny because they really couldn’t handle him, like, to me, it goes in one ear and out the other, like Adam would have, not temper tantrums. But he’s a he’s a creative I don’t know he’s. You know? So it’s like, they’d say, Oh, they just, they didn’t move fast enough for Adam. Adams, like, we’re ready. Let’s do it. Let’s give us a deadline. We’re, you know, I write 50 songs a year for television. Like, I can, we can do this. Like we just, he just wanted it to go, go, go. And I totally get it. But we were both pretty new to theater. He actually wrote another Broadway show called Cry Baby years ago, but he was so impatient, and theater just takes longer. It’s just many people’s schedules. They want it to be right, you know. And so both sides were right, you know. But he was so mad and so insistent, and they called me and they’re like, We don’t know how to handle Adam. And I’m like, you don’t. I just was so surprised. They were so like, I love them, and they’re amazing to work with, but they were so Pearl clutchy with Adam. I was like, you’ve, you must have worked with like, crazy temper tantrum taking artists before. There’s no I know the people who have had shows at the Atlantic, there’s no way they’re more difficult than Adam. But I just, I was kind of like the Adam whisperer of our group, and so I’d have to, like, then talk to Adam and be like, Adam, pull your fucking shit together, like it’s just gonna take longer, and then when we, you know, we’re coming close to doing the show, I said to him, are you upset that we didn’t do the show earlier? Or do you love it 1000 times even better now? And he was like, gonna make it better now, but if we did move faster, it would also be good, because that’s how he works. It’s like, you know, we’re used to TV where it’s like, stuff moves fast, you know, but, um, I don’t know if that’s a good story, but it is. I mean, if you know him, it is because it’s just He was impatient and brilliant and and just awesome. And I loved him so much, and he gave me definitely my best joke of my last special we went to karaoke together. He co owned a piano bar that had a pop up in LA his was in New York, and it would have like karaoke with a live pianist and called gold diggers. And his place in New York is called Sid golds. And we were walking to our cars after doing karaoke, and he said, Oh, I he goes. I made up a joke. You could have it. I think I opened my last special with it. It’s like, my, is it my first joke anyway, but it’s a, what did the Jewish mother say to her porn star daughter after watching her in a gang bang. And the answer is, you were the best one. And then I added jokes to it after that, but, you know, I didn’t use it. And then he passed away, and I go, I’m gonna use this somehow. And I did, and it was, I think it’s the best. It’s definitely my favorite joke of my last special I would say, Yeah, Adam Schlesinger, he is, he’ll, he’ll never be forgotten. His his music is so indelible. And I was just singing, um, this better be good, which I love. It’s so good. All right. Well, thanks for calling in. Nice to go down memory, memory lane, memory rain. All right, what else?

 

Jeannie  28:30

Sarah, I love you. This is Jeannie. I’m dying brain cancer and lung cancer.

 

Jeannie’s relative  28:45

Anything else you want to tell her?

 

Jeannie  28:48

No, just, I love her.

 

Jeannie’s relative  28:51

You didn’t tell her that because you’re talking to her.

 

Jeannie  28:54

Oh, Sarah, I love you. So good to hear you talk about your father.

 

Sarah Silverman  29:07

Oh, my God. I’m Jeannie. Thank you for calling, and it was a little wonderful to hear your voice. And I’m so glad that that I get to keep you company once a week. And I’m, I’m honored to get to to be a voice that you listen to in these, these precious days you have. And thank you for calling in, or maybe that was your son calling in, or a friend. I really appreciate it, and I am so glad that I bring you joy. I mean that just makes me feel so special. Special, and I am so grateful for that, and I’m so grateful that you called in and let me know that I have this special listener. And I know I’m I’m glad that you you like the way I talk about my dad and and I would guess you can expect to the same from the people who love you and remember you every time they think of something that reminds them of you, you know, and that’s the mark we make. You know you’ve made a mark. I know you have because you made a mark on me. And boy, thank you so much for calling, and I’m thinking of you. The kiss from me, cyber kiss from me, right on your forehead, all right, dad, wherever you are and in the space time continuum, I really miss you, and it’s time to tell you we are winding down. This is the part of the podcast. When I say, send me your questions. Go to speakpipe.com/the Sarah Silverman podcast. That’s speakpipe.com/ this show, the Sarah Silverman podcast. Subscribe, rate and review, please, wherever you listen to your podcast, if you do that, that helps us stay on the air, long, longer, long time. Oh, Jesus. And there’s more that’s right. There’s more of the Sarah Silverman podcast with Lemonada Premium subscribers get exclusive access to bonus questions, like the one about elephants in Rhode Island. Oh, that’s a good one. Subscribe now in Apple podcasts. Thank you for listening to the Sarah Silverman podcast, we are a production of Lemonada media. Kathryn Barnes and Isabella Kulkarni produce our show. Our mix is by James Sparber. The show is recorded at the Invisible Studios in West Hollywood. Charles Carroll is our recording engineer. Additional Lemonada support from Steve Nelson, Stephanie Wittels Wachs and Jessica Cordova Kramer. Our theme was composed by Ben Folds. You can find me at @SarahKateSilverman on Instagram. Follow the Sarah Silverman podcast wherever you get your podcasts, or listen ad free on Amazon music with your Prime membership.