Sarah Silverman's New Special PostMortem: How A Video Game And Grief Shaped Her Latest Comedy

Sarah Silverman had simply given up on dating. It was early 2020. The pandemic had just started. The Los Angeles comedian found herself stuck in New York City. She decided to focus on something else entirely. "I went to GameStop, and I hadn't played video games since Nintendo 64, but I bought a console, and I figured I would learn how to do video games," Silverman shared in a recent interview. "This is what I'm going to focus on. I'm going to sleep as late as I can. I'm going to go to bed as early as possible, and I'm going to learn video games in between and this is going to be my life."

She kept herself busy by learning to play Call of Duty: World War II. She even posted about it online. Rory Albanese, a fellow comedian whom she knew but could not quite picture, sent her a direct message. He said, "I play that. Do you have headphones?" Silverman said she did but did not know how to set them up. Albanese talked her through it. Every night she played Call of Duty with Rory Albanese.

At first, she said, "we were just killing Nazis together." But after a while, "we clearly had feelings for each other." Fast forward five years. Silverman recently bought her first house in Los Angeles. Albanese, now 48, moved in. "It's crazy. I was very peacefully and happily single," Silverman said. She had been linked to actor Michael Sheen in 2018. "I felt done, to be honest. You just can't predict anything! You never know what's around the corner." It turns out for Sarah Silverman, what was around the corner was not just a new love but also a new direction for her comedy.

Sarah Silverman's PostMortem Special Takes A Raw And Honest Look At Loss

A New Comedy Hour Explores The Deeply Personal Experience Of Losing Both Parents

Stories about Albanese appear in Silverman's new Netflix stand-up special, Sarah Silverman: Postmortem. It is streaming right now. However, the special's main focus is how she handled the deaths of her stepmother and father. They both passed away within nine days of each other. Silverman took care of them, or "doula’d" them through death as she describes it. She said she was dreading talking about it at first. But by the second half of her tour, she looked forward to telling everyone about her parents. She found it was a very cleansing experience. She is quick to let fans know it is not sad. She promises it is truly funny.

Albanese was a constant support for Silverman. So were her three sisters Susan Laura and Jodyne. But Silverman has learned that "grief takes care of itself. You don’t have to worry about it. You can focus on running towards joy, wherever it is." When asked the biggest lesson she learned in her life she did not hesitate. "It's human nature to be afraid of the unknown, but don't waste anxiety on the unknown. The unknown is thrilling. We really should just be on the edge of our seat."

The show, recorded live at the Beacon Theater in New York, is a tribute to her father Schleppy and his wild sense of humor. It also honors her stepmother Janice. It looks at her whole close-knit family after her father and stepmother died so close together in 2023. It is a loving and funny look at what must have been a very hard time for the Silverman family. It is also a tribute to the love the Silverman sisters have for each other. It shows how they came together to make her parents’ last months as good as they could be. Silverman, who admits in the special she has been a judgmental person in the past, lets herself be more open here. It plays more like a story told by a friend than a typical stand-up show. While it may not have enough quick jokes for some of her biggest fans, she might find new people who like her with this special.

Sarah Silverman's Journey Through Humor And Her Past Controversies

From Edgy Jokes To Apologies: How The Comedian Has Changed Over The Years

Silverman has always had a way of pushing boundaries. For years, her comedy was known for being edgy and sometimes controversial. She has been criticized for past jokes, including an episode of her first television show where she wore blackface. She was also protested by Asian American groups for using a slur. She has said she regrets all of that. "I felt like the temperature of the world around me at the time was ‘We are all liberal so we can say the n-word,’" Silverman explained. "‘We aren’t racist, so we can say this derogatory stuff.’ I was playing a character that was arrogant and ignorant, so I thought it was OK. Looking back, my intentions were always good, but they were fg ignorant."

Silverman made an episode about her blackface incident on her Hulu show I Love You America in 2018. She also said sorry for mean jokes she had made about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears years before. "I don’t think of myself as being PC out of fear," Silverman said. "Some people got mad at me for apologizing. I only did that because I was sorry. That’s a really great rule of thumb: Only apologize when you’re sorry." Then she added with a brighter face, "Always apologize when you’re sorry."

Her friend Garry Shandling played a big role in her personal growth and her comedy. Shandling, who followed Buddhist teachings, shared ideas with Silverman about suffering. "He was always searching, because he was tortured," she said. "He really passed on that experience, hard lessons he learned in hard ways, that he just gave us on a silver platter. There was pain you had to experience, and there was some pain that could be avoided." Many of Shandling's lessons focused on being understanding in your own life and in your comedy. It took decades for Silverman to truly take that in.

Navigating Tough Conversations And Societal Pressure As A Comedian

Sarah Silverman On The Role Of Comedy In A Divided World And Her Jewish Identity

In today's world, comedians often face pressure to talk about politics or social issues. Sarah Silverman has faced this herself. She shared her feelings on a specific event where Dave Chappelle made controversial jokes about antisemitism. She described his jokes as "hilarious and brilliant and winning and charming and wildly antisemitic." Silverman called out the idea that holding powerful people responsible for spreading lies and hatred against Jewish people is "the Jews blaming their troubles on Black Americans." She found this idea "fg insane." She said she cannot believe she has to say this.

Silverman is not interested in going over the issue again, but it connects to a bigger concern for her. This concern goes back to her father. It is about how men can turn confusion and unhappiness into anger. She talks about the anger she sees many men direct towards the transgender community. "Men have been raised to not be able to feel, not be able to express themselves," Silverman said. "The only acceptable emotion for some reason is anger. So what happens? They feel shame and that immediately, like sugar getting converted to carbs, that gets converted into rage and outward blame. And that’s how they survive." She believes this anger against the trans community has nothing to do with them. It has everything to do with the men themselves. It is about ego and the fear of "If that’s who they are, then who am I? Where do I fall?"

Silverman is very aware of her Jewish background. She has talked about not feeling a strong emotional link to Israel. However, with some of her family living there, the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, hit her hard. She felt terrible. A few days after the attack, Silverman quickly posted something on Instagram. A friend had told her it was to support Israeli hostages. But the post suggested Israel did not have to give food and water to Gaza as long as the hostages were held. Silverman realized her mistake. She quickly deleted the post. But someone had already taken a picture of it. Silverman immediately got a lot of angry messages from friends and critics. She said she was sorry. But she still seems affected and unsure how to handle the situation as a comedian.

Seeing the reactions to October 7 left her "stunned." She said, "The alienation of liberal Jews was astounding. Everyone’s afraid to say anything. I couldn’t even imagine doing stand-up. I was scared." Chelsea Handler told her to "Get your fg ass up. Your job is to make people laugh. That’s your job." Silverman said she needed that. Handler even made her perform before her at the Pantages Theatre. Silverman felt it was a true gift. She realized it is important to keep doing her job of making people laugh.

Personal Reflections And A Surprising Family Revelation For Sarah Silverman

A Final Story Unveils Her Father's Unique Way Of Sharing Life's Difficult Truths

After her show, Silverman still speaks with her trademark goodbye line, "Dad, we’re winding down." She was asked if her parents ever talked about the death of her brother Jeffrey. Silverman paused and then took a breath. "I’m going to tell you a big bomb," she began. She said that when she wrote her memoir, she noticed her parents always told the same story about her son's death. "The story was that something happened with the crib, and Jeffrey’s little body slid and he got suffocated. But if you look back, there was never a lawsuit with the crib company or anything," Silverman pointed out.

Then in 2022, the year before he died, her father Donald came to see a show of her musical Bedwetter in Manhattan. He watched it five nights in a row. The musical has a scene where little Sarah makes a joke about Jeffrey’s death and no one laughs. Donald came backstage after the fifth show. He told Sarah a different story about Jeffrey and his violent father. "My dad says, ‘I always felt that he was crying or something, and my dad shook him,’" Silverman remembered. "‘He shook him in a rage and killed him.’" Her manager gasped. The room fell quiet. "As soon as he said it, it was like, ‘Of course, that’s what happened,’" Silverman said. "His mother always stood by her husband. She watched him beat the st out of her son. I couldn’t ask my mom, because she was dead."

She sighed and then smiled. "That was my dad," Silverman said with a laugh. "We were playing poker once, and he just dropped in that one of the priests at his school fondled him. I was like ‘Dad!’" She gave a look that asked, "What are you going to do?" "He was always dropping bombs." And that is when it becomes clear Sarah Silverman is very much her father’s daughter.