Sarah Silverman, Bloomsbury Theatre - review

The shocks were balanced by charm, but this was not humour for narrow minds
Sarah Pic:Getty Images
Picture: Getty Images
14 February 2013

It was a busy weekend for Sarah Silverman. On Friday she tangled with Mark Wahlberg on The Graham Norton Show and on Sunday she presented a Bafta. On Saturday, however, she had some bridge-building to do with her stand-up fanbase following her shambolic 2008 UK debut at the Hammersmith Apollo, which lasted around 45 minutes, leaving devotees fuming.

Lessons had clearly been learnt. This time the co-star of new animation Wreck-It Ralph delivered more than an hour of comedy that was mischievous, clever, cool, outrageous and, if scrappy towards the end she had redeemed herself so effectively by then, the audience excused her.

Silverman, 42 but looking 24 in denim shorts and trainers, called the set a work-in-progress but that felt like a way of hedging her bets. Certainly chunks, from an audacious opener about sexual assault to the expletive-filled musical finale, appeared polished.

If there was a theme it was a surprisingly satirical one. She was sharply sarcastic on both Western hypocrisy and body fascism: “If Africa was full of labradoodles dying of Aids we’d take care of it in a day.” On the miracle of everyone starting life as a sperm, “I can’t believe I was ever that thin.”

There was more than hint of Joan Rivers in her penchant for fearless taboo-trouncing. This was not humour for narrow minds, with references to rape, religion and 9/11 garnering more giggles than gasps from an audience that included Omid Djalili and Hugh Grant.

Yet the shocks were balanced by charm. When a reference to Dalston received a big laugh, she essayed a cute “little local reference lap” around the stage. One cannot see fellow boundary-busting American Louis CK doing that.

From zero to hero in five years, Silverman-style.

Read Bruce Dessau's comedy blog at beyondthejoke.co.uk.

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