These types of reviews are classically tough for The Guest Whisperer.  I struggle with the ability to separate the person from the performance.  Whatever I think of Sarah Silverman’s well-cultivated brand, this site is dedicated to their talk show performances and that is what we choose to review.

Today Sarah Silverman is in a class by herself – no one can touch her blend of part cute, part smart, part over the top comedy, and firecracker delivery.  For some the over the top part can be hard to take, but she is unquestionably a breakthrough personality.  Sarah Silverman brought it all to Dave Letterman’s show booked to promote the debut of the third season of The Sarah Silverman Program on Comedy Central.

Upon arriving at the guest chair, Silverman stuck a Late Show T-shirt between and around her legs saying that her skirt was too short to sit in the chair. Perhaps she should have thought about that before she came out. If she did it strictly for the “bit,” it set the tone for a successful in-character performance.  Which is the only sticking point I have with the Silverman shtick.  You never really get a fix on the REAL Sarah Silverman; there is never a crack in the armor except for purely comic setup and release.  This can get a little tedious for the casual watcher, but she is in no way obligated to do more than entertain on a show like Letterman where sitting down is really a “stand-up.”

Silverman managed to avoid answering repeated and relentless questioning from Dave about the current state of her relationship with Jimmy Kimmel, even when Dave expressed his desire for them to be “happy together.” She can bob and weave with the best of them.  She did have a good rapport with Dave, even offering him suggestions on how to handle the upcoming appearance of (finally) John McCain. They did talk briefly about the return of her series. Though, she didn’t talk about her website and pro Obama movement, thegreatschlep.com., which in these final weeks of the campaign, I would have thought was one of the reasons for her visit. I guess her appearance was political enough and in the end her job was done.

Tags: David Letterman, Late Show, Sarah Silverman, The Sarah Silverman Program

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 12:55 pm and is filed under 5 out of 5 Whispers, David Letterman, Sarah Silverman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.