Sarah Silverman takes her act to cable channel

Jan. 31--For a while there, Sarah Silverman was looking like the new Charo -- well, maybe not looking, more like becoming, fulfilling Charo's long-vacated purpose. Silverman didn't apply makeup with an elephant gun or punch up a charming-but-hard-to-comprehend accent. (She's from New Hampshire, after all.)

Like Charo, she was the ideal talk-show guest -- a fixture of the alternative comedy scene, a sometimes actor, the star of a well-received concert film (Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic, 2005). But she shined on those late-night couches, and what do you do with a great guest? Moreover, what do you do with a comic whose act is so caustic and button-pushing you can't hand her a prime-time sitcom and expect an audience to get it?

You go to Comedy Central.

Tomorrow, after ages of speculation of where she would finally end up (and a couple of HBO series that never panned out), the comedy cable channel launches her first regular series, The Sarah Silverman Program. It's airs at 10:30 p.m., and naughty bits are bleeped -- but not so much you can't still kind of know what she's saying, if you know what I mean. It's a splattery show, part sketch comedy, part observational humor, a few faux backstage peeks, the occasional song-and-dance number. A customized vehicle.

We spoke recently, and talking to Silverman is like talking to the cutest girl in school and she's only being nice to you because you're really ugly and awkward. (I mean, I've heard that's what it's like.) Her voice is bright and cheery -- and tinged with irony.

Q: The funny thing about you is that you've been well-known for years and admired but lacking the showcase. Jon Stewart had this problem for years, too.

A: He did. That's true. He had that show on MTV for a time. But still it's been a good career. I'd like to go up a level, of course. But it has been fun all along.

Q: What have the typical movie offers been like?

A: Jerk girlfriends. The New York jerk girlfriend who is the main guy's girlfriend until he realizes how great love can be with the female star. Or I'm the sassy best friend who becomes exposition for the main girl character and says stuff like, "But wait, you love him!" Or "You're a lawyer." I get to fill in all the little details.

Q: Have you ever been offered a talk show?

A: No. People write stuff that I should get one, but my boyfriend has one. I don't need one. [Silverman is the longtime girlfriend of talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel.]

Q: Could you fit into mainstream network television?

A: I can be funny on mainstream television. Not necessarily doing stand-up, but I don't need to do it. I can get creative.

Q: You make really strange faces when you tell jokes, and I was wondering if you ever study your face after the fact?

A: No. I'm afraid to. People say "You do this with your face. Try to break it down and figure out why." But it's self-conscious. It's hard to not be self conscious in comedy, but if you become too self-aware, it can be a killer -- in any kind of performance. You have to let yourself look ugly.

Q: Is there a big difference in your persona and who you are?

A: In a lot of my jokes, a lot of taboo stuff, what makes it OK, for me anyway, is that I'm the ignoramus. I'm not making fun of black people, for example, I'm making fun of my ignorance. But it is me talking. If I'm in a good mood, if I'm in a giggly mood, that is me. It's an edgy version of who I am. Definitely more fun.

Q: Are you ever offended by anything?

A: Once in a while. But not really. The only thing that offends me now is George Bush's nerve.

Q: When you started doing stand-up, was it more traditional comedy, not as edgy as the material would become?

A: Yeah. The jokes were about the popular girls in high school.

Q: You were in high school.

A: Yeah. I was young.

Q: Did friends come see you?

A: Yeah. And my history teacher and his wife one time. I was in summer school in Boston and they drove in. I grew up in New Hampshire, but I couldn't develop my act in New Hampshire.

Q: Definitely the most conservative state in New England.

A: Definitely. I remember after doing my act in Boston I went back home and had my senior year of high school and I would go on weekends to a local place I was waitressing and I would open for five minutes before a rock band and someone would yell "Stick to waitressing!" I remember another time, after every punch line this guy would shout "Hee-larious! HA HA HA!"

Q: Was it a clean act?

A: Yeah. Then I graduated and moved to New York and at 19, my material became about sex. It was in my brain all the time. Then I did drugs and the material became about drugs. It was the stuff I was interested in.

Q: Do you think audiences sometimes find you more abrasive because you are female? A guy they understand being edgy, but a woman is trouble?

A: I don't know because I've only ever been a woman. I don't know what it's like for men. I get a lot of "Women aren't funny but you are." They mean well. Whatever. I don't feel any resentment. I remember one time I did a bunch of road gigs with two woman comics and it would be 10 hours in between shows and being in these college towns and we would be laughing and letting it all hang out in a bar or something and one of the women said, "This is what it's like for guy comics all the time." See, usually we're with guys and there's a tension or something. Myself, I'm comfortable. But I understood what she meant. It's like the benefit of going to an all-girls' school. It's not about the clothes. You have a uniform. On the other hand, girls can be the most evil people to other girls.

Contact Christopher Borrelli at: cborrelli@theblade.com or 419-724-6117.

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