Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic December 9, 2005

"When God gives you AIDS (and God does give you AIDS, by the way) make LemonAIDS!" advises stand-up comic Sarah Silverman in her first feature film, a record of her one-woman show. Silverman was one of the standouts in the recent documentary The Aristocrats, but she is also a comic who treads a difficult line of humor and irony. In the tradition of Martin Mull, Andy Kaufman, Albert Brooks, and Steve Martin, her shtick is just as much a meta-level critique of comedy as it is downright funny. Like her "lemonAIDS" joke, Silverman's humor is meant to make you uncomfortable, make you think, and make you question what humor is in the first place, much like Kaufman's surreal public exercises in street theater. Directed by Liam Lynch (Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny), JESUS IS MAGIC comprises Silverman's performance before a live audience interwoven with stylish musical numbers and backstage intrigue. Bob Odenkirk, Brian Posehn and Silverman's comedian/actor sister, Laura Silverman, make appearances along with Silverman's band, The Silver Men, and in the film she takes on such pitch-black topics as September 11th, unwanted body hair, and the Holocaust, and spins them into decidedly un-politically correct comedic gold. The L. A. Weekly deems Silverman to be "hands down the funniest comedian in town," while Variety calls JESUS IS MAGIC "explosively funny, unnervingly shocking, and perversely adorable."