Play It Again: Sarah Silverman (‘PostMortem’)

To commemorate the release of her new, deeply personal Netflix special ‘PostMortem https://www.netflix.com/title/81759444,’ we revisit our conversation with Sarah Silverman. At the top, we reflect on loss (7:16), her HBO special Sarah Silverman: Someone You Love https://www.hbo.com/movies/sarah-silverman-someone-you-love (12:35), and coming of age in the ‘80s (18:42). Then, Silverman talks about her early comedic influences (25:35), her path from SNL to Los Angeles (32:30), and the mentorship of Garry Shandling (35:10). On the back-half, we walk through the evolution of her provocative work, from The Sarah Silverman Program (38:42) to I Love You, America (46:52), the connective tissue of The Sarah Silverman Podcast https://lemonadamedia.com/show/the-sarah-silverman-podcast/ (49:12), and the legacy of her beloved, late father (51:57). Original air date: June 18, 2023. Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at [email protected]. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Speaker 00

  Lemonada.

• 0:21Sam Fragoso?

  This is Talk Easy. I'm Sam Fragoso. Welcome to the show.

• 0:38Sam Fragoso?

  Today, one of my favorite working comedians, Sarah Silverman. Her career began back in 1993, when she joined SNL as both a writer and a performer. Although she was not long for Dirty Rockefeller, Silverman found her way out west, where she quickly made a name for herself as a provocative stand-up comic. Between scene-stealing parts on Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show, and Mr. Show with Bob and David, Silverman continued to work on her craft. In 2005, she released her first stand-up special, one of my favorites. It was called Jesus is Magic, which would lay the groundwork for what would become the Sarah Silverman Program on Comedy Central.

• 1:20Sam Fragoso?

  Since then, she's continued to go in various different directions. She starred in acclaimed indie films like Take This Waltz and I Smile Back, penned a memoir called The Bedwetter, which is such a good book if you haven't read it. She also hosts the Sarah Silverman Podcast, made by our partners at Lemonada Media, where she talks about personal anecdotes, offers musings on a range of subjects, and then offers great, great advice, and also funny advice, to a whole host of listener questions. You can find that show through Lemonada Media. New episodes air every Thursday. We recorded this conversation originally about two years ago on The Dot in the spring of 2023.

• 2:02Sam Fragoso?

  It was during a time of unimaginable heartbreak for Silverman. Her beloved father, Donald, and her stepmother, Janice, passed away just nine days apart. Since then, she's channeled that grief into a remarkable new special called Postmortem. It premiered on Netflix this past week, and it's everything you expect from a Sarah Silverman special: moving, funny, raunchy, surprisingly joyous in parts, and it touches on everything from deathbed binge-watching to funeral planning, both of which we talk about in this conversation. And so today, I wanted to replay this episode from 2023, in which Silverman was more than

• 2:47Sam Fragoso?

  generous with her time and her story. I've known Sarah for a long, long time, and this episode is somehow better and more moving than I ever thought or imagined it could be. And so with that, I'll see you back here on Sunday with a brand-new episode. Until then, here is the one and only Sarah Silverman.

• 3:23Sam Fragoso?

  Sarah.

• 3:23Speaker 00

  Sam.

• 3:24Sam Fragoso?

  Welcome.

• 3:25Speaker 00

  It's so nice to be here.

• 3:27Sam Fragoso?

  This has been, I was gonna say, this has been a long time coming, but I actually don't know if it has, because one of the reasons I never invited you on the show, I'm gonna get out in front of it now, is because when I first moved to Los Angeles, I went to one of your parties.

• 3:46Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah?

• 3:48Sam Fragoso?

  You know, those ones you used to throw on the roof?

• 3:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:50Sam Fragoso?

  That were so fun. And I remember walking in.

• 3:54Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 3:55Sam Fragoso?

  I must have been 22 years old, 23 tops. And I went to go get a drink. And above the punch bowl, there was a sign that read, "No, I won't be on your podcast."

• 4:09Speaker 00

  No, no, no. But that's how you're remembering it.

• 4:12Sam Fragoso?

  It was something like that, right?

• 4:13Speaker 00

  I wrote, I have a big sign and I made it myself. And it says, "No podcast solicitations." Because the party's really special. I don't go to parties much. I don't. But I have this, or I did have this one party every year that I would throw on the roof of my old building where I used to live. And it was perfect. There was no conversation you would want to avoid. It was all people. Everyone who was there would know at least three people and would meet at least three people. Like, it's just what-

• 4:45Sam Fragoso?

  That was true.

• 4:46Speaker 00

  Yeah. That's my best, like, description of the party is it's just like, every kind of person. And everyone's vulnerable, but everyone's safe. And you see someone like Diane fucking Keaton. And she's just by herself going up to people like, "Hi, I'm Diane." It's awesome.

• 5:04Sam Fragoso?

  It was a great time.

• 5:05Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:05Sam Fragoso?

  And now you're here.

• 5:07Speaker 00

  Now I'm here.

• 5:08Sam Fragoso?

  At long last.

• 5:09Speaker 00

  Finally. But, you know, I didn't, I knew you only through basketball.

• 5:15Sam Fragoso?

  Right.

• 5:16Speaker 00

  So I was just like this scrappy kid that I love, who's awesome at basketball. And we play basketball. But then I listened to your podcast and I was like, "Oh, my God. You're incredible. Get a load of this kid."

• 5:28Sam Fragoso?

  Oh, my God. That sounds like my mother.

• 5:33Sam Fragoso?

  How are you doing?

• 5:35Speaker 00

  That sounds loaded. And I'm guessing it might be because both my parents died this month.

• 5:42Sam Fragoso?

  It feels a little disingenuous for me to start anywhere else, I think.

• 5:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, right, right.

• 5:47Sam Fragoso?

  I can't just be like, "So your new special here..."

• 5:51Speaker 00

  You know, I think I'm in like a, it, well, you know, grief, it comes in waves. It takes its own trajectory. It's none of my business where it goes. This happened with my mother years ago, like, you know, it doesn't hit until you're like in line at Gelson's. And then you start sobbing to the person behind you. Yeah, my stepmom, Janice, who's been, you know, in my life since I was seven, got pancreatic cancer over Christmas. I just, just, you know, crazy. Just, and still, we just were like, ah, she'll lick it. I mean, this is a woman who played her best golf like this year, you know?

• 6:30Sam Fragoso?

  Unbelievable.

• 6:31Speaker 00

  But, you know, that one really gets ya.

• 6:34Sam Fragoso?

  She was a fighter, though.

• 6:35Speaker 00

  She was a fighter and I, you know, it was, would have been better if they swapped ailments, because if they did, my dad would not fight it and just go, ah, I'm just gonna go, give me palliative care. I lived a long life and, but she wanted to fight. And then he had something he probably could have fought. But, um, was just like, nah, I wanna be with Janice. You know, he had like kidney failure and he, we promised him no more hospital. And I talked to his doctor and, and his doctor's like, you know, I, as a professional, I need to say, he should be in the hospital and he should be on dialysis, but as a human, I

• 7:20Speaker 00

  totally get it and respect it and probably would do the same thing. So, um, I was happy in these circumstances to be able to go back. I was in the hallway talking to his doctor and then go back into his bedroom and go, Dad, no more medication. I mean, he was probably on 40 pills a day, this with food, this without food, this, you know, and he fucking hated it and...

• 7:40Sam Fragoso?

  That's completely maddening.

• 7:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, so I go, no more medicine, none. You're done. And we're all gonna be here with you forever, you know?

• 7:52Speaker 00

  All four sisters and two nieces and a nephew just kind of hunkered down in their apartment here in Los Angeles and we were with them for both of them when they passed on. And with my dad, it was like such a celebration that night when we were like, that's it, you know? And we stayed in bed with him and we were laughing and he's singing, "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play peanuckle on your snout." And we're laughing and singing and singing old songs and, you know, I miss him. And when you, you know, obviously I miss him from his more vital days,

• 8:34Speaker 00

  but I even kind of miss him from these last days where I was like just kissing his face all over and rubbing his silky hair and it felt good on his head or like rub his hair and, and just being very intimate with him, you know, like changing him. Like he'd be like, "I fucking shit myself," you know? And then, and at first it was really scary. It was like, I had this assumption that he was, would be humiliated or embarrassed. And I go, "Dad, are you embarrassed that we're cleaning you up?" And, you know? He goes, "I don't give a shit." And it became like, just a really special. It took like three of us and we'd roll him over on one side and I'd just be holding him

• 9:18Speaker 00

  and hugging him and I'd go, "You're my best friend. I love you so much." He'd go, "I love you," you know, whatever. And I like, I didn't want to let go. And then we'd roll him on the other side and Adar, you know, my, his grandson, my nephew, would get to hug him and go, "I love you. I love you, Zayd," you know, whatever. They were wiping, like we were cleaning him up and it-

• 9:39Sam Fragoso?

  The dream team.

• 9:39Speaker 00

  Yeah, the dream team, that's right.

• 9:42Sam Fragoso?

  I wasn't gonna call it that.

• 9:45Speaker 00

  But like, we, it took a few days, but we really embraced it and it became like, getting him clean felt so good and it felt so good to do for him, you know, and, and him not being embarrassed by it was just massive. You know, I like my therapist says, we're in skin suits, man, you know, but it's really is true. These are like these shells that our selves are in, huh?

• 10:08Sam Fragoso?

  Is your therapist Jeff Bridges from The Big Lebowski?

• 10:11Speaker 00

  Yeah, my therapist is the dude. He does kind of look like the dude.

• 10:15Sam Fragoso?

  You said on a recent episode of your podcast that, um, the thing about death is that it's all right for them because they're gone.

• 10:25Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 10:26Sam Fragoso?

  It's just a pain in the ass for the rest of us here that miss them.

• 10:31Speaker 00

  Yeah, I take real comfort in that, that they're fine. We're the ones suffering and I find that's comforting, you know?

• 10:40Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah, I hadn't thought of it like that.

• 10:41Speaker 00

  I mean, listen, it could be true. It could not be true. It's a survival skill like anything else, like religion or, you know, making fun of yourself before someone else does is all to say, but yeah.

• 10:52Sam Fragoso?

  And thinking about them, your stepmother and your father, you dedicated this new special to them, right?

• 11:00Speaker 00

  And you're like, how could you have known? Well, yeah, I mean, I shot the special exactly two months ago today and it's already out. Like it really turned over fast. And in doing the post stuff, I knew Janice was, she was in hospice at that, we were, you know, it was hospice at that point. So I knew I wanted to dedicate it to Janice. And then a few days later, I texted my manager, partner, Amy, and I said, uh, yeah, I wish you'd probably dedicate it to both of them. I mean, listen, we were, we're a dark family. I mean, my dad was making jokes. I don't know if I mentioned this one, but like, you know, we quadruple checked. Like, this is really your choice, Dad, right?

• 11:44Speaker 00

  You, you, no hospital. No, I don't want to fucking go to the hospital. I want to be with Janice, whatever. And we wanted to honor that. So about two days into it being no turning back, he goes, uh, you know, I changed my mind. I want to live. And we're like, oh, my God, you're such an asshole. It was a split second where we're like, and then we knew he was fucking with us.

• 12:07Sam Fragoso?

  I think anyone who watches your new special, it's called Someone You Love, will immediately understand, based on this conversation, where you get your morbid comedy from.

• 12:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 12:21Sam Fragoso?

  Like, it's very clearly your dad. And even in this new special, uh, my favorite pieces of material, I think are around, um, the anti-abortion activists and the antisemitism. So I'm curious, what was it like to work out this material on tour? Performing in states where abortion access is actively being taken away and antisemitism is on the rise?

• 12:51Speaker 00

  It was really wild. So many states on the tour are abortions illegal. And it's really not big in the news. I mean, it's really not, it's bizarre. And nothing monumental or, or massive, or like, things that are going to be historically huge, feel that way in the moment.

• 13:16Sam Fragoso?

  Hmm.

• 13:16Speaker 00

  Yeah, I've said this before, it's like, there, this, life doesn't suddenly go into slow motion, or there's no music telling us how to feel, or tell, or indicating that this is going to be, this is a major event. These moments happen, and then the next moment, and the next moment, and the next moment. And you're living regular life. And you can't stop any, you know, stop all things and say, this is like, this huge moment in history.

• 13:41Sam Fragoso?

  And yet, in both this special and your podcast, you kind of keep returning to these subjects again and again, in a way that you seem pretty undaunted by. Does performing this material, where you can't really disassociate, because you're in front of real people, whose lives are being changed in the moment? Does it relieve the fear and anxiety you feel about this time in America?

• 14:06Speaker 00

  Maybe, yeah, I think there's like maybe some kind of pressure valve in it, you know? I mean, I just think it's like, it's somewhere that I have control, like, you know, in comedy. And also, I think when I talk about it, there's a big difference to me between politicians and billionaires who buy those politicians and the disingenuous laws that they pass and policies that take our rights away. I hope they go to the hell I don't believe in. But these protesters outside of abortion clinics, as angry as I get at them, they just believe. You know, like, to me, there's a difference between the liars and the lied to.

• 14:47Speaker 00

  And the more power misinformation has in our world, which is like, kind of all the power in the world right now. And it's, that's the most scary thing, really. They hear things like late-term abortion, and they think it's some whimsical thing that, you know, a woman who's pregnant wants to like, terminate a large fetus. Or even, you know, Trump was pushing post-born babies, you know, like, none of that happens. And now, hundreds of thousands of women are being forced to give birth to dead fetuses or babies that are, will have horrible, painful, struggling moments of life before they die

• 15:30Speaker 00

  because they have Potter's Syndrome or, you know, but, but because of the law now. They, so it's very, very dark and the misinformation is incredibly strong. I understand what it is to believe something with your whole heart so much you want everyone to believe it. But if what you believe is righteous, you should be convincing other people using just only what is the truth. And fetuses are not poster-sized, they're only teeny-tiny, you know?

• 15:57Sam Fragoso?

  No, I love that joke. I think that's...

• 15:59Speaker 00

  Yeah, I say if they were poster-sized, I'd go, yeah, that's alive. You know, if they were poster-sized, they'd, these people would probably hunt them, but of course.

• 16:09Sam Fragoso?

  I should mention, for people listening to this.

• 16:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 16:12Sam Fragoso?

  Worried that, that maybe you've changed and you're only serious in this special. I, I feel like we should note that, that the show does open with an orgy joke.

• 16:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's a, like a joke book style joke. You know, that's fun. So I go, what, what did the Jewish mother say to her porn star daughter after watching her in a gangbang? You were the best one.

• 16:41Speaker 00

  And then I have some tags, which are, my Sharon had all holes filled. You know, Jewish mothers are so proud.

• 16:49Sam Fragoso?

  But ultimately, that joke is about supportive parents.

• 16:52Speaker 00

  It is. Hey.

• 16:56Sam Fragoso?

  Speaking of which, when you were coming of age in the 1970s, in Manchester, New Hampshire.

• 17:03Speaker 00

  Yeah. I mean, like this, I was an infant in the seventies. I was not like, act like I was like in high school, coming of age.

• 17:11Sam Fragoso?

  You were a poster size infant.

• 17:13Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 17:14Sam Fragoso?

  In the 1970s, coming of age in the 1980s. Your parents are split up by then. You're living with your mother. You described her as a real life Diane Chambers.

• 17:26Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 17:27Sam Fragoso?

  Who also struggled with depression.

• 17:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:30Sam Fragoso?

  When you were 12 years old, starting to fall in love with comedy, and you were on that school camping trip.

• 17:37Speaker 00

  Oh, my God.

• 17:38Sam Fragoso?

  Hiking up Mount Cardigan.

• 17:40Speaker 00

  It was so weird to hear.

• 17:42Sam Fragoso?

  Did a similar wave of depression wash over you at that age?

• 17:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's exactly right. And it really became like a weird foreshadowing in a fucked up way where, so I, I was the, my student president of this eighth grade camping trip that everyone in eighth grade at this, my school would go on, four days, Mount Cardigan. And I was terrified of going, a chronic bed wetter. I had to hide pampers, large sized pampers in my sleeping bag. I cried the whole time and like, you know, teachers asked why, like blamed it on like, I'm worried about my mom, I'm worried, you know, whatever, like just, instead of like, I'm just so homesick and I am scared I'm gonna pee in my sleeping bag.

• 18:30Speaker 00

  And it was a miserable, humiliating trip. I mean, nobody's fault. Everyone was, you know, the teachers were wonderful and everyone was nice. It wasn't, there wasn't a bully involved or anything anyone said, but it was miserable and I was mad at myself and embarrassed by my, my behavior and, and we finally reach home. And my mom, who never picked me up from things, it was always my stepdad or someone else. My mom was kind of in bed a lot of the time and, and she was a photographer, you know, and, and I was just so humiliated. I got off the bus and there she was. And she was just snap, snap, snap, snap, snap.

• 19:11Speaker 00

  And I am, I just want to get in the car and go home. I'm so humiliated. And, and in that moment, depression gripped me for, and for the, and it lasted for the next three years.

• 19:23Sam Fragoso?

  But that teenage you, like feeling that depression for the first time, you said once that your dad would come up with all kinds of schemes to fix me. What did those look like as a teenager?

• 19:38Speaker 00

  I went to a psychiatrist and I was 13, very small for my age. And he said, I'm gonna give you a prescription for Xanax. And whenever you, and that wasn't a thing back then. This was very new. And he said, whenever you feel low, you just take one. And then I went to my second appointment and he had hung himself. You know, he didn't do it while I was in the session, but I remember.

• 20:04Sam Fragoso?

  Did he have braces?

• 20:05Speaker 00

  He had braces on his teeth. Yeah. And I remember thinking, because I was in the waiting room. And I remember I read an entire People magazine and I had never done that before. I got to the last page. I went, wow, I read a whole People magazine. And then I thought, wait a minute, it must be really late, you know? And it was this Victorian house that this psychiatrist shared with a hypnotist who I had gone to for bedwetting, you know, months earlier. Dr. Grimm was his name.

• 20:35Sam Fragoso?

  Oof.

• 20:36Speaker 00

  But I read that whole People magazine. And then I look up and I see Dr. Grimm from upstairs with red eyes, sobbing with no bedside manner to this tiny little 13 year old girl. And he said, Dr. Riley hung himself. I mean, even then I was just like, that can't be the way to handle this, right? And then I, I just had to wait until one of my parents picked me up. You know, there weren't cell phones or anything. And it's funny because when I wrote the book, I talked to my parents and I said, I don't remember talking about it ever after that. I don't remember like going home and you sitting me down. I don't, and, and I remember my dad going like, yeah, I don't either.

• 21:20Speaker 00

  I think we just like, didn't talk about it. It was just so crazy.

• 21:23Sam Fragoso?

  And so that's what I want to ask you about. Like you as a teenager, how the hell you grappled with all of that at that age? How did you make sense of, okay, I guess I go back to school now?

• 21:37Speaker 00

  Well, I didn't. I, I stayed home from school for about three months and my, I lived with my mom and she just couldn't make me. She didn't have the strength.

• 21:48Sam Fragoso?

  So after you have a few, like pretty ineffective therapists, was there another therapist after that?

• 21:54Speaker 00

  Well, the, the, the next psychiatrist I went to, who was like a registered nurse, whose husband was a doctor and he wrote the prescriptions. I mean, like she really should be in jail, but she's probably dead of old age by now. I don't remember her name at all. I don't remember much about it, other than she just kept upping it and upping it and upping it. And I was a 13 year old taking 16 Xanax a day. I mean, I feel like I'm lying saying this. Four Xanax, four times a day. A 13 year old, and again, teeny tiny for my age. I look like I was nine. And I remember I kept all the empty bottles in a shoebox because I just thought this is going to kill me. And I was like, we need something for like detectives to find.

• 22:38Speaker 00

  But like my, you know, you didn't question doctors. My parents didn't question doctors. Nobody did back then. And then eventually my mother found a psychiatrist, but he, thank God, got me off it and got me off really slowly. And I just remember sitting with my mom in his office and telling him what I was on. And he, he couldn't believe it. And it was kind of like this catch all drug at the time where. He said, this is a big deal. He said, my brother was put on Xanax for acne, which I don't think, I guess that must have been a thing way back when, when they were finding all these uses for it. And stopped cold turkey and died.

• 23:19Speaker 00

  I was on 16 a day. So he's like nailed into me like this is, you can't just stop. You're gonna take half of a pill less a week. And it took, you know, six months or something. And I just remember being at the bubbla, AKA water fountain and taking that last half and being myself again.

• 23:43Sam Fragoso?

  Once the clouds have kind of parted and you start to feel a little bit like yourself again. I'm trying to understand you as a teenager, like every night you'd look up at the ceiling and the words would read.

• 23:59Speaker 00

  Still there, by the way.

• 24:00Sam Fragoso?

  I love Steve Martin.

• 24:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 24:02Sam Fragoso?

  When you're not looking at the ceiling, you would stay up late and watch late night television.

• 24:07Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 24:07Sam Fragoso?

  You love David Letterman, but it was, it was an episode on the Johnny Carson show that really changed something for you. What was that?

• 24:16Speaker 00

  I had this little TV in my room and my mom came upstairs and she goes, ooh, ooh, ooh. And she put on Johnny Carson and she said, um, this, uh, guest is, uh, she was Miss New Hampshire. Her name was Jane Badler and she was, you know, this actress, beautiful actress on, on Johnny Carson. And I, and Martin Mole was the first guest. And she says, so cavalier, like it's no big deal, that she was a bedwetter, you know, growing up. And I couldn't believe it. I mean, I was so sure that this would be the, the biggest secret of my life, you know, that I was a bedwetter. I thought, oh, it'll be my greatest shame. I'll die if anyone finds out. And here she is

• 25:01Speaker 00

  making a joke of it in front of the whole world, you know, to me, the whole world, but I guess America. And it just, it blew my mind.

• 25:09Sam Fragoso?

  Well, so that's, I'm fascinated. Like you have this, this bedwetting problem till you're about 15, 16 years old.

• 25:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 25:16Sam Fragoso?

  Did that in some way like embolden you to perform on stage? Cause at that point where you're like, well, I already can work past that. Like, what's the worst that can happen?

• 25:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think this is like the common thread with comedians because like for me, it was like bedwetting or like being Jewish, being very hairy in a very blonde world. All these components made me funny because that's the survival skill of the oddball. You know, of the, I would say a hundred percent of comedians are become comedians as one of the survival skills of childhood, you know?

• 25:54Sam Fragoso?

  So when you're seventeen at that Mexican restaurant called

• 25:59Speaker 00

  Oh, my god.

• 25:59Sam Fragoso?

  La Cantina.

• 26:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 26:01Sam Fragoso?

  It's in New Hampshire.

• 26:03Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 26:03Sam Fragoso?

  You go up there and perform this rendition of Memories by Barbra Streisand.

• 26:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 26:10Sam Fragoso?

  I think it was called Mammary's.

• 26:12Speaker 00

  Very, very clever. It was about being flat chested because I was.

• 26:17Sam Fragoso?

  When you look back on that, like, young teenage Sarah getting out there, did you feel any fear?

• 26:25Speaker 00

  No, because, you know, I was like, I've peed at friends' houses at sleepover parties where everyone, you know, like, this is humiliation is like, this is nothing. You know, I know real humiliation. What am I gonna not make people laugh? That's gonna kill me? No way. Like, who cares? And I did, I opened at La Cantina for the band that was playing, and I bombed epically.

• 26:56Sam Fragoso?

  We actually have a clip from that night.

• 26:58Speaker 00

  I wish we did. Oh, god.

• 27:00Sam Fragoso?

  Maybe for the first time in the history of human civilization, someone was emboldened by bedwetting, so much so that they moved to New York City,

• 27:13Speaker 00

  Mm hmm.

• 27:13Sam Fragoso?

  enroll at NYU and spend their first year, basically, on the corner.

• 27:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 27:20Sam Fragoso?

  Passing out flyers to comedy clubs so that you could get four or five minutes onstage that night.

• 27:26Speaker 00

  Yeah, without having to, like, bring people.

• 27:29Sam Fragoso?

  Right. So when you do that at eighteen, nineteen years old, and you're in New York. Do you remember that phone call you had with your father telling him that you weren't sure about going back to school?

• 27:43Speaker 00

  Well, I, my call to my dad was that I wanted to take a year off and just do stand-up, and he supported it completely.

• 27:50Sam Fragoso?

  Were you nervous about telling him that?

• 27:52Speaker 00

  Not, I guess a little bit, but he was totally down with it. Like, he was like, I think that's a good idea. And then when I went back, I was a drama major, and I loved it, but I just felt like, if I'm gonna be at this expensive school, I can take acting classes outside of school. I wanna like, be a comic, I wanna be an actor, I need information, you know? My just regular scholastic classes that I took were really interesting, and I, you know, and I liked that more. So I transferred to the arts and sciences school, but before I started, my dad called

• 28:31Speaker 00

  me and said, if you drop out of school, I'll pay your next three years' rent, like, as if it's your sophomore, junior, senior year, and utilities, you know, so it was like $350 for rent, you know?

• 28:46Sam Fragoso?

  You know, years later, in an interview in The Guardian, your dad said, "My feeling was, you throw the bird up into the air, and if it falls down, you dust it off and throw it back up. And it all seemed fine to me, Sarah just seemed ready."

• 29:02Speaker 00

  Oh my god. First of all, very impressed by this level of, holy shit, prep preparedness, but also, I don't remember that, so interesting, like, that's kind of a smarty, interesting, thoughtful answer.

• 29:20Sam Fragoso?

  You surprised that it came from him?

• 29:22Speaker 00

  Yes. He was, well, I think I get a little bit of this from him there, he's like, hidden smart. Like, I'm really dumb about a lot of things, but I'm like, heart smart, kind of. He's heart smart, but like, he did all my money, like, he like, managed my money, like, um, all for the first, like, decade of doing stand-up, and then, um, one day, he asked me what K meant, and I horrifiedly went, "Thousand." And I was just like, oh god, I think I need to hire a professional. And that was a scary conversation, but we just laughed, you know, because like, Dad, you're only getting older. Like, what am I gonna do? You're gonna die and then I

• 30:07Speaker 00

  won't have somebody managing my money. I'm just gonna do it now and have someone else, you know, but um.

• 30:13Sam Fragoso?

  I mean, we started this conversation talking about your dad and then supportive parents.

• 30:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 30:19Sam Fragoso?

  And through the years, he really seemed like someone who full-heartedly believed in you.

• 30:24Speaker 00

  Totally believed in me. It's not the typical comedian story. Like, all of my parents, like, were completely, but you know, I've worked, you know, he paid for my rent those three years, as if it were a sophomore, junior, senior year. And then I was hired on Saturday Night Live. I've always supported, always supported myself since then. So, you know, it worked out.

• 30:47Sam Fragoso?

  So, from 93 to 94, you work on SNL. Right at the end of 94, you're fired? Something like that?

• 30:54Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 30:54Sam Fragoso?

  It coincides right when I was born. And...

• 30:57Speaker 00

  Yeah. They, they said it was...

• 30:59Sam Fragoso?

  Are they related?

• 31:00Speaker 00

  Yeah, it was the, the birth of Sam Fragosa.

• 31:03Sam Fragoso?

  Fragosa.

• 31:03Speaker 00

  Fragosa.

• 31:05Sam Fragoso?

  It's Mexican.

• 31:05Speaker 00

  Is it?

• 31:06Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah.

• 31:07Speaker 00

  Are you Mexican?

• 31:08Sam Fragoso?

  I'm 50%.

• 31:09Speaker 00

  That's so cool.

• 31:10Sam Fragoso?

  I know. People always think it's Italian.

• 31:12Speaker 00

  Assumed Italian.

• 31:13Sam Fragoso?

  I know. 93 to 94, you work on SNL.

• 31:16Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 31:16Sam Fragoso?

  Then you get fired, then I'm born, completely unrelated.

• 31:19Speaker 00

  Right.

• 31:23Sam Fragoso?

  You move to Los Angeles and, and start performing in LA.

• 31:26Speaker 00

  Mm-hmm.

• 31:27Sam Fragoso?

  Start performing here in 95. At that age, where you, like any young artist, are failing all the time.

• 31:36Speaker 00

  Oh, my God.

• 31:37Sam Fragoso?

  How did you define yourself in response to that failure? What did that look like?

• 31:42Speaker 00

  Well, I didn't see it coming at all. I never see it coming, you know, like...

• 31:47Sam Fragoso?

  Being fired?

• 31:47Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. So, um, with Saturday Night Live, I was like, it was like August, I was already like writing, you know, thinking of sketches for the next season and everything, and I was just like shocked. But they had done a big cleaning of, hey, it wasn't just me. Like, they cleaned house. Like, a bunch of us got fired. But I definitely went through a long stretch of going, um, am I in show business anymore? I don't know if I am. Like, I, and I just went back to, you know, I, comics are lucky. Like, we have stand-up. So I just, like, just went back to one, you know, and, and just just kept writing jokes and doing stand-up. And I met this young woman, Tracy Katski.

• 32:29Speaker 00

  She was like fucking cool and like a beanie on, smoking cigarettes. I was like, oh, she's so cool, you know? And she was just like, my roommate is moving out. If you want to move in, there's a, I have a room, you know? And I go, all right. All my stuff was already in like a cardboard wardrobe box. That was my closet. And just like taped it up, moved to LA. Didn't think about it. I think that's like a really good, a real gift to just not think about stuff and just do it. Like, any decision you make is just gonna get you wherever you're going. Like, you know, I mean, it's too scary to think of how so many things have to go right for you to be on TV or this or anything, you know?

• 33:12Speaker 00

  Like, in this business, it's just like so haphazard.

• 33:16Sam Fragoso?

  But your intuition got you here.

• 33:18Speaker 00

  No, just like thoughtlessness, you know? Just like, all right, you wanna do this? Okay. It's just, things just happen.

• 33:26Sam Fragoso?

  One of the things that happened that I think is pretty formative is that you, um, you appear on The Larry Sanders Show.

• 33:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:34Sam Fragoso?

  And on that show, of course, you met the late Gary Shandling.

• 33:39Speaker 00

  Well, no, I met him earlier.

• 33:41Sam Fragoso?

  You met him earlier, right. You worked with him on the show, yes.

• 33:43Speaker 00

  The way I met you, playing basketball.

• 33:46Sam Fragoso?

  That's right.

• 33:46Speaker 00

  And Sundays became my greatest joy. Every Sunday, basketball at Gary's. And it was just like, whatever was going on in your life, whatever. Was happening, we had those Sundays and they were just joy. And I was so in love with him and I, he became such a good friend and mentor.

• 34:07Sam Fragoso?

  You said once about him, he wanted us to learn what he had to learn the hard way. He served that to us on a silver platter. What did he want you to learn that, that he had to learn the hard way?

• 34:22Speaker 00

  The two things that pop out to me are, one was that no one is going to say, that's too much for you, that you're the only one who can go, you know what, I can't do all that. And then just comedically, in terms of standup, I learned so much about, from him, you know, just that the power of the quiet moments between the words, you know, and being comfortable in those silences, to not be afraid of it. And that's something that's, you know, not just about standup. I mean, I, once I really understood it, I saw it all around me. I mean, with my dad, when we would talk on the phone all the time and if there was

• 35:04Speaker 00

  a quiet moment, I think he was terrified in it because he would go, uh, uh, uh, uh, mama, mama, mama, uh. And he didn't think anything of it. I'm sure he wasn't even conscious of it, but to hear that and realize at one point, you know, like, oh, he's terrified of the, of the quiet moments.

• 35:27Sam Fragoso?

  After the break, more from comedian Sarah Silverman.

• 35:35Sam Fragoso?

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• 37:08Sam Fragoso?

  You're on The Larry Sanders Show in the mid to late 90s. At the turn of the century, you put out your first special, I think, in 2005.

• 37:19Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 37:19Sam Fragoso?

  The Sarah Silverman Program in 2007. Now, as I said at the beginning of this, I do a lot of research for these. And there's so much I really didn't remember about that special or that show, probably because I was like 10 or 11 years old.

• 37:36Speaker 00

  Right.

• 37:37Sam Fragoso?

  But I do remember some of it, and I rewatched a lot.

• 37:41Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 37:42Sam Fragoso?

  I want to know what that comedy was like in that period.

• 37:44Speaker 00

  Right. And that's what makes it art, right? Because you watch it now, and it's riddled with problematic stuff.

• 37:50Sam Fragoso?

  Unbelievably.

• 37:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 37:52Sam Fragoso?

  Some of it is really funny.

• 37:53Speaker 00

  It's totally different in the context of you and the world as it is.

• 37:57Sam Fragoso?

  Absolutely. And some of it, I'm like, Sarah, I know? No.

• 38:02Speaker 00

  Right, no.

• 38:02Sam Fragoso?

  Not possible.

• 38:03Speaker 00

  Not this Sarah you know.

• 38:03Sam Fragoso?

  No, and it's not. And it's not. So I am fascinated. People have given you a lot of grief about the bits that probably don't play now, and that is what it is. But I'm curious. You have this quote in Rolling Stone in 2005.

• 38:19Speaker 00

  Oh, boy.

• 38:21Sam Fragoso?

  Where you said, "I can't believe anyone not being interested in exploring taboos." Maybe it is a thing where a Catholic school...

• 38:30Speaker 00

  Oh no.

• 38:31Sam Fragoso?

  Maybe it's the thing where a Catholic school worker needs only to see the word pussy to get off. But a sex worker needs 10 little people and a juggler. A comic needs to make jokes about the most taboo topics about race, or AIDS, or fucked up sex to be able to get the full belly laugh for themselves.

• 38:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, okay.

• 38:57Sam Fragoso?

  Is that how you saw it back then?

• 38:59Speaker 00

  I think that I, it was part of what I saw and part of like being influenced by comedy of that time. And it's interesting because there's some, there's a little bit of dishonesty there. And I believe in that you can be dishonest in comedy. You could say like, I mean, I think it's weird to say I have a cat if you don't have a cat. But I also like, you know, I, I think in my first special, I said that my Nana was a, had a number on her arm and she didn't. She was like born in America. But somebody's grandmother did and that was okay for me. Like, so you find the lines or whatever, but what, but what was dishonest about it was I said like,

• 39:41Speaker 00

  and, and maybe it's true as well, but I go some like, what do I say? Some Christian?

• 39:47Sam Fragoso?

  You said, "Maybe it is a thing where a Catholic school worker needs only to see the word pussy to get off."

• 39:53Speaker 00

  Right. Okay, so.

• 39:54Sam Fragoso?

  How many times are you gonna make me say that?

• 39:55Speaker 00

  I'm sorry. Forgive me. But I was that as a, you know, like a teenager. I, I, a friend of my older sister's, someone who lived in her dorm, gave me a penthouse forum when I was 13. And, and she had moved in with my dad, so it was just like in an empty room, and I would take it out every once in a while and just look at the word pussy to like masturbate as a teenager.

• 40:23Speaker 00

  That's all it took. I mean, because I couldn't even believe it. I mean, it had so much power.

• 40:28Sam Fragoso?

  Wow.

• 40:29Speaker 00

  And then years later, as a comedian.

• 40:31Sam Fragoso?

  It lost its power?

• 40:32Speaker 00

  It lost its power. It was like, nothing. But for some reason, I say, oh, a Catholic school worker need only to see the word put. But that was me.

• 40:40Sam Fragoso?

  That was you.

• 40:41Speaker 00

  Yeah, it was me, of course. I mean, all those things are so taboo. I mean, in a million years, I never thought I would talk about masturbation, or wetting the bed, or any of that stuff with ease and without immense shame, you know?

• 40:56Sam Fragoso?

  If that's how you saw your work then, in 2005, how did it change after that?

• 41:04Speaker 00

  Well, working on the Sarah Silverman program was really fun, and it was kind of born out of Jesus's magic, which like, it's also problematic, you know, in lots of ways. But it was all based on me playing Sarah Silverman, a character that's not me, but named Sarah Silverman. And that character was this ignorant person who's wildly arrogant. And those two things together were really funny and kind of magical to me.

• 41:33Sam Fragoso?

  An unreliable narrator.

• 41:35Speaker 00

  Yeah. And so she did racist things, thinking that she was being inclusive. She did, you know, I mean, it really is like, in a way, a lot of it was like the track of a liberal who is saying, oh, it was only 12 years ago. Well, 12 years ago is like another time. And I got more political in my comedy. I got, you know, I was more active. I made a video for Obama to get young Jews to visit their grandparents in Florida and threaten not to visit if they don't vote for Obama. You know, so I was doing all this stuff, but I was also, you know, in this show where I was playing a character.

• 42:17Speaker 00

  And of course, looking back on it, the right can use a lot of memes and a lot of things I said in that special and that show and take the quote and put it with a picture of me speaking at the Democratic National Convention and, and I got death threats because it was like taking me from Jesus's magic, saying like, "I'm glad that Jews killed Jesus. I'd do it again." Like, a complete character moment and wildly, like, very, very clear if you're in that audience. I'm taking transcript from that and, and putting it to a picture of me speaking at the Democratic National Convention. You know, I got a lot of death threats from that. I, I got, um, there's a preacher saying killing me would be God's

• 43:01Speaker 00

  will and, and he got really like, very visual about it, like knocking my teeth out and that's what really gave me the chills, like that, that element.

• 43:10Sam Fragoso?

  So, did the hate that came from that period, did that make you rethink what you wanted to do and how you wanted to do it?

• 43:18Speaker 00

  Yeah. I mean, well, a lot of it I talked about in, um, my Hulu show. And, uh, yeah, and, and I brought things up that weren't, hadn't ever been brought up about, you know, like when I wore blackface on this or somewhere. And it wasn't like I brought it up because it was about to come out or something. Like, I always try to use myself in ways that are unseemly, you know? And, um, that episode where I'm in blackface, you know, like, most of the people in that episode are black, you know, there was like a, but you can't, like, I talk about it on the Hulu show and I'm very clear about it. And I know that I can't erase it from existence, but somehow somebody did. You cannot see that episode.

• 44:03Speaker 00

  And I guess that's a good thing. But there's a still photo of me and that just has no context. It just looks like I put that on and thought it was funny, you know? There was context in the episode and, um, and you're not allowed to say that, but there was. I'm not saying it's okay or that I do it now or that I don't very much wish I never did it, but you, there was.

• 44:30Sam Fragoso?

  I think what I'm getting at is the, the character you were playing. It was this unreliable narrator.

• 44:38Speaker 00

  Right.

• 44:39Sam Fragoso?

  The kind that Stephen Colbert made a career out of on The Colbert Report. And I do find it interesting that his show ended. And in many ways, your comedy kind of shifted right around the time Trump.

• 44:55Speaker 00

  Well, right.

• 44:56Sam Fragoso?

  Started running for president.

• 44:58Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 44:59Sam Fragoso?

  It was in 2015.

• 45:00Speaker 00

  Well, that, you know, it's funny because I had so much fun playing in ignorant arrogant. But when the president became Donald Trump, who is exactly that pathology. He is an absolutely ignorant arrogant. It wasn't so fun anymore.

• 45:18Sam Fragoso?

  You mentioned, I love you, America.

• 45:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 45:21Sam Fragoso?

  The show came out in 2017. The year Trump starts his, I guess we can call it presidency. And it seemed like it was a program deeply inspired by your love of Mr. Rogers.

• 45:38Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 45:38Sam Fragoso?

  And I guess I'm wondering, the thing you were after in that show. Compassion, kindness, talking to people across the aisle.

• 45:49Speaker 00

  Face to face with people and, you know, like, it was like, uh, we aren't that different.

• 45:57Sam Fragoso?

  Do you still believe that?

• 45:59Speaker 00

  I do. I mean, listen, I, I met with almost exclusively like Trump supporters and stuff. And, and went to their house and, and put myself in a position where they were hosting me. They were taking care of me. I was like the odd man out, you know? And every single one of those homes I left, I felt loved by them and I loved them. Even when they have things that are annoying or, or that I don't agree with, I, you can see in their eyes where it's coming from. Or what it has to do with, or where, you know? That show, like, we did two seasons, although they were called season one A and season one B. But I, I do feel like a, a good amount of people saw it for such a niche show.

• 46:42Speaker 00

  I mean, that's just, you know, like, every time I'm, a show I do is canceled or a pilot's not picked up. I always feel like, you know, they blew it. Why did they didn't get it? How could they, you know, it was like every reason why they were wrong. And it's just like, it's their channel. It's their, they could do what they want. You know, it's like. And I always get over and then I can't imagine doing it now. Like, you know, I don't know.

• 47:04Sam Fragoso?

  Do you think you can't imagine doing it now because in some ways you're doing it on the podcast?

• 47:11Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Because I remember like my agents going like, well, well, right before the pandemic, the special came out of a deal that was a pilot deal I did at HBO. I did a pilot right before the pandemic. And then they didn't pick it up. And I was like, they blew it. What were they? That's my reaction is like, wow, they made such a mistake, you know? But like, I have no desire to do it now because I get that itch satiated totally on my podcast where I can say anything I want.

• 47:44Sam Fragoso?

  So the podcast itself, it features a lot of voicemails.

• 47:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's all voice. I'll usually say something at the beginning or I'll talk about something that's on my mind. Sometimes we go right into voicemails, but the trajectory of the show is always just the voicemails.

• 48:01Sam Fragoso?

  People asking for advice for the most part.

• 48:03Speaker 00

  Yeah, you know, I'm loose on it. I'm silly, I suppose, at times and I talk about like embarrassing things or. But yeah, I don't, I'm not really in charge of the direction it goes, you know, which I like.

• 48:16Sam Fragoso?

  But I think that's kind of because your aim is to really hear the person out, the stranger that's called in. And I was thinking, because I was, I was listening to it this morning and I thought, oh, it's, it's, it's strange. But the thing you're doing is connecting with people and the way you're connecting with them really reminds me of how you've always described your father, which is someone who moved through the world like open-hearted and open-minded, who would go to Starbucks really early and just like talk to these women and befriend them.

• 48:57Speaker 00

  It was so hard to let people know about the, his funeral because he had so many like islands of friends. You get like his girlfriends from Starbucks, you know, that he just knows them from Starbucks or like, I mean, we were at Mendocino Farms. And he loved being old because it gave him a whole new like. Level of connection with people because he got away. You can get away with so much, you know, people find it charming. Or so we were at Mendocino Farms and these two like huge muscle head guys are leaving and they stop at our table and put their fists in my dad's face and go like, you know, like, see you around, but they had like, they did some tough guy like move with him and they walk out and I was like, what was that?

• 49:41Speaker 00

  And he's laughing and he goes, oh, I was refilling my coke and I saw them and they were all muscly, so I went over and I go, you know what? I feel like kicking some ass. And he like put his fists up to them, you know, like he was threatening them. And, um, you know, they, of course, they thought it was adorable and stopped by the table all the way out. But if there's always like, he, there's always someone he's already connected with, you know, you know, and it's, it was so sweet and I like that too. I'm a people person, you know?

• 50:10Sam Fragoso?

  Does that make sense? Like, do you feel in some ways this podcast of yours is, you know, you're not like an octogenarian, but it is a license to connect with people in a way that is human. I guess I'm trying to say, do you feel like you're doing what your dad always did and showed you?

• 50:28Speaker 00

  Yes, yes. He loved connecting with people. Yeah, he was like a real people person guy, you know? Everyone loved him. I mean, he was like the go to friend to make a speech or a toast at the whatever, you know? But yeah, that, that desire for connection, you know, to be brutally honest, maybe the desire to be loved by a stranger, you know, um, which is of course, like the plight of comedians, you know? But, um, yeah, to connect with someone you don't, you know, in a grocery line or, you know, I don't know.

• 51:08Sam Fragoso?

  My last, I guess, thing for you, or my last question. We started this conversation talking about, you know, your dad. And it's been, what, a month? Not even, not even a month, three weeks?

• 51:20Speaker 00

  Twenty days.

• 51:20Sam Fragoso?

  Twenty days. And it dawned on me that this, this new project of yours, this podcast, it uses voicemails in such a great way. And there was really no one who mastered the art of the voicemail better than your father.

• 51:41Speaker 00

  Oh, my God, I wish I still had those messages.

• 51:44Sam Fragoso?

  Well, I have a couple of them that were in your book. I thought, as we leave, since this is on Father's Day.

• 51:53Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 51:54Sam Fragoso?

  Wanted to read one of them in his voice.

• 51:57Speaker 00

  I would love to. Let's see, this is from ten, fourteen years ago. Hey, baby, guess who? It's your daddy. Happy Shabbos. I said it because your friend Jeffrey Ross is in Israel. And I've been spending time with your nieces. I took Shee Shee, that's my niece, Ashira, to Chuck E. Cheese twice. She is so fucking cute. Give me a call when you get a chance. I leave in a couple of hours, but I'll be in my car for an hour or two. Know where I'm going? I'm going to my fiftieth fucking reunion of UNH.

• 52:40Speaker 00

  It took, God, I, I remember this message. It took fifty fucking years to get here, going through it. It was all those days with you and Laura and Jodean and Suzie and aggravation and business and blah, blah, blah. And you look back on it, it seemed like it took twenty minutes. Whole goddamn thing. It's amazing. Took so long to get here, just to look back so quickly. Wow. So watch out because you're only going one way, and that's older. And once you can, yeah, this is, it's so true. And once you can no longer do something, it's forever. I've been pretty goddamn lucky so far. I love you. That's my homily for

• 53:25Speaker 00

  that's my homily for the day. I love you. Give me a call if you get a chance. Like if you're walking your dog or something boring like that and I'll talk to you later. Mwah.

• 53:38Speaker 00

  Shut off phone.

• 53:41Speaker 00

  That was him. You'd hear him. Wow, isn't that funny? Like now he's dead and it like has this beautiful meaning and it is all so true. I mean, and it's really helped me. Stuff like that and also something that my sister said when I was dreading going to camp, which was every year because I just pissed myself every single night and it was a nightmare. But she said, you know what? You're gonna go through it and it's all gonna be a memory. And that's that. It's like so long life, but then when you look back on it, it's a blip. So every shitty thing you have to do that you don't want to do. You can just like exist through it. It probably won't even be as bad as you think.

• 54:24Speaker 00

  And when it's over, it's just like another blip. But one of those messages I know was, and I go up in my heart, he goes, I know you're a big Hollywood hot shot now, but if you get a chance and your busy schedule, maybe you could give the guy a call back who gave you life. I used to wipe the shit out from your tuckus. Maybe you could find a minute for me.

• 54:49Sam Fragoso?

  It was fucking disgusting. All right.

• 54:51Speaker 00

  Oh, is that what he says? Oh my God, here it is. I remember when you were a tiny baby, I had to lift those tiny legs and wipe the shit out of your tuckus. It was fucking disgusting. All right, if you get a chance, I know you're busy. Give a call back to the guy who gave you life. Love you. Bye.

• 55:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:13Sam Fragoso?

  That line, um, it took so long to get here, just to look back so quickly.

• 55:20Speaker 00

  Yeah, my god. It's deep.

• 55:23Sam Fragoso?

  We've gone through, shit, fifty-two years of time.

• 55:27Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:28Sam Fragoso?

  I don't know how you, how you hold that line now that he's been gone, fuck, only twenty days. But that's just, I don't know, there's so much, when I, when I read that in your book, I, I started, I'd lost it.

• 55:41Speaker 00

  Oh.

• 55:42Sam Fragoso?

  Yeah.

• 55:43Speaker 00

  Yeah. Look at that, like, now that has a whole new meaning, you know? It's interesting. He was awesome.

• 55:53Speaker 00

  But this is what is.

• 55:57Sam Fragoso?

  If I, if we both didn't love Gary Shandling, we would be uncomfortable with this moment, but.

• 56:02Speaker 00

  That's right.

• 56:05Speaker 00

  For the people at home, Sam really looks like he might cry, and I am dead inside completely.

• 56:12Sam Fragoso?

  For people at home, uh, I was going to cry, and then I realized, um, Sarah doesn't do well with tears, so.

• 56:23Speaker 00

  You know, this is an excellent ending, and you'll end it here, but, uh, talking about connection and getting that from my dad, I mean, he loved sports because of that. He loved playing tennis or whatever, and like, that was basketball for me. I say was, because I don't know if I, I don't know if I'll be back. Maybe I'll give it a try, but I just.

• 56:41Sam Fragoso?

  What can we do to pull you out of retirement?

• 56:44Speaker 00

  You know what? It was my joy playing basketball. It's so wonderful, like, just connecting with people and meeting friends through all sorts of different things and, but, you know, it doesn't age well, basketball, but boy, I love it so much. And I was really like, I would quit, like, a half hour early and stretch, and so maybe I'll go back. I, I kind of thought to myself, well, maybe I'll just play half-court games, but I really miss the Sunday game.

• 57:09Sam Fragoso?

  Well, we've talked about a lot of things.

• 57:11Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 57:11Sam Fragoso?

  That, that haven't aged well.

• 57:14Speaker 00

  It's true. That's true. This is.

• 57:17Speaker 00

  It's actually perfect.

• 57:19Sam Fragoso?

  But, um, I'm hoping that this, uh, podcast does.

• 57:23Speaker 00

  Thank you. Me too.

• 57:25Sam Fragoso?

  I think it will. And, uh, in the spirit of your show, and for this Father's Day episode. We are winding down.

• 57:33Speaker 00

  Oh, Dad.

• 57:34Sam Fragoso?

  And I thank you so much for, for coming on, for sharing as much as you have, you know, for putting that sign up at that party that said, "No solicitation."

• 57:45Speaker 00

  No podcast solicitations.

• 57:47Sam Fragoso?

  Sarah Silverman, a joy.

• 57:50Speaker 00

  Thank you.

• 57:52Speaker 00

  You Mexican. Oh, no! He's half Mexican.

• 57:57Sam Fragoso?

  Please end the tape there. Can we end it?

• 57:59Speaker 00

  Or like a little before.

• 58:02Sam Fragoso?

  Oh, my. Bizer.

• 59:02Sam Fragoso?

  And that's our show. If you enjoyed today's episode with Sarah Silverman, leave us five stars on Spotify, review the show on Apple, share it on social media, whatever you do. It really does help us continue making this program each and every Sunday. Sarah's new special, Postmortem, is now available to watch exclusively on Netflix. For more talks with other great comedians, I'd recommend Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Quinta Brunson, Nick Kroll, and Seth Rogen. To hear those and more Lemonada podcasts, listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen. You can also subscribe to Lemonada Premium for bonus content. Just hit the subscribe button on Apple or head to lemonadapremium.com.

• 59:48Sam Fragoso?

  Talk Easy is produced by Caroline Reebok. Our executive producer is Janix Bravo. Today's talk was originally edited by Caitlin Dryden with assistance from Adam Jamal and mixed by Andrew Vastola. Our music is by Dylan Peck. Our illustrations, Kousha Shanoy. Photographs today come from Julius Chu. This episode was made in partnership with the good people at Lemonada Media and I'm Sam Fragoso. Thank you for listening to Talk Easy. I'll see you back here on Sunday with a brand new episode. Until then, stay safe and so long.

• 1:01:09Speaker 02

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• 1:02:29Speaker 03

  I'm Dan Heath. On What It's Like to Be, I interview people about their jobs. Here's a married couple that drives a long haul truck together.

• 1:02:37Speaker 04

  We backed up and they loaded fresh dead rats.

• 1:02:41Speaker 03

  I mean, how many rats would you guess were back there?

• 1:02:43Speaker 04

  There were 32,000 pounds of them.

• 1:02:46Speaker 03

  32,000 pounds of frozen dead rats.

• 1:02:50Speaker 04

  As I said.

• 1:02:52Speaker 03

  Find out what it's like to be a long haul trucker, a couples therapist, or an FBI agent, all on the podcast, What It's Like to Be.