The festival will feature more than 50 comedians and acts. Performances will take place at several venues in the popular Grove neighborhood in St. Louis. A list of performers and venues is expected to be released soon.
Sarah Silverman to headline comedy festival coming to St. Louis
Jun 12, 2022; New York, NY, USA; Sarah Silverman introduces a performance from Mr. Saturday Night during the 75th Annual Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Sunday, June 12, 2022.. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY
Published August 18, 2022
Sarah Silverman is not afraid to speak her mind. In fact, most recently she made news by popularizing the term “Jewface” to describe non-Jewish actors playing Jewish roles and kicked off a heated cultural conversation in the process. But controversy aside, Silverman is one of the funniest comedians around and is coming to St. Louis this fall.
Silverman is the headliner of The Flyover Comedy Festival which runs November 10-12. Silverman’s show “Sarah Silverman & Friends” is on Nov. 11 at Stifel Theatre. Tickets for Silverman’s show are $35-$65 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Aug. 19 at ticketmaster.com.
The following was first published by the Jewish Women’s Archive, by Sascha Cohen
Silverman was born to a middle-class Jewish family of Russian and Polish ancestry. The youngest of four daughters, she was raised in the mostly Catholic town of Manchester, New Hampshire, and attended the Derryfield School. “We grew up in a place with very few Jews. I didn’t look like the other kids. I had hairy legs, hairy arms, hair everywhere. I looked like a little monkey,” she explained in an interview.
Silverman’s mother, Beth Ann, was a photographer and the founder of a theater company, where she produced and directed plays. Her father, Donald, sold discount clothing and furniture. Donald and Beth divorced when Silverman was six years old.
Silverman’s older sisters include Susan, a feminist Reform rabbi now living in Jerusalem, Laura, an actor, and Jodyne, a screenwriter.
From 2007 to 2010, Silverman produced The Sarah Silverman Program, an offbeat single-camera sitcom in which she played a more arrogant and oblivious version of herself, or as the Village Voice put it, “an indulgent, whiny rapscallion…the uber-bitch of our darkest dreams” (Musto). The series ran for three seasons. Silverman was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress, and the show was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award for its portrayal of gay and lesbian characters.
Silverman identifies as ethnically and culturally Jewish, but her upbringing was secular, and she is not religious and does not believe in God. She has been vocally supportive of the LGBTQ community and open about her use of both marijuana and anti-depressant medication, the latter of which keeps her from experiencing “that complete downward spiral into despair about nothing.”
