Sarah Silverman: A Speck of Dust (2017)

Save time with this "special", just go to the last 10 minutes, it's the only interesting part. I had only seen Sarah Silverman on TV sketches and most of them were funny, but if this is her standup quality, then she should improve A LOT or just write for someone else.

I have loved much of Sarah's work in the past, but her newest special disappointed me. It deserves a 5 out of 10 because it was funny and witty about 50% of the time. The other 50% was a mixture of political talking points and misinformed scientific facts. I did laugh out loud a few times but the majority of jokes were poorly written, especially by her standards. I think I counted around 5 complex joke premises, all of which were very well executed, but the rest fell flat.

The first thing I happily noticed about 'Sarah Silverman: A Speck of Dust' was that she was engaging with the audience. She often plays aloof & dumb with her jokes, but this time she brought the audience in on the conversation.I also appreciated that most of the jokes weren't recycled from old interviews & her social media posts. I want to say there is "new material" here, but we basically know the story she tells. It involves the parts of her life that made the news, but she offers her side of the story and adds heart to it. I enjoy this better than past stand-ups where she makes going to the stage into a short film about how silly she is. For a quick observation she was more self-aware here than in past shows.She's witty in her delivery, self-congratulatory in the political puns, one-liners were meme worthy and I counted probably 3 jokes she's been pushing over the past 10 years.This was a very loving Sarah Silverman. When she speaks from her heart, you know it's genuine and people love her for that. She much more the experienced comedian here. The jokes were gold, the humor was authentic, and she even poked fun at the way she segued between each new joke; "Put a pin in that for a second" ... "You're killing it, Sarah" A real treat comes at the end credits scene that show her real life epiglottis medical emergency as it happened. I don't know who filmed it, but it reminded me of my own life events when my Father had his heart attack. Watching her make light of the situation and getting her loved ones to laugh along is exactly how my family handles scares.I know a lot of people might not know the danger of epiglottitis; It's a severe life-threatening condition that could have cut off her airway. But there she was cracking jokes about it. Bravo, kid.

I usually avoid Sarah Silverman. I appreciate her as comic most of the time, but I just don't agree with her opinions. This was Sarah at her best. I laughed out loud, cringed slightly at her mostly-toned-down crudeness, and she didn't upset me with her opinions once. But the part I enjoyed the most was the credits. Here, I think we saw the real Sarah Silverman and I found her to be a delightful, warm-hearted, intrinsically funny and wise lady.