For Sarah Sherman, comedy is all about putting on a show and being absolutely disgusting.
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Sarah Shermanis in the makeup chair atSaturday Night Live,morphing into a five-eyed, giant-eared beast.
That was all for sketches; today, though, theyre just experimenting.
I have kind of a no face, agrees Sherman.
I dont have crazy-distinct features.
On her, that kind of thing has started to look natural.
(She considers this an accomplishment.)
OnSNL,shes an agent of chaos.
The whole sketch is me being really straight and being on a date with Chris Redd, she says.
That was impossibly hard for me to do.
Sherman grew up in Great Neck on Long Island.
She was odd but not off-puttingly so.
One time she painted a picture of a baby bottle full of intestines.
If she were a character onGlee,she would have been slushied.
In real life, she ran track.
I had friends, I was well liked, I was funny, she says.
Im a comedian, so I needed people to like me.
That hasnt changed: I have a deep, dark desire within me to be accepted by others.
I also have the desire to make things that are insane.
At Northwestern, where she went to college, Sherman didnt make her desired improv team.
Ruined my life, she says.
Eyeliner streaks down the face, looking out a rainy window being like,Im moving to Seattle.
I have to live with meforever!)
(A joke from this period: Some women can be described as a tall glass of water.
Honey, Im more like a tall glass of clam chowder.
Then she would chug a can of clam chowder.)
She adopted the stage name Sarah Squirm, inspired by a high-school nickname.
I was doing basement shows with bands literally called Piss Piss Piss Moan Moan Moan.
I was like, It cant be Blood Licker, Piss Piss Piss Moan Moan Moan, andSarah.
Sherman moved to L.A. in 2019.
This time around, she gave them her stand-up instead.
It was grotesque, she says.
I talked about tying my nipples together with my long nipple hair.
A few months later, she was on the show.
As she crowed on Update, Thats right, America, I have a boyfriend.
Dont let the queer haircut fool you, honey!
She hopes to make viewers turn away in disgust but then turn back because shes making them laugh.
She has nice brown hair.Then they come to my show and theyre like,Oh my God.Theyre all horrified.
She says she bombed so badly that a heckler received basically a standing ovation.
Shes no longer sure which name she wants to go by.
While shes caught somewhere in between, shes fielding other calls.
The onscreen graphic showed a cartoon of a wobbling turkey neck.
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