Nothing Is Taboo, and It’s ‘Magic’

With “Jesus Is Magic,” concluding at Second City Studio Theatre on Thursday, the reports of irony’s death prove premature. Writer-comedian Sarah Silverman’s show is savagely effective, as ruthlessly provocative as anything since the heyday of Lenny Bruce.

Certainly the cramped ambience suggests the Greenwich Village of the 1960s, buzzing with hipsters on their way to becoming notable. In fact, “hip,” along with “happy,” are recurring catchwords, established by the deadpan band--the Sarah Silvermans--in their opening set.

This heralds their namesake, a Generation-X conflation of Dorothy Parker, Parker Posey and Natalie Wood’s Marjorie Morningstar. She begins pushing buttons immediately, ingenuously remarking, “I was raped to that song,” while hilariously shooing the musicians away.

What follows is scabrously funny, Voltaire-level satire in stand-up guise, grounded by Silverman’s central tenet: Mankind’s only remaining means by which to conquer fear is ridicule. No taboo topic escapes her, from her interfaith relationship (supplying the show’s title), through her gasp-inducing analogy concerning the way 9/11 has conjoined the mundane to the monumental, to the riotous finale, a rendition of “You Are My Sunshine” that must be seen to be disbelieved.

Such trenchant fearlessness, along with Silverman’s mastery of calculated spontaneity, may well galvanize Manhattan, where “Jesus Is Magic” opens at the Culture Project next month.

David C. Nichols

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“Jesus Is Magic,” Second City Studio Theatre, 8156 Melrose Ave., Hollywood. Wednesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Ends Thursday. $10. (323) 651-2583, Ext. 176. Mature audiences. Running time: 50 minutes.