18 Things to Know About Sarah Sherman AKA Sarah Squirm

The Jewish comedian's bat mitzvah was on April Fools' Day!

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Slowly but surely, leaves are changing color. In New York City, there’s now a chill in the air. Fall is finally here, and you know what that means: the newest season of Saturday Night Live is almost here! Through the years, SNL has featured some of our Jewish favorites like Andy Samberg, Maya Rudolph, and Adam Sandler. And now, our latest Jewish fave is, of course, Sarah Sherman!

Here are 18 things to know about Jewish comedian Sarah Sherman:

1. Sarah Sherman was born to a Jewish family.

2. Sarah is from “really Jewish Long Island.” “My phone number says “Garden City,” and that bothers me,” Sarah told VICE. I’m from really Jewish Long Island, and Garden City is really Catholic Long Island, so that’s where I draw the line.”

3. Check out this impression she did of her Jewish dad:

4. Sarah’s bat mitzvah date was a “gift from God.” It was held on April Fools’ Day and her invitations were sent in snakes in a can. Hilarious!

5. Sarah graduated from Northwestern University in 2015 with a degree in theater.

6. Sarah first got into comedy as an audience member: “I used to take the Long Island Rail Road to [Upright Citizens Brigade] to see ASSSSCAT when I was 17, and thought it was the coolest shit,” Sarah told an interviewer.

But it wasn’t until later that she began to find her niche:

“Then I moved to Chicago and was doing improv stuff, and was like, This isn’t who I am. This isn’t the proper vehicle to express myself. All the while I was getting into the noise and DIY scene…My friend Mike Sugarman would be getting naked and taping chorizo to his dick and screaming, another friend would dress like a clown in a psychotic carnival, another would put crickets in a bag and shake them in front of the audience. That’s where I started doing comedy, and it was like, This is it. This is where the freaks are.”

7. On stage, she goes by the moniker Sarah Squirm.

8. “Seinfeld“and “The Nanny“ are some of of Sarah’s comedic inspirations.

9. Her style of comedic is extremely visual, body-focused, and frankly, disgusting.

For example:

“My whole life I was taught that women are either sexualized or vulgarized,” Sarah has explained. “I’m talking about my own body politics, so I’m owning that shame, guilt, pain, and embarrassment by performing the act of torture on myself. If you’re telling me my pubes are disgusting, well, I’m going to make a video of my pubes growing and then strangling me.”

10. While working as a comic in Chicago, Sarah had a monthly show called “Helltrap Nightmare.” For one Helltrap Nightmare show she did, she had some very Jewish inspo:

“Throughout the night Sherman worked in front of a projection screen and early on she began a presentation ostensibly about her own bat mitzvah, only to have the discussion devolve into a series of videos demonstrating various hair-removal techniques, from threading to tweezing to waxing to shaving, all with over-the-top and increasingly gory footage of herself in costume as the offending hair being removed.”

Extremely relatable.

11. In 2019, Sarah had the opportunity to open for Jewish comedian Eric Andre for his Legalize Everything tour.

And  in 2020, Eric and Sarah campaigned for Bernie Sanders together!

12. We’re still talking about Bernie? You betcha! Here’s Sarah’s impression of the Jewish senator from Vermont, which she captions “Elect a Jew, Save the World”:

She’s a big Bernie fan, as a “mean loudmouth Jew”:

13. On Twitter, she is not just a vocal Bernie supporter — she is very good at niche Jewish tweets:

Related — unrelated? — Sarah never went on Birthright, and is a self-defined “cool punk Jew”:

14. Uncut Gems is “probably the best movie” Sarah’s ever seen. “When I saw it I was next to my boyfriend, who grew up Catholic, and the whole time I was leaning over him and saying, ‘You have no idea what’s going on in this movie, you idiot,’” Sarah said in an interview. “Every time I go home, I’m on Long Island for like eight minutes and I just have violent, eviscerating diarrhea because I’m so stressed out. That’s why Uncut Gems was so fucking perfect. ”

Her dream is to get cast in a Safdie brothers movie as an “ugly Jew” with stomach problems:

15. Her dad is an expert at Jewish guilt, whom she compares to Adam Sandler’s Howard Ratner in “Uncut Gems.” “He’s always calling me up on a High Holiday: ‘Did you go to shul?’ I’m like, ‘No.’ And he always says, ‘Just remember, 6 million in the oven, that’s all I’m gonna say.’ That’s Jewish guilt.”

16. Sarah has her own vaccine! Kinda. Watch this video she made to learn more:

17. Sarah’s also worked with Adult Swim, including this interview:

18. In 2020, she posted a faux-SNL audition tape on Twitter:

In addition to being funny, it looks like Sarah’s clairvoyant?? Mazels Sarah!! We can’t wait to see what you do on SNL!

Evelyn Frick

Evelyn Frick (she/they) is a writer and associate editor at Hey Alma. She graduated from Vassar College in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. In her spare time, she's a comedian and contributor for Reductress and The Onion.

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