REVIEW: Sarah Sherman Delights And Disgusts In ‘Sarah Squirm: Live + In The Flesh’
- Emma Fisher
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
This article contains spoilers for Sarah Squirm: Live + In the Flesh.
Sarah Sherman has always been one of Saturday Night Live’s strangest and most valuable assets since joining the cast five years ago in Season 47. Her chemistry with Colin Jost on Weekend Update quickly became a standout and has since become where the show lets her shine. However, her new stand-up special, Sarah Squirm: Live + In The Flesh, proves something else entirely: that Sherman is not solely funny within the confines of SNL. As Sarah Squirm, her unholy alter ego, she is uniquely disgusting, and this special gives her the freedom to push that persona to its fullest and foulest potential.
The special opens with a cameo from John Waters, known for his bizarre and beloved unconventional comedies, whose presence immediately sets the tone of and stage for what is to come. While brief, Waters’ involvement is so wonderfully natural that you’ll instantly want a full collaboration between the two.
Filmed earlier this year at The Bell House in Brooklyn, Live + In The Flesh is an hour of bodily fluids and functions, self-deprecation, and horror, distinguishing Sherman as a comedian unafraid to make audiences recoil and roar with laughter in the same breath. Within minutes, she reminds the audience that she is both the butt of the joke and the orchestrator of chaos, revelling in the grossness of it all.
Her crowd work is a particular delight. At one point, she asks who in the audience would like to be roasted, then instructs them to stand and spin around for her own amusement. "Who’s skinnier, me or this mic stand? Don't answer that. If you answer that you hate women,” she deadpans, breaking into a small bout of laughter. One of the most endearing aspects of Squirm’s performance is how she makes herself laugh at various points throughout the set. The joy is infectious, and the room can’t help but follow.
Weaker material includes toilet humour, which she clearly finds funnier than many viewers might, toeing the line between the humour you grow out of and gruesomeness. Yet, the majority of her jokes land. A light existential crisis over her $35 ticket price, and a reference to one of her most viral SNL moments, "Nice shirt, where did you get that, the fucking store?" ease you into it.
Her material also touches on her Jewish identity, her political awareness ("I'm a cool Jew, I believe in a Free Palestine"), and even her own heterosexuality, something she treats with theatrical disbelief. One of the show’s biggest laughs arrives when she describes a blue-haired bisexual audience member in the back reacting with horror upon learning that she has a boyfriend: "She's wearing the worst outfit I've ever seen in my entire life, she has the ugliest haircut I've ever seen in my entire life, and she's fucking straight? No. I want my money back."
Squirm pokes at her self-image constantly, something those familiar with her work will know is a guaranteed hit. Dressed head to toe in vibrant colour, another aspect that sets her apart from her peers, she claims that she’s “dressed like I’m ready for tummy time” but also “like Paula Poundstone fucked SpongeBob”. She mocks her limited SNL screen time, something that should unquestionably increase given both her talent and the sketch show’s notable lack of women in its 51st season, imagining an audience unimpressed by her “six seconds [of airtime] every fourteen months.” Yet she does so with affection rather than bitterness. She knows exactly who she is, what she has to offer, and how she appears. And crucially, she knows she’s funny, which is the greatest gift that she gives the audience.
Spoiling the last 15 minutes feels wrong, but it must be said that the body horror here is unlike anything else in contemporary stand-up. It’s well executed, shockingly creative, and so intensely Squirm that looking away feels impossible. By the time that she’s showing the audience splattered blood and asking them to guess the cause of each incident, you realise you’re watching a comedian as committed to grossing you out as she is to making you laugh. Unsurprisingly, she achieves both. It’s an aspect of comedy sorely missing today, one that Sherman and Squirm excel in. The show begins with haemorrhoids and ends with them, as though completing a perfect anatomical circle.
And she isn’t done yet. The special ends with a guided meditation, her own form of aftercare, accompanied by visuals that mesmerise rather than soothe. After an hour spent with the very best Sherman has to offer, it becomes clear that this, too, is entirely the point.
Sarah Squirm: Live + In The Flesh is a grotesque visual and comedic feast, reminding us that comedy can be visceral, risky, and gross. It’s something SNL desperately needs more of, but more importantly, it’s proof that Sherman should continue pushing herself and her alter-ego across stand-up, film, and television.
About Sarah Squirm: Live + In the Flesh
Premiere Date: December 12, 2025
Executive Producers: Sarah Sherman; Lorne Michaels, Hilary Marx, and Taylor Segal for Broadway Video; Ronald Bronstein, Eli Bush, and Josh Safdie for Central; Matthew Vaughan for Rotten Science; Dan McManus; and Jack Bensinger.
Director: Cody Critcheloe
Distribution: HBO Max
Cast: Sarah Sherman.
