With race, sex, religion jokes, comedian Silverman gets a loud laugh

"I just want to be able to look at me and see me ... as white."

So said Sarah Silverman, stand-up comedian, actress and writer, in her performance on Wednesday night at Richardson Auditorium, a show that students described as "relatively entertaining," "just so funny" and "excellent."

Typical for her comic acts, Silverman was unafraid to touch on the personal, like her relationship with Jimmy Kimmel, host of late night talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live," or the controversial, such as racism, abortion, rape, death and stereotypes of Jewish-Americans.

Among her most memorable punch lines were, "I tell my niece every time she loses at tag, an angel gets AIDS," "[The difference between killing six million Jews and 60 million Jews is that] 60 million would be unforgivable," and "I don't give money to [starving toddlers in Africa] because I don't want them to spend it on drugs."

Silverman, ironically, said at a reception following her routine that she was very sensitive about discrimination during her childhood, recalling one incident in third grade when a boy threw change at her and then yelled, "Pick it up, Jew!" Since then, however, she has learned to see the humor in situations that could otherwise be construed as insulting.

"I guess if you don't think it's funny, it's probably going to be offensive," Silverman said. "Sometimes I say things that I know are offensive. I think the funny has to outweigh the offensive."

"A lot my humor comes out of pain. Not my pain necessarily," she added.

During her act, Silverman repeatedly mined the most sensitive racial issues for laughs. After describing how she had once dated a guy who was half black, she added, "I'm such a pessimist. He was half white."

Silverman delivered numerous one-liners designed to make the audience simultaneously laugh and squirm.

"I don't care if you say that I'm racist. Just as long as you see me as a thin racist."

"The best time to get pregnant is when you're a black teenager. Obviously, that time for me has passed."

"I don't understand why the Jews and the Palestinians hate each other. They're both brown and pushy."

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Silverman was born in 1970 in Bedford, N.H., and has been acting since 12, when she had the title role in a Community Players of Concord production of "Annie." She started to perform stand-up comedy at 17. Silverman attended New York University for one year but then dropped out to focus on her career as a stand-up comedian.

In 1993, Silverman landed a job as a writer and actress on "Saturday Night Live," but none of her skits got aired and she was fired after one season. She then parodied her situation in an episode of "The Larry Sanders Show" by playing a new writer on Larry's staff whose jokes are rejected by the chauvinistic male head comedy writer.

In November 2005, Silverman released a film of her solo stand-up comedy act entitled "Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic," which grossed more than $1.3 million at the box office. She was also featured in the 2005 documentary "The Aristocrats," appearing in a brief scene that many critics described as the movie's funniest.

She is currently working on the next season of her show, The Sarah Silverman Program, which will air on Comedy Central starting April 2007.