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CNN Larry King Live

Interview With Michelle Obama's Brother; Interview With Sarah Silverman

Aired April 20, 2010 - 21:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, his sister is married to President Obama. Michelle's big brother Craig Robinson is here. How he played a role in the first couple's courtship. Why he wanted candidate Obama to get mad during the campaign. And what a basketball game revealed about our commander in chief.

Comedian Sarah Silverman exposes her most private and personal thoughts about virginity and the Vatican and depression and drugs, and the one thing she won't make fun of, ever, next on "Larry King Live."

Good evening. Great pleasure to welcome Craig Robinson to "Larry King Live." Michelle Obama's older brother, men's basketball coach of the Oregon State Beavers, author of the new book "A Game of Character." A family journey from Chicago's south side to the Ivy League and beyond.

Craig was introduced to the world in a sense on the night of August 25th, 2008. That's when he got the chance to introduce his sister Michelle at the Democratic National Convention. Here is a little of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRAIG ROBINSON, MICHELLE OBAMA'S BROTHER: Please join me in welcoming an impassioned public servant, a loving daughter, wife, and mother, my little sister and our nation's next first lady, Michelle Obama!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: What was that like for you, Craig?

ROBINSON: Spectacular, Larry. I just -- I can't even put it in words hardly still. It was such an honor to be a part of that and be able to introduce my sister. It was a great honor.

KING: I understand that you wanted Oprah to do it, is that right?

ROBINSON: Well, here is what I thought when they asked me. I thought they were joking. You know, just trying to keep it the campaign live. But they were serious and I said do you really want a basketball coach to stand there in front of all these people and introduce the woman who could be the next first lady. I said don't you want someone like Oprah? And that is what I said to them.

KING: Now, did that experience entice you or prompt you to write this book "A Game of Character" which I hold in my hands, and which has just been published? Did that entice you?

ROBINSON: It was part of the process that sort of pushed me over. It was the tipping point so to speak. What happened was, Larry, when my dad died about 19 years ago, a year before my son was born, my oldest son was born. And he was the guy who was the keeper of the folklore in our family and he told the stories at family events, Thanksgiving, Christmas, he talked about his grandparents and their upbringing.

He talked about his upbringing, and he was passing stories along to everyone in the family and when he died, I thought gee, I ought to start chronicling some of these stories so we don't forget them. And that was the first time I thought about it. And then as I gain mid own experiences in life and moved on, and I was trying to figure out what makes a person memorable like my father, or like a good coach or a good corporate leader, or even a good politician, it all comes back to character.

And "A Game of Character" is basically a love letter that I wrote to my family whose values will resonate with people in the boardroom, on the basketball court and at the dinner table.

KING: Terrific part of the book is you -- Michelle introducing Barack to you and the parents. You conclude that he is the kind of guy your sister would not run over, but your parents predict she would eat him alive. So they were wrong. What did you see in him?

ROBINSON: You know, there wasn't anything, you know, spectacular that I saw. I think the way I was looking at it is being on that side of the fence, which I had been where you go to meet the family of the woman you're dating, I thought he carried himself extremely well. He was tall, first of all, and my sister is almost six feet tall herself.

So I knew she would like that. And he was -- he was obviously intelligent, but he had a great sort of emotional intelligence to him. You know, he connected well with my family. He connected well with me. He was one of these guys, one of these Harvard law school guys that didn't lead with saying I'm from Harvard law school. I really liked him right away. And I don't think my parents didn't like him. I think that, you know, we just hadn't seen any long-term relationships. So we just -- they just figured it might not work out.

KING: Your late father, Fraser, a remarkable man. Anyone who reads this book will understand that. Do you think Michelle compared guys to him?

ROBINSON: I would have to say absolutely yes. You know, in the book I talk about my wedding, my marriage -- the wedding to my second wife Kelly. And my sister gave a very warm father's day speech. And she talked about how she really looked up to my father. And I'm absolutely positive that both of us use him as a benchmark for not only relationships, but how to treat your kids, how -- I certainly use them for how to treat my wife and problems I've run into on a daily basis, you know. He was a spectacular man.

KING: After a year of the introduction, Michelle asked you to include him in a game of pickup basketball, and you write that you learned a lot from that. Now you played at Princeton. He did not play at Harvard. What did you learn from that?

ROBINSON: Well, you know, the story goes, you know, my sister grew up in the same house as me listening to my dad and me talk about what you can tell a person based on how they play the game. What kind of person they are, what their tendencies are and, you know, initially I didn't want to. I didn't want to be the guy to come back and say oh, no, this guy turns out to be a jerk on the court.

And she pleaded with me to do it, and I did, and found him to be very unselfish, very -- ability to read, ability to know what to do in situations. Pickup basketball is a very integrity-driven game, you know, where you have to make calls and you have to give up calls when somebody makes a call against you. And most of all, Larry the most impressive thing was that he didn't try and pass the ball to me every single time down the court to impress me in order to impress my sister.

KING: The book is "A Game of Character." A family journey from Chicago's south side to the Ivy League and beyond. A great story. More with the author and first brother-in-law, and Oregon State coach Craig Robinson after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: I can't tell you how much it means to have Craig and my mom here tonight. Like Craig, I can feel my dad looking down on us, just as I've felt his presence in every grace-filled moment of my life. And at 6'6", I've often felt like Craig was looking down on me too, literally. But the truth is both when we were kids and today, Craig wasn't looking down on me. He was watching over me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I've interviewed your sister about three or four times. She is quite a lady. But did you look at -- was there a moment in the campaign when you looked at Barack Obama and said I think he is going to win?

ROBINSON: Well, Larry, I'm -- I'm a basketball coach. So I would never have said that until he actually won. I'm extremely superstitious. But there were times when I felt more confident than other times. And, you know --

KING: Were there times when you were less confident?

ROBINSON: You know, I just didn't know. This was my first opportunity -- it was really my first opportunity to work that closely with a -- with a campaign like that. And, you know, I talk about in a game of character how my dad always taught me to be never too high and never too low. And I really tried to do that during the campaign. I just -- I wanted to just keep my nose to the grindstone, do the little bit of a job they asked me to do, and then hope for the best.

KING: Did you want him to get angrier?

ROBINSON: There is a point there I did, and I talk about that in the book. It's a pretty funny anecdote because it was a time there when I thought that the game was getting a little rough, and it was time to throw a couple elbows. And, you know, it's funny that I talk about this in the book, I talk to David Plough, and he used my own strategy on me.

When things get tough and people say bad things about me and my sister or my mom would say boy, I really don't like that. I would say I know what I'm doing. I love what I'm doing, don't worry what people say. David had to say that to me and say may hey, look, calm down, you got to stay at 30,000 feet. It was lesson that I learned from him. And in the book I talk not only about my father, but other people that I've learned things from over the years.

KING: Your brother-in-law was heckled last night at an LA fundraiser for Senator Barbara Boxer and the Democratic party. Here is how he handled it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Equality for all --

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm sorry, do you want to come up here? You know, all right, because can I just say once again, Barbara and I are supportive of repealing don't ask don't tell. So I don't know why you're hollering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Have you ever seen him lose his cool?

ROBINSON: Let me think about that? I don't think I have. Not even on the basketball court. I have not seen him lose his cool.

KING: That would be the primary test?

ROBINSON: What would be, Larry?

KING: The basketball court.

ROBINSON: Yes, if you don't lose your cool on there, you probably can hold it pretty well.

KING: You're not kidding. Craig Robinson has written a terrific book "A Game of Character." We'll be back with some more moments with him right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KING: We're back with Craig Robinson, the older brother of the first lady of the United States and the author of "A Game of Character." There is so much anger now in the political atmosphere, very nasty, some of it hateful. How is your sister holding up?

ROBINSON: You know, I think she is holding up just fine. And I think she -- she's actually doing what a lot of what I talk about in the book that we learned from our parents. And that you can't -- you can't let what people say change the way you feel or change the way you think. And it's been really nice to be able to follow them and watch them stick to their guns and do what they believe in.

KING: Did your sister or brother-in-law or both read the book?

ROBINSON: My sister and my mom both read the book. I don't think my brother-in-law has read it yet. He has been pretty busy. But both my mom and my sister read the book. And I would not have handed the book in if they hadn't liked it. I was -- I am pleased to say that they really enjoyed the book and enjoyed the stories, and not only are they stories about my mom and dad, but they're stories about high school coaches, au coaches, high school teachers, college coaches, and other mentors throughout my life.

KING: Why did you want your mother to live in the White House?

ROBINSON: Well, you know it wasn't -- it wasn't my idea. But once the idea was floated out there, I thought it would be great for my mom, basically. I knew it would be great for my sister and my nieces, but I really thought that it was an opportunity for her to enjoy her grandkids.

What you have to know about my mom is she is the type of mother- in-law and mother that is not an interferer. So to get her to pick up and move at this late stage of the game, and not only move, but move in with her family, that was hard to do.

KING: You were a fourth round pick in the NBA draft. Did you give it a shot?

ROBINSON: I did, Larry. I went -- I got drafted by the Philadelphia 76rs the year after they won the championship and went to rookie free agent camp with them and into summer league and then once I got cut, I was fortunate enough to play overseas for a couple of years.

You know, I tell a couple stories about playing over in Europe. And I don't want to say I didn't want to play in the NBA, but getting a chance to live and work in another country really opened my eyes about a lot of things. And I was fortunate to be able to do that.

KING: You learn a lot in getting cut?

ROBINSON: You know, that's one of those where you learn -- you learn from it later. When it happens, it hurts so bad, you don't want to deal with it, but you do. And what you learn is that not everybody can do everything. Not every guy can be in the NBA. Not every guy can be the president of the United States. But you have to be able to bounce back from those failures so to speak and be able to do something else. And in "A Game of Character" I talk about how my dad used the analogy of don't just be a player who plays a position, be a player who plays the entire game.

KING: We have less than a minute. What do you like most about coaching?

ROBINSON: I really like the competition, first and foremost. But the most important thing is having an impact on young adults and being able to share some of the things that Marian and Fraser Robinson shared with me to help get me to where I am with guys who are going through very similar situations. That's a really, really refreshing and fulfilling feeling.

KING: Great having you with us. Look forward to many more visits, Craig. And give my regards back home.

ROBINSON: Thanks, Larry. Thank you so much for having me on.

KING: Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama's older brother, the men's basketball coach Oregon State Beavers and author of "A Game of Character: A Family Journey from Chicago's Southside to the Ivy League and Beyond."

Next, Sarah Silverman, the woman can tell a joke.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A kid comes home from school, and he says mom, mom, I got a part in a school play. I'm playing the Jewish husband. And the mother said you march back to that school and tell them you want a speaking role.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We now welcome to "Larry King Live" Sarah Silverman, one of my favorite people, a comedian, Emmy-nominated actress. The season finale of her comedy central show "The Sarah Silverman Show" aired last week, and her first book just released is titled "The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee."

There you see its cover. I have it in my hands. We welcome Sarah Silverman. One of the working titles of your book was "Tales of a Horse-Faced Jew Monkey." What made you switch to the bed wetter?

SARAH SILVERMAN, "THE BEDWETTER": It seemed catchier, the Bedwetter, and oddly, slightly less self-deprecating.

KING: All right, tell me about bedwetting. You bedwetted until you were 16 years old. Do doctors know the reason for it?

SILVERMAN: Yes, I was really small for my age. I was a tiny, tiny kid, and didn't really go through puberty until I was like 17 or 18. And so it's called enuresis and my bladder was too small. I think my parents worried and stuff, and it was a bit of a burden. And it was something that I thought would be my -- a life-long shame, you know, like my biggest, darkest secret. KING: Do you think that it's therefore used in your comedy, as it developed you as well?

SILVERMAN: I think that, you know, being a bedwetter, especially at such an awkward age of getting way too old to be a bedwetter, you know, in my early teens and everything, that kind of humiliation, I mean I was -- bless my parents. They thought they were doing everything right, but sent to sleepover camps since I was six.

And it's so humiliating that I think by the time I started comedy, and the biggest fear in that is I could bomb. I was like yes, no problem. Bombing doesn't seem like such a big deal, you know, not nearly as humiliating as a 14-year-old welting her sleeping bag at a sleepover, you know.

KING: Give you a lot of credit here. You write very personally about bedwetting and sex and drugs and depression. Why do that?

SILVERMAN: In that order.

KING: Why do that?

SILVERMAN: I always thought it was corny when people would write a book and be you know I wrote it so I could help other girls. But I mean I think the reason that seems trite is because it's true there is a part of me that went -- that thought to myself I would love to have read this book as a kid. And I know that it did help me.

There was a time when I was probably about 13 and I was watching "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson and this actress came on. And she was so beautiful, and so elegant, and she talked about how she was a bedwetter as a kid. And I couldn't believe it, you know. I couldn't believe that someone would talk so cavalierly about that, and that it wasn't this giant shame.

And it was kind of huge for me. It just seems like there is a lot of stuff in the book that I think if I was -- and I'm not saying this is a book for kids, necessarily. But I think if I had read it, I would have had a lot more -- possibly had more perspective on the things that pained me so.

KING: Aside from a lot of toilet humor and you love toilet humor, let's admit it. You like toilet humor.

SILVERMAN: It's OK. I like it. I don't like like it.

KING: I say you like it.

SILVERMAN: Do you not like it?

KING: Yes, sure, it's funny. Toilet humor is funny. There is also some very sweet stories in the book. So you let the sweet side out of you. So you are saying you are sweet?

SILVERMAN: I'm not saying anything! That's for the reader to decide. KING: But you do write of sweet things.

SILVERMAN: Well, you know, just like the salty parts, it's subjective. But yes, I wrote very honestly and I wrote, you know, a bunch of essays that were true from my life that I thought would be amusing. And I just wrote it honestly, you know.

KING: Is anything off limits for Sarah? We'll ask her that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: A majestic picture on the cover. The book, "The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption, and Pee," by Sarah Silverman.

Yes. You joke very graphically, I might add, about things that aren't usually funny like rape, race, religion, AIDS, and the holocaust. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SILVERMAN: I love how Palestinians and Jews hate each other. It tickles me, because honestly, what's the difference? They're brown and pushy.

(LAUGHTER)

SILVERMANN: You know everybody blames the Jews for killing Christ, and then the Jews try to pass it off on the Romans. You know I'm one of the few people that believe it was the blacks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: All right, Sarah, is anything off limits? Is there anything you won't joke about?

SILVERMAN: Probably not. I mean I think -- a lot of people say you joke about rape and aids and everything. But I'm not joking about those things. I think that's more of a reflection of people reacting to buzz words and not really listening to the content or the context, you know.

I'm almost always the idiot in my jokes. And the subject matter just happens to be about dark, dark things. But I guess if there is anything I wouldn't talk about, and people ask me that. And I always kind of think -- and it's so specific, but like fat jokes about women.

That always bums me out because I feel like we live in a country where fat women -- at least in white America -- don't deserve love. You know? And I -- I don't think that's true for men, you know. You see every sitcom star is like a fat guy with some gorgeous wife.

But we live in a country that it really feels that way. It feels -- it's in the ether. And that just makes me sad to make a joke of it or to make light of it. It tends to be more mean-spirited, you know. You know? I know that sounds so specific.

KING: I'm going to pay you --

SILVERMAN: And I wouldn't be down on someone who would make a joke about that because who would I be?

KING: Yes.

SILVERMAN: But it's just not my cup of tea.

KING: I'm going to pay you a good compliment now. I knew Lenny Bruce was great friend of mine, and Lenny would have loved you.

SILVERMAN: Really?

KING: And I mean that. Yes, he would have.

SILVERMAN: That's a great compliment.

KING: When you come up with -- when you come up with a joke, do you -- is shock part of it? Are you thinking, I'm using this, I will be shocking people?

SILVERMAN: I think that it's -- you know, I talk about it in the book, and it wasn't something I realized until I started doing interviews like this. And you know how like the biggest revelations are always so simple?

So there is a story that, you know, when I was like 3, my dad taught me swears. You know? He thought it was hilarious to teach a 3-year-old swears. So I would shout out these swears in the middle of the supermarket. And I saw at 3 years old this reaction that was shock and delight.

And it was -- it felt like approval. And I feel like I got kind of addicted to it. Like it made my arms itch, you know? And it makes sense that that would kind of inform my later life. And I think that it did.

But that said, I don't sit around going how can I be shocking because I think that once the formula is figured out, it's no longer shocking, you know?

KING: Yes. What --

SILVERMAN: And -- so I -- and I also don't -- I don't -- I never -- I just write whatever is funny to me. And I try to stick with that because I think that comedy kind of dies in second guessing the audience, you know? And that's why some people like me and some people don't.

KING: What do you -- what to you -- what is offensive to you?

SILVERMAN: Um --

(LAUGHTER)

KING: Nothing, Sarah, right?

SILVERMAN: No, no, no. That's not true. I am offended by things. I think people get offended by things that are very specific to their own life experience, you know? So something that might be offensive to me, it comes from something that -- an experience that I had, you know?

But I think -- or you know something that's funny that is so subjective. You know, so if somebody says something that is mean- spirited, that to me isn't funny, isn't more funny than it is mean- spirited.

KING: Yes.

SILVERMAN: Then I'll probably won't be for me, you know? But I can't really say blanketly -- is that a word? Blanketly? What offends me.

KING: If it isn't a word, we just made it a word.

SILVERMAN: Let's do it.

KING: We'll be back with Sarah Silverman. The book is "The Bedwetter." Sarah had -- how shall we say -- an interesting time at "Saturday Night Live." It didn't last long. We'll ask about it ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(VIDEO CLIP, "SARAH SILVERMAN: JESUS IS MAGIC")

KING: My guest is Sarah Silverman. Her very revealing, very funny, very intimate book is "The Bedwetter." She goes into great detail about suffering from depression as a kid.

At one point you say taking 16 Xanax a day as a 14-year-old.

SILVERMAN: You know, it was the '80s. And I think it was maybe a time where you didn't question doctors. And it was totally crazy. I mean, the woman who prescribed this and kept upping my prescription should be in prison, I think, you know.

I remember -- she kept upping it and upping it until I was taking four Xanax four times a day. I was 14. And --

KING: How depressed were you?

SILVERMAN: How depressed were you? I -- you know, it -- it felt very chemical. It just felt like a cloud coming over the sun. I didn't understand it. And I remember my stepfather was the one person who said like what does it feel like?

And the only way I could describe it is it felt like I was home sick, but I was home. So there was no way to satiate it, you know? (LAUGHTER)

KING: I don't mean to laugh, but that's funny.

SILVERMAN: Yes. Yuck it up, my pain, my childhood pain, Larry.

KING: Why did you drop out of NYU?

SILVERMAN: That was a deal I made with my dad. I went to NYU for a year. I was doing stand-up. And I loved it. But my dad said that -- he said I'll make you a deal. If you drop out of NYU, I will pay your rent and utilities for the next three years, as if it were you sophomore, junior, senior years.

And you know, it saved him a lot of money and, you know, it enabled me to focus on comedy, which was what I knew I was doing, you know. And I didn't need a degree for it. But I stole a bunch of classes from NYU actually after that. I just took --

KING: Stole them?

SILVERMAN: Yes. I just took the big lecture-sized classes and, you know, no one --

KING: Took the education.

SILVERMAN: -- took attendance or anything. Yes, I took classes I was interested in and I showed up.

KING: Hey, by the way. You were hired by "Saturday Night Live." You're in your early 20s. You were there only a year. Nothing got on the air. What happened at "Saturday Night Live"?

SILVERMAN: I'll tell you why nothing got on the air. I was 21. And I was hired at "Saturday Night Live" as a writer and feature performer. And it turns out the reason why I didn't get any sketches on -- and I found this out recently while reviewing them because I saved them all these years -- they were terrible.

(LAUGHTER)

SILVERMAN: They were terrible. So I think they made the right decision. But it was an amazing year. It was such a comedy boot camp. And down to getting fired, you know. But it was a great -- it was a great experience.

KING: All helps.

SILVERMAN: And I still watch it every Saturday.

KING: Your mainstream popularity really took off in 2008 with a video you did for your then boyfriend Jimmy Kimmel about your relationship with Matt Damon. Let's watch some of this that we can show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE") SILVERMAN: Hey, Jimmy, it's me. I'm in a hotel -- I don't know. I've been on the road so long I -- I don't even know what city I'm in anymore to be honest. Any way, I've been thinking about you a lot. And I've been needing to tell you something.

I don't know why I haven't, but it's important. I mean, we've been together for so long, over five years, and I still haven't told you, and it's just not right. So here it goes.

I'm (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Matt Damon.

MATT DAMON, ACTOR: She's (EXPLETIVE DELETED) Matt Damon.

SILVERMAN: I'm sorry, but it's true.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

SILVERMAN: Oh, so good.

KING: You can put your own word in there.

(LAUGHTER)

KING: What a romance, torrid one that carried on for over six months? Sarah had a very public -- what? What do you want to say, what?

SILVERMAN: No, not saying nothing. Zip.

KING: OK. Sarah had a very public relationship with Jimmy Kimmel. He is hardly mentioned in the book. We'll ask why when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: You talk about a lot of things in "The Bedwetter," little about Jimmy Kimmel. Why?

SILVERMAN: No reason. I wrote -- the book is essays, personal essays, stories that I think are interesting, stories from my life. And, you know, there are big chunks of important parts of my life that aren't in there because it's just -- it just -- it's not a chronological tell-all.

It's just like this was a great story, this is a great story that happened to me. This is -- you know, I mean, I'm very close with my stepmother is a huge part of my life since I was 7, Janice Silverman. She is barely mentioned in the book. You know? There's a lot of people --

KING: Has Jimmy talked to you about the book?

SILVERMAN: No. It comes out tomorrow. But I'm sure he'll read it. He's --

KING: You say in your book -- you say in your book you were part of the reason that President Obama was elected. Let's take a look at your call to action for the Jewish vote. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SILVERMAN: Jews are the most liberal, scrappy, civil rightsy people there are. Yes, that's true. But you're forgetting a whole large group of Jews that are not that way. And they go by several aliases. Nana, papa, zady, bubby, plain old grandma and grandpa.

These are the people who vote in Florida. And the Florida vote can make or break an election. If you don't think that's true, why don't you think back to two elections ago when a little man named Al Gore got (EXPLETIVE DELETED) by Florida.

I'm making this video to urge you, all of you, to schlep over to Florida and convince your grandparents to vote Obama.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

KING: He's never given her credit, but Sarah Silverman did pull the vote for Barack Obama who won in the state of Florida. Your video about the great schlep gave you some credibility with the Jewish population, but another one --

SILVERMAN: Finally!

KING: -- of your videos had you -- had you in hot water with Catholics. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SILVERMAN: Think about it. We need a hero. And who is more primed to be our hero than the Pope. He's literally a caped crusader. What is the Vatican worth? Like $500 billion?

This is great. Sell the Vatican, take a big chunk of that money, build a gorgeous condominium for you and all of your friends to live in, all the amenities, swimming pool, tennis court, water slide.

And with the money left over, feed the whole (EXPLETIVE DELETED) world.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

KING: What response did you get from that?

SILVERMAN: You know, there were people that were upset and they felt like it was an attack, an attack of the Catholic Church by a Jew. And I mean, Larry, I'm not Jewish by -- I have no religion.

I'm just Jewish in the way that it oozes out of my pores uncontrollably. I can't -- it's beyond my control, but personally I have no religion. I wasn't -- I wasn't putting down the Catholic Church as a Jew. I was acknowledging that the Vatican has unbelievable riches and resources that if, you know, Jesus went into a whole tizzy for people selling their wares in a temple. Could you imagine how crazy he would go if he saw the Vatican and the riches and wealth of the Vatican in comparison to the hunger in the world?

I'm not just saying Catholics should pay for, you know, feeding the world. I'm saying everybody should do their part and what an opportunity you have, Catholic Church and the Vatican, to just sell a couple of pieces of art or something or -- you know, it's an opportunity to be a hero.

And I'm not putting down religion, I'm putting down a place that is -- has enormous wealth. It's a house that's a city. The Pope could, like -- well, I could go on and on. But you know, it's not an attack on religion, it's just like, really, ultimately, what would Jesus do? More than anything else. You know? What would Jesus do?

KING: Are you agnostic?

SILVERMAN: Yes, I'm agnostic. I don't know. I just don't know. I think people need religion because they need to know. They need to get their head around it. But you know, I don't know. I don't know what the answers are. I can't --

KING: Who knows? Well, the "Sarah Silverman" program --

SILVERMAN: Are you agnostic? Are you agnostic?

KING: Yes, I am. Yes. Will the "Sarah Silverman" program return for another season? We'll get the answers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with Sarah Silverman. The book is "The Bedwetter."

Your Comedy Central show, "The Sarah Silverman" program, just had its season finale last week.

Any word -- give us the word now, this could be exclusive. Is it coming back?

SILVERMAN: Not that I know of. I can't imagine it would, but I -- what?

(LAUGHTER)

SILVERMAN: I mean, I don't know, but I don't -- if I were a guessing man, I'd say no. But we loved it --

KING: Why?

SILVERMAN: We loved it so much. We loved doing it, we loved each other. And it was the -- may be the best experience of my life. But I don't know, I mean, if I were Comedy Central, I don't know. I mean, we're -- half the time, when you would click on my show, it would be another show, like, I don't think they -- I think their passion for us died and the ratings weren't huge this year at all, and you know we have a small group of big fans, but I think we needed a big group of big fans, because even though we're a cheap show for any other network, we're an expensive show for Comedy Central, you know?

And --

KING: What -- so what -- in view of that, what do you want to do next? Do you want to do regular television?

SILVERMAN: I want to take over LARRY KING LIVE. I'm sorry.

KING: Why?

SILVERMAN: I just feel I'm a better fit.

KING: Join the world. This is the best job in television. Get in line.

SILVERMAN: I just feel I'm a better fit. I'm sorry.

KING: Well, you are Jewish. That's a help. You're younger.

SILVERMAN: Mm-hmm.

KING: But you can't --

(CROSSTALK)

SILVERMAN: Suspenders bring out my broad shoulders.

KING: That's right. But you've got to interview people about subjects and sometimes you can't get risque. And a lot of times you have to be very serious, and sometimes you have to discuss world events and sometimes great medical issues.

Think about it, Sarah. Ponder. Ponder. Still want to do it?

SILVERMAN: Yes.

KING: No.

SILVERMAN: No.

KING: I'm seriously concerned here. How about bringing bathroom humor to LARRY KING LIVE? What about --

SILVERMAN: That's what it needs. We need to bring it into the 20 -- uh --

KING: First?

SILVERMAN: First? Yes. The 21st century.

KING: Century. Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

SILVERMAN: I'm still saying the 20th.

KING: All right. Give me a bathroom joke.

SILVERMAN: Uh --

KING: Any one of your Sarah Silverman repertoire.

SILVERMAN: Of my personal jokes?

KING: Any joke. Just give me a joke.

SILVERMAN: You know what? I just -- I love this joke. It's an old Jewish joke.

KING: OK.

SILVERMAN: Is that good?

KING: Good.

SILVERMAN: All right. The kid comes home from school and he says, mom, mom, I got a part in the school play. I'm playing the Jewish husband. And the mother said, you march back to that school and tell them you want a speaking role.

(LAUGHTER)

KING: That's a funny joke.

SILVERMAN: See, I can be for everyone?

KING: That's good. You wrote that if there's anything to take away from reading your book, it's your manta, make it a treat. Explain that.

SILVERMAN: My best friend from high school, Terry Corbitt, told me make it a treat. Can I say that I was smoking pot? I was in college, I was smoking pot, morning until night, and I go to pass it to her, and she goes, no, thank you.

And I was like, why, you smoke pot. And she goes, yes, but I don't make it my job. She's like, make it a treat at the end of the day when all work is done, yes, maybe have a puff.

But it's true with everything, you know? It's like make it a treat. Like I don't -- I dress like a slob, I know, I'm very casual. But when I put on makeup and put a dress on, people are like, ah, look at you in a dress. You know? But if I wore a dress all the time, I would not wear a dress and just look like this and people would go like, uh. Right?

KING: One quick thing, Sarah. We -- SILVERMAN: So make it a treat.

KING: We can't leave without asking you, my producers say I must ask you. Sarah Palin, what do you think? Sarah Palin? I got to say her name because we have to say it every night.

Sarah Palin. What do you say?

SILVERMAN: Oh, about what? Her posing in "Playboy"? I think she should go for it.

KING: Agreed. Thank you, Sarah.

SILVERMAN: Thank you.

KING: Good luck with "The Bedwetter."

SILVERMAN: Thank you.

KING: The book "The Bedwetter: Stories of Courage, Redemption and Pee." Sarah Silverman.

Actor Tom Sizemore is here tomorrow night, clean and sober now. Wasn't always that way.

Tom Sizemore, Wednesday night on LARRY KING LIVE.

Now "AC 360" and Anderson Cooper.