The Intiman stage, otherwise known as Comedy Stage North, is presently dressed for that theater’s production of The Year of Magical Thinking, based on Joan Didion’s death-suffused memoir. (First the husband, then the daughter…) Depressing play, cryptic set–a dock descending down onto a sloped beach. Hard to make a graceful entrance or exit for any comedian. Tonight’s “mystery guest” to the Eugene Mirman show turned out to be indie comedienne Sarah Silverman, who can be expected to show up with her buddies Patton Oswalt and David Cross during their scheduled Bumbershoot shows. We approve of the camaraderie and mutual support, but did anyone tell these performers why the Intiman set was so fraught with danger and mortality?The designated MC for all Bumbershoot comedy shows seems to be Peter Holmes, a likeable, conventional, reasonably funny face from VH1. He’s the kind of guy who asks the audience where they’re from. Hey–Denmark? That’s like Copenhagen, which is like the brand of snuff, right? Except, dude, you’re on stage in a theater, so Denmark is like Hamlet, dig? And did no one tell poor Holmes–who’s okay, not at all terrible–or Silverman about the Didion play? Because that would be interesting material.But instead, and I don’t care how tiring it is to fly from L.A. to Seattle, Silverman just died in her first Bumbershoot appearance of the weekend. She was terrible. Her biggest laugh (after the jump) was an accident. Hey, can you think of a dirty word that she might like to pronounce for a laugh….Yes, that word is “pussy.” And after she’s tired of that, she moves on to “cunt.” Oh, hey, no one is laughing? Let’s play guitar and sing songs about cunts, like a campfire tune. Cunt, cunt, cunt. Everyone! Let’s all sing along.Silverman herself cops to being 38, and we respect her honesty about age and ethnicity. But the JAP with the potty mouth thing might’ve worked 10 years ago, before her Comedy Central show and “I’m Fucking Matt Damon” video, but it is tired now. She was tired. Her material was tired. Her delivery was to the camera–which is to say the few faces in the very first row. So averse is she to the Jerry Seinfeld era of comedy, the joke-joke-joke presentation of varied, crafted material, that she just fell back on the (mis)perceived love of the audience. “I love you, Sarah,” some idiot screamed early in her show. Yeah, fine, so did Jimmy Kimmel, and we’re not going along with his judgment either.Fifteen minutes of Silverman was 15 minutes too many. Miming masturbation? Sarah, your audience can do that at home–for real. And without paying $50 for the privilege.After her patter songs fell flat, after consulting her set list and many swigs of water to kill time, Silverman did deliver one big laugh. Launching herself backward after one joke, she tripped on the fake dock set for The Year of Magical Thinking, which would be hard for even the most seasoned actress to navigate gracefully. (Imagine backing up into a curb.)Splat! Silverman was flat on her ass–water bottle rolling into her audience, her mic rolling under the fake dock. It was a pratfall so unexpected that it almost looked practiced, like part of the show. (One could then imagine–wish for–fake doctors Mirman and David Cross to race out and administer CPR…should they unbutton her blouse, or would that be pervy?)Fortunately, Silverman wasn’t hurt, and she laughed along with the audience, even after reaching beneath the planks to recover her mic. It was a nice recovery, even if it didn’t save her act. And maybe after a good night’s sleep, she’ll do better on Sunday and Monday. Certainly Joan Didion recovered from worse.For all our festival coverage, visit Bumbershoot.SeattleWeekly.com.