Chris Romano is back in his home state for ‘An Evening with Sarah Silverman’

Nashua Telegraph - Nashua, NH, USA - Chris Romano began his association with Sarah Silverman by being the butt of her jokes.

The event was the Channel 101 – or Channy – Awards, a festival acknowledging the best in short films on the Internet.

At the Los Angeles ceremony, Romano found himself being dissed left and right by Silverman.

“She was making fun of me in the jokes. I didn’t even know her,” said Romano, a Nashua native and 1996 graduate of Nashua High School.

He was introduced to her at the end of the show.

“I was the guy you were making fun of,” Romano said to Silverman.

“Oh, nice to meet you,” she responded.

It turns out that some mutual friends had suggested that Romano, an actor and writer who has worked on such shows as “South Park” and “Acceptable TV,” might be a good target at the awards show.

A quintessential L.A. moment, the introduction led to collaboration. Romano now writes for “The Sarah Silverman Program” and will join Silverman in appearing July 9 at the Palace Theatre in Manchester. The show is already sold out.

Silverman is from Bedford, and the show will benefit the New Thalian Players, a Manchester community theater group founded by Silverman’s mother.

The Palace Theatre show will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and will also feature Silverman’s older sister and fellow comedy actress, Laura Silverman.

Romano will perform a 15-minute comedy segment at the show.

Soon after they met, Silverman picked up that she was meeting a homeboy, of sorts, Romano recalls.

“She could hear it in my accent. She thought I was from Boston,” he said.

Silverman has made a name as one of the funniest and most irreverent talents in the business, from her hit show on Comedy Central to such films as “Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic” and “The Aristocrats” to her video send-up involving Matt Damon and her boyfriend, Kimmel.

Not surprisingly, writing for Silverman’s show is a blast, Romano said.

“It’s a really, really fun job,” he said, noting that the gig pretty much involves hanging out with Silverman and the six other writers, talking about what they did the night before, and deciding based on those nights out, “Oh, that would be fun to put in the show.”