Sam Morril was born and raised in New York. He first found comedy as the classroom clown but now is a regular name at all the top venues in the city. The Daily News included him in an article as ‘One of the four funniest in New York?’ and Comedy Central called his a ‘Comic to Watch’ in 2011. Times Square caught up with the rapidly rising star before his performance at Caroline’s on February 21^st.

Times Square (TS): Why have you chosen to develop your career here and how would you describe the New York comedy scene?

Sam Morril (SM): The main reason I have chosen to stay in NY is because I think it’s really the only place in the country to really get good at comedy. There are so many clubs and bars here where you can just get up and work on stuff at. So it is really like a comedy gym, it’s incredible how much stage time it is possible to get here.

TS: Do you watch a lot of comedy in New York?

SM: Yeah I’m a fan and that’s really why I started doing it. I was just a fan of the legends in comedy like Rodney Dangerfield, Carlin and Pryor and Chris Rock. I’m without a doubt a fan first.

TS: When did you first realize you could make people laugh?

SM: I always like making people laugh, I was always the asshole in class who would try to piss off the teacher just to make my classmates laugh. In my mind I felt I was taking a risk because I was getting trouble and it was a real rush but it’s a different risk now.

TS: Was this kind of comedy at your teachers’ expense?

SM: When I was younger it was at their expense because in my mind I was anti-authority and they are the authority. I felt like I was rebelling against them and that this was comedy. But then once I got older I realised that it is better when everyone is involved. Then I would try to make the teacher laugh too and I would get in a lot less trouble if I could!

TS: Do you find yourself cruising a fine line between having people on your side and making people feel uncomfortable?

SM: Yes of course because there’s always going to be the people who groan at jokes. But there is never a goal when I write a joke; I’m never thinking ‘well this will piss this person off’. I’m just telling what I think is going to be funny. Someone should be the butt of every joke. I make myself the butt of the joke enough that I think that it should give me kind of a free pass to making fun of people which is why I think I generally do get away with it.

TS: Can you tell us about your writing process?

SM: It varies because sometimes I’ll just sit in a coffee shop and pump out a one line joke and then I’ll just tell that joke word for word on stage. But other times I will have an idea and it will have to be fleshed out on stage. Sometimes you have the joke and you have the set up but you don’t quite know where it is going to go. So every once in a while you say the set up and you look at the laugh and the pressure of being in the moment will force you into a punch line. I don’t generally live that dangerously, however, as I generally have an idea of the punch line.

TS: So do you avoid improvisation if possible?

SM: You want to improvise but you also want to deliver. If I am getting paid to do comedy I feel like I have to give a better show than if I am doing a spot for free. If I doing a spot for free I feel like it is an unwritten agreement that I get to, not mess around, but to experiment. 

TS: Have you always had the confidence to experiment?

SM: No, that definitely comes over time. When I started I was absolutely to the script. I still remember my first set ever and I was so scared to even pause for laughter that I did joke after joke after joke. I saw some comics who really toyed with silence when I was just starting out. I thought it was very cool if you just know the joke is going to work. I think that a lot of laughs come from awkwardness so if you’re in control of that awkwardness people trust you and you can get away with a little more. 

TS: So once you’ve got the audience’s trust you can really exploit the pauses?

SM: Oh yeah. Do you know Patrice O'Neal? He’s a really funny guy who passed away recently and I was just listening to his last album and he opens the album by just ripping on the crowd for five minutes, making fun of them and getting one up on them. You see that he is so funny in the moment that you just trust his material. He talks about really dark stuff, he’s really edgy but you just trust him because he comes out guns blazing. 

TS: Bill Hicks does a lot of that.

SM: Oh totally, Hicks is another one. He also proves, alongside O'Neal, that if you are talking about that type of stuff you have got to be so confident.

TS: You are performing at Caroline’s on February 21^st. What kind of material should we expect?

SM: I tell a lot of just straight up jokes! I am not a big act up type of comedian, the way I am talking to you right now this is how I sound. If you act it can sound so insincere so I just have to talk in my normal voice. There is not a lot of high energy stuff, it is just me talking about my life, some opinions I have on things and some observations.

TS: You talk about alcohol often on stage and your love of drinking. Do you ever drink before or during your performance?

SM: I don’t drink if it is an important show, obviously I am not going to get loaded. But I work with guys who drink so much that you can’t not drink with them. I worked with Jim Jefferies and that guy is like the drinking alcoholic and it’s like you are drinking with Charles Bukowski or something as you feel like you have to. I try to always be professional as I try to work as many places as possible. 

TS: Ideally where would you be in a year’s time?

SM: I don’t know...maybe having the same conversation headlining Caroline’s February 21^st next year! Hopefully I’ll just be doing stand up but this business is so weird that it so hard to make like a real prediction of where I will be. It is a crazy existence. We would not meet the kind of people we meet if we were in finance, I love weird people. I have many friends who I love for being different and for not being ashamed of it. It is a cool world to be in.

TS: Thanks a lot Sam and good luck with your upcoming show.

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