By Kate Oczypok
Stand-up comedian Samuel J. Comroe has been featured on All Def Digital’s Comedy Originals and was the winner of Ricky Gervais’ Comedy Competition and the San Francisco Comedy Competition. He made his TV debut on TBS’ Conan and has appeared on BET’s Real Husbands of Hollywood with Kevin Hart.
He performs at over 100 clubs and colleges annually—but not in 2020. The pandemic has been tough since almost all live shows have been canceled, he said. However, there is a bright side to the situation. Comroe has been enjoying spending time with his family.
He’s been busy with The Secret Clubhouse Podcast, a weekly podcast hosted by Comroe and fellow comedians Ralph Guerra and James Frey. The podcast includes the three men channeling their inner children and riffing on a password that is suggested by a listener each week. The most recent password is “Pets.”
Additionally, Comroe hosts “Cookin’ with Zaina,” a YouTube series with his young daughter where they cook different dishes like sugar cookies, hot dog sliders, and cheesy chicken tacos.
Like most comedians, Comroe is relying on humor to get through these tough times. “This isn’t really different from any other difficult moment in my life,” he said. “I just continue making content and trying my best to make someone smile once a day.”
Comroe is particularly gifted in this category, as his comedy is made up not only of life experiences but the trials and tribulations of living with Tourette Syndrome since being diagnosed at age six.
“Everyone is going through their own battles right now so making someone laugh even if it means forgetting their own struggles for a moment is really important,” he added.
Comroe is looking forward to when the pandemic ends so he can take his family on vacation. “We’ll have to figure out where,” he said. “My wife wants to go to Europe and I want to go to Hawaii—relationships are all about compromise so I’ll wear a Hawaiian shirt in Europe.”
The Comroes are also gearing up for a big move across the country to the East Coast. While Comroe was born in Los Angeles, his wife was raised in New York City. Just like their vacation, Comroe reminded me “relationships are all about compromise,” so “we’re moving to the East Coast.”
Since appearing on America’s Got Talent Season 13 (an opportunity he calls “a highlight of his career”) and making it to fourth place, Comroe has 95,000 YouTube subscribers, 65,000 Facebook fans, and 100,000 Instagram followers. Of course, he’s not letting all the fame get to his head.
“The first time I got recognized was pretty surreal,” he said. “I was in a Chipotle and the employee was like ‘Aren’t you the guy that always gets a chicken burrito with extra guac?’ and I was like ‘That’s me!’ We took a picture and I’m pretty sure it was the best day of his life.”
Comroe doesn’t usually get starstruck either, a quality he thinks is from being born and raised in LA.
“If I did have to choose, I’d say meeting Shaq after a show at The Hollywood Improv,” Comroe said. “I couldn’t take a selfie with him because he’s so massive—nobody believed I actually met him because the photo was me smiling next to a knee.”
The best advice he’s ever received was to perform as much as possible. To him, it’s the only way to continue to get better. “If you want a career in stand-up you need to be out every night hitting multiple stages or if it’s just a hobby.”
Comroe doesn’t really know what people can expect from his new tour, nor when his next one will actually be because of COVID. “I haven’t been on stage in over a year so you can expect a guy on stage telling a few stories and hopefully a couple of them are funny—either way no refunds.”
In the meantime, Comroe has been thinking about what a TV show he could star in would look like. “It’s so difficult to come up with an original idea but if I could star in my own TV show I’d play a high school chemistry teacher who finds out he has cancer so he starts making meth.”
You can check out Comroe on social media on Twitter @samueljcomroe, Instagram @samueljcomroe, YouTube @SamuelJComroe and Facebook @SamuelJComroe
