Comedian Sam Morril is set to grace the Triangle as part of his most recent cross-country comedy tour. Filled with irony, sarcasm and a witty balance between intelligence and edginess, the New York City native will make a stop in Durham as part of his “Errors” comedy tour.
Morril’s inspiration for the name of his tour is a joke in and of itself. While searching for names, he landed on something eerily close to the “Eras” tour from a famous artist you may have heard of before.
“I was just ripping off Taylor Swift, it wasn’t like I put a ton of thought into it,” Morril said. “I was just like, ‘What will sell a couple extra tickets?’ I was just thinking of boyfriends lying to their girlfriends as a fun joke.”
Morril’s comedy centers around topical subjects that he spins with a blunt, matter-of-fact delivery style. The comedian said his style includes some not-too-political social commentary, personal stories that often center around dating and other relatable bits of humor to have jokes that everyone will appreciate.
Morril said his style follows the same recipe he’s always had, just with a few ingredient changes here and there. After debuting in the mid-2000s in smaller clubs, Morril eventually worked his way up through the comedy scene before being named one of Comedy Central’s “Comics to Watch” in 2011. Before long, Morril’s first TV special hit screens in 2018 on Comedy Central.
Since then, Morril’s hit the big screen in four other TV specials, including one each on Netflix and Amazon Prime. Since his debut around 20 years ago, Morril said his growth as a comic involved balancing evolving his act and staying true to who he is.
“I think you just kind of try to evolve with the times, but also stay true to who you are,” Morril said. “So you don’t just evolve because that’s what the world is doing. You kind of want to grow as a human, but you want to stay true to your comedy roots. It’s a weird balance to hit right? If you are completely the same your whole career, then the act doesn’t grow and your style becomes kind of predictable.”
Now that he’s in a different stage of his career than his early years, Morril reflected on the benefits of being a young comic, maybe even naive, which especially showed when writing and developing material.
“When I was young, I thought anything had potential,” Morril said. “So you lose a little bit of that, for lack of a better word, innocence, where you’re like, ‘I can make this funny.’”
When he was younger, Morril had all day to write jokes, a contrast to his increasingly busier schedule that unfolded as he got older, making it challenging to give the same care and attention to material as before.
The comedian also mentioned how that childlike innocence as a young comic allowed him to experiment with more material. Now that he’s more experienced, more in tune with what jokes work and which ones don’t, his process for developing material has changed. Ultimately, Morril said experience is a benefit, but it can work against you as a comic.
“When you’re older as a comic, you rule a lot out,” Morril said. “You’ll say, ‘Well, that premise is flawed, or this doesn’t work because of this.’ You just become more tuned with what should work and what shouldn’t work and your swing gets shorter.”
Morril said performing in his early years didn’t feel like work. Whether he bombed or killed on any given night, he had fun no matter what while developing his craft and working his way to where he is now.
“For me, it’s kind of like playing basketball at the rec center or something, and you’re like, ‘Oh, man, I just did a lot of cardio,’ but it didn’t feel like cardio, because it was really fun,” Morril said. “That’s kind of how I felt about comedy in those years. It’s just, it was really fun. There were bad nights for sure and I knew they were bad and I was aware that it sucked, but I also knew I was building towards something, or at least I hoped I was.”
Pouring all his energy into stand-up in his early years, Morril said he was forced to purely focus on his comedy without mediums such as TV, podcasts or social media readily available or even popular — all avenues which current rising stars regularly take advantage of.
Morril also talked about how much fun touring is for him. Opting for a tour bus rather than flying from city to city allows for Morril and his crew to have fun while skipping out on the pains of flying.
Whether it’s his comedic style or the tour bus, Morril said working on your craft, finding what you like to do and what works best isn’t just specific to comedy.
“You figure out what you like,” Morril said. “It’s like anything else in life. You just figure out what suits you, and you surround yourself with people who hopefully feel the same way.”
Morril is set to perform in Carolina Theatre in Durham on Feb. 21.
