Sam Clark: Built for Laughs

For Sam Clark, there are a lot of full circle moments surrounding the taping of his debut standup special, Built for Math. From the fact that he recorded the special at Denver's Jewish Community Center--site of many stage and musical appearances by Clark in his pre-teen and teenage years--to the homage to his taekwando instructor Teresa Byrne who posited that the slight, energetic, bespectacled teenage Clark was "built for math". Despite the lack of mathematical humor, Valerie fully endorses Clark's debut special as a must-listen (she's listened multiple times and won't stop any time soon).

It's election season here in the Good Ol' USA, but we're talking about Sam Clark's presidential campaign for the Harvard Student Council along side his long-time friend and writing partner, Gus Mayopoulos. Sam and Gus wanted to shine a spotlight on what fellow students often wondered: "what does Student Council even do?". The best way to do that was to create a platform based on improved ply-count and a pro-soup policy, rather than throwaway pitches like "Let's Make the Future Better". Recent guest and poster designer pro, Sierra Katow assisted in the campaign as well. The experience served as Clark's introduction to prank culture.

Out of his accidental election as President (after which he immediately stepped down, letting Gus serve in his stead), an idea was born. Fairview is the debut film conceived by Sam and Gus, filmed in a fictional town with a fictional city council candidate named, coincidentally, Sam Clark. The film follows fictional Clark on his quest to find out what the people really want. It turns out, no one really knows. Which results in the accidental slogan for Clark's Campaign: Sam Clark: Slogan TBD. The film was shot in Sam's home town of Denver and through luck and fortune, was filmed significantly under-budget. As a result, Fairview was submitted to 32 film festivals and garnered an impressive 19 awards. Stay tuned, Clark hints at the widespread availability of the full length edition on a streaming platform in the not-too-distant-future. You can watch the volatile trailer in the meantime.

As we enter the more philosophical portion of our talk with Sam, we discuss a trans woman who has always been known as "Dad" to Sam. Dad features prominently in Built for Math and was even in attendance at the taping of the special. She felt special and delightfully popular after the taping because "she was the trans Dad being talked about on stage in front of a big crowd." As Sam reflected on the many conversations with Dad about her transition to becoming a woman, she readily admitted to him that "transitioning has been hilarious, there's so many mishaps." With Sam's knowledge of Dad's process, he was able to create humor with kindness and respect toward her. Take that as a shining lesson to anyone that aspires to create comedy about the trans community.