Sam Noorani: Weirdo in the Corner

As a first gen­er­a­tion immi­grant, Sam Noorani want­ed to make her par­ents proud. That meant a tra­di­tion­al 9 to 5, a sta­ble salary, and play­ing by the rules. She was a good girl, maybe even a square. But all this time she’d been hid­ing a dark secret: her love of com­e­dy. It was only a mat­ter of time before she decid­ed to (fig­u­ra­tive­ly) burn it all down and fol­low the dark path to com­e­dy, and even­tu­al­ly podcasting.

Noorani was just a baby when her fam­i­ly left Pak­istan. They set­tled in the Dal­las area, most­ly in Car­roll­ton, Texas though they also spent a short time 70 miles south­east in the small town of Wills Point. When Sam Noorani and her sis­ters gath­ered around the TV as kids, it was to watch com­e­dy. At first it was Car­toon Net­work, then Com­e­dy Cen­tral. The sis­ters soaked it all in, watch­ing every­thing includ­ing standup spe­cials. They gushed over the come­di­ans who were like rock stars in their eyes. Her sis­ter intro­duced her to Maria Bam­ford. She was imme­di­ate­ly blown away — and inspired. ​“You can be a weirdo and be loved? That’s crazy!”

But Noorani kept on the safe path, want­i­ng to meet the expec­ta­tions set by her­self and her par­ents. It wasn’t until Noorani was in her ear­ly 20s and work­ing in tech that she final­ly con­sid­ered there could be more. She’d made it, checked all of the box­es, but it didn’t feel right. ​“I am not hap­py. I’m mad all the time,” she says. ​“I got­ta get out of my shell. Because all I did was go to work.” Every day was the same: Go to work. Come home. Order take­out. Watch some­thing on Net­flix. Go to bed. Repeat. She need­ed a change. She felt trapped. 

So she got back in touch with her cre­ative side. Noorani had paint­ed in school but quick­ly learned it was impos­si­ble to do with curi­ous pets. She tried to pick up where she left off on the vio­lin but sound­ed the same as she did as a kid, ​“like a dying cat.” Still, she need­ed an out­let. Noorani mus­tered up the courage to give standup com­e­dy a try (with the help of a lit­tle liq­uid courage). It felt like home. 

From the very begin­ning, com­e­dy was the anti­dote to Noorani’s tedi­um. She’d been writ­ing sto­ries inside of her head for decades, and now was her chance to share them. At her first open mic, she told what she refers to as a ​“fun sto­ry” that had a punch­line about telling a baby to eat her dick. Because how could she not? ​“I didn’t know what else to be. And then I apol­o­gize. I’m a rebel with bound­aries.” She’s since embraced this side of herself.

Noorani had already been doing com­e­dy for a few years when she enrolled in a cod­ing boot­camp in 2016. She chose safe­ty (again) over her dreams. But then Don­ald Trump was elect­ed Pres­i­dent. She spi­raled. Why was she still try­ing to fol­low the rules? ​“Burn it all. Burn it all down. Let’s get out of it,” she said to her­self and made a new goal: save enough mon­ey to quit her day job and pur­sue com­e­dy full time.

In 2019, just before Thanks­giv­ing, Noorani final­ly reached her finan­cial goal. At the same time, her hus­band had restored a van to live in. They were final­ly ready. She quit her job, and they went on the road to per­form across the country. 

In March 2020, they returned home after a mys­te­ri­ous ill­ness in Feb­ru­ary (COVID-19). The two-week break turned into two years. She was crushed. But with her new free time, Noorani part­nered with com­ic Omar Gon­za­lez to co-host the pod­cast ​“All Regerts.” Over the pan­dem­ic they record­ed 96 episodes. 

These days Noorani is back on the stage. She’s per­form­ing local­ly for now but plans to return to van­life to tour across the coun­try. She’s full of adven­ture and already has plen­ty of sto­ries from the road. And has fans from all kinds of back­grounds. For exam­ple, ​“the more they want to go to church on Sun­day, the raunchi­er they want that shit.” She’s yet to be proven wrong. 

Lis­ten to this week’s episode for deep­er dives into the mind of Sam Noorani, includ­ing: her tra­jec­to­ry into com­e­dy, being ​“a brown,” her comedic sto­ry­telling style, how she san­i­tizes filthy mate­r­i­al for some audi­ences, and why she’s so con­flict­ed inside. 

Fol­low Sam

• Link­tree — link​tr​.ee/​s​a​m​n​o​orani
  
• Insta­gram — @samnoorani_
  
• Face­book — face​book​.com/​u​r​m​o​msmom
• Youtube — youtube​.com/​@​s​a​m​n​o​orani
  

Sam can be seen and heard:

• 2023 Lysis­tra­ta Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val — March 30 — April 2 at Cold­towne Theater
• All Regerts Pod­cast with Omar Gonzalez