After releasing three comedy specials in three years, Sam Morril took 2023 “off” to work on the road and develop his newest hour, which finds him Now streaming on Prime Video as an Amazon Original. The change of scenery from streaming seems to suit him well, or at least it shows how well he carries himself in a suit on the big stage of Boston’s Wilbur Theatre. But how has he changed as a comedian? Better yet, he wonders, how have his online critics changed, and how have they not?
SAM MORRIL: YOU HAVE CHANGEDSTREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: The pandemic did not stop Sam Morril’s career, despite… everything.
After Morril’s debut hour aired, Amy Schumer Presents Sam Morril: Positive InfluenceIn 2018, Comedy Central decided to send its 2020 sequel (I have this) directly to the network’s YouTube channel a month before comedy clubs around the world shut down. Morril kept working hard, though. He produced a rooftop comedy special himself, Up on the roofin late 2020, and a documentary about the pandemic comedy scene, Full capacityin 2021. It attracted millions of views and the attention of Netflix, which hired him to release another special, Same time tomorrowin 2022.
More recently, Morril also launched a popular podcast and liquor brand with comedian Mark Normand, We could be drunk and Bodega Cat whiskey, respectively. And Morril has also been an executive producer of specials for other comedians, including The daily program Amazon Original 2023 by writer Dina Hashem, Dark whispersand America’s Got Talent This year’s finalist Gary Vider’s YouTube special, It could be worse.
During his fifth hour, Morril jokes about his dating history, his popularity and the pros and cons of social media influencers.
What comedy specials will it remind you of?Morril, a native of New York, seems like a throwback to the New York comedians who came before him, a little gruff but loaded with witty one-liners. You’ll find Morril’s sensibility somewhere between Dave Attell and Colin Quinn.
Memorable jokes: When you miss a connecting flight at the airport, being a comedian can come in handy for complaining to the airline on social media. But Morril also points out that being a comedian who works out of town means it’s harder to make connections in real life.
That probably explains why Morril chooses an airport staple like Panda Express to symbolise his single sex life, as he compares “couple sex” to grilled salmon. “No one is excited about eating salmon, but when you finish it, you say: ‘It’s so good!’” he jokes. At the same time, he dreads looking at an ex’s social media, because every post can seem directed specifically at him.
When it comes to corporations on social media, Morril questions why we need to know, let alone debate, what Chick-fil-A thinks about gay marriage, let alone which influencers might decide to promote the beer companies on custom cans. “It’s a shame that Bud Light pretends to be good people,” he says sarcastically of the backlash they received for collaborating with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
But the bulk of the hour finds Morril poking fun at himself for his past and present sex life, and at his friends who engage in it as if it were something worthy of gossip. It all culminates with a story about a woman Morril had dated 17 years ago who reappeared first on his phone via text, and then in person as part of his audience on a show, much to many people’s dismay. It’s not exactly Baby Reindeer level of trauma, though a revelation late in the saga finds Morril feeling something like “finding out Cosby is on the new season of The Bachelor.”
Our opinion: Morril, however, is not someone who will allow anyone to distort him or his comedy, as he has more than enough experience in that.
It can make for an awkward comedic situation when, say, one of the directors of his previous special decides to try telling one of Morril’s jokes under his breath in a yoga class. But when someone boos or a woman blurts out something during the taping, Morril responds with a joke to defuse the situation. And when people get upset on social media about a joke, Morril doesn’t let it get to him too much. As he explains at one point: “Guys, not all jokes are happy. Some of them just work mathematically.”
And she knows that going viral isn’t all fun and games, recounting what happened to her with a joke from her Netflix special that mocked someone for doing the bare minimum when it comes to acknowledging trans identities. “It was a pretty positive joke,” Morril said, “but when a joke goes viral, as a comedian, at first you’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah! ’ and a second later you’re like, ‘This could go wrong for me. ’”
It wasn’t all bad, though, but rather wildly odd for him, as a writer who attempted to stymie Morril’s comedy career when he was relatively unknown in 2013 had resurfaced amid online debate over his 2022 joke. What surprised Morril most about this development was that his nemesis had made the transition in the intervening decade. He jokingly pointed out the hypocrisy he saw here — which also provides the reference for the title of his special — in how his critic didn’t want to give Morril any benefit of the doubt for having good intentions behind his joke.
—But you know that people can change? —Morril says. —You were a woman. Isn’t it possible that I’m a slightly different guy?
Indeed, it is. Morril’s comedy has grown considerably, so much so that he now has no qualms about shining under the spotlight.
Our calling: WATCH IT ON STREAMING. Despite or precisely because Morril mocks other streaming services like Netflix and Hulu for how they try to market and showcase their programming to appeal to different demographics (“Netflix put Dahmer under the LGBT category”), it’ll be fun to see where and how new fans find Morril’s special on Prime Video. Either way, the outtakes over the end credits offer the kind of moments of collective work you might have seen Morril show off in clips on TikTok or Instagram. So you’re likely to discover plenty of reasons to give this hour a chance, whether you’re looking for it or not.
Sean L. McCarthy is a stand-up comedian. He also posts half-hour podcast episodes featuring comedians revealing their origin stories:The comic book presents the latest and the first.
