the humour issue

Sugar Sammy Gets His Picture Taken The new face of Canadian comedy is ready for his close-up

By James Martin Photography by Daniel Desmarais (hair and makeup) amélie thomas; (photography assistants) stéphane fiore and kévien poisson; (clown) tikiti. fiore and kévien poisson; (clown) stéphane assistants) (hair and makeup) amélie thomas; (photography 70 he studio sits in a warehouse in little taste of why the ladies nick- gig at Winnipeg’s comedy festival. He started his own production company, the shadow of ’s Auto- named Samir Khullar “Sugar” during snagged the prestigious Discovery of SugarNation, out of necessity. You’re route 720. The neighbourhood, a his undergraduate nights as a party the Festival title at the 2009 Juste pour Gonna Rire would go on to sell more holdout against gentrification, is on doorman. He’s the nice boy next door. rire gala in his hometown, earning than 60,000 tickets in Montreal-area the cusp of big change. Big change It would be easy to forget that this him a coveted spot on the Hollywood theatres. To put that number in con- is something that the man sitting boy’s got a mouth on him. Reporter’s list of the top 10 rising com- text, Russell Peters, who has set com- under the lights knows a bit about. “Whenever I write a joke for some- edy talents. edy concert attendance records in In May, he became the first non- one else, they say, ‘This doesn’t sound But what made Sammy a bona fide Australia and the U.K., sold closer to francophone to win the top honour good coming from me,’” he says. “I star was You’re Gonna Rire, his 2011 50,000 tickets for the first five-city at ’s French-language com- guess a lot of people can’t get away show that he performed in both offi- Canadian leg of his smash Notorious edy awards. He spent June and July with saying what I get away with.” cial languages. Not a French show for arena tour. writing his debut sitcom, and now Indeed. francophones and a separate English “It seems obvious now,” says August is about shooting from dawn Here’s Sammy on clearing airport show for anglophones, but one show Sammy, “but producers failed to real- until dusk. Soon he’ll start hitting security, post-9/11: “People see me and for everyone. (In an irreverent nod to ize how many people in Montreal open mic nights, at least two a week, they run back and hug their families the ’95 referendum vote, he billed the understand both languages.” And, to workshop material for an upcom- one last time.” content as “50.5 per cent English, 49.5 more importantly, would pay $30 and ing Canadian tour. But today, at On not seeing many fellow Indo- per cent French.”) Producers scoffed up to hear jokes in both. least, is easy: sleep in, hit the gym in his audience: “I guess when Sammy pitched it. But he knew This year, he toured En français and now this. Sugar Sammy is get- this show’s not on Groupon.” it would work, and with good reason: SVP!, a unilingual version of You’re ting his picture taken. On women: “I’m a gentleman, so I he’d already tested “franglais” ma- Gonna Rire, and he’s taking it back on GETTY always say, ‘Why don’t we split the / terial in small clubs—and it killed. He the road this fall; together, both ver- ammy stands with his back to bill? And if we sleep together, I’ll re- sions of the show have already Sthe camera. He pivots around fund you.’” sold 135,000 tickets in Quebec. and freezes with his head slightly On men: “How can you know you’re Sammy’s winning fans outside cocked, strong jaw jutting. Thick, per- not gay if you haven’t tried it? My for a guy who Quebec, too. In 2012, he sold fectly coiffed jet-black hair. Clean-cut rule is: you try 10 gay guys, and if you more than 120,000 tickets good looks. Loosely knotted necktie. like six, you’re gay. I liked four, so I’m makes his living around the world; all told, he A tuxedo-ish jacket hugging his straight.” has played gigs in 30 countries.

LEDNER CATHERINE ; (beaver) talking, sugar 37-year-old, six-foot-four frame. It’s all , His Direct From Montreal con- very suave. Too much so. ammy worked the Montreal sammy doesn t cert DVD consistently breaks “Sam,” calls out the photographer, Scomedy clubs for years. By 2004, Amazon.ca’s top 50 stand-up “pas trop James Bond, eh?” Sammy he’d expanded to weekly sets in Ot- say much. he likes comedy charts—and there are slouches his broad shoulders, drops tawa. Two years later, he was touring a lot of stand-up DVDs on the his chin, then fixes the camera with a Canada as part of The A-List, a group to save it for market. (At press time, Direct big-eyed pout. He blows kisses. He of up-and-coming Asian-Canadian From Montreal was #20, edging

shapes his hands into a heart. It’s a comedians, and had landed his first ISTOCKPHOTO (balloon) the stage. out titles by hugely popular

72 rd.ca 10/13 73 American performers like Louis C.K., sad, but maybe it’s just the makeup. Robin Williams and Wanda Sykes.) The king looks sad, but maybe it’s just his face being smooshed by pressur- he studio is buzzing with people, ized rubber. Heavy hangs the head Tand all eyes, lenses and lights are being squeezed by a pair of mating on Sammy. Yet this isn’t The Sugar boa constrictors. Sammy Show. He quietly listens to directions and easily mugs for the ammy loves the craft of honing camera. He’s game. He’s polite. But for Sa joke, of finding the perfect a guy who makes his living talking—a word that just nails it. But for a guy so guy known as much for his tightly devoted to precision, he’s lax about constructed jokes as his improvised, the rigid language labels that so ob- merciless roasting of audience mem- sess Quebecers: francophone, anglo- bers—he doesn’t say much. Canada’s phone, allophone. New King of Comedy isn’t holding He begins a thought: “As an ethnic court. He likes to save it for the stage. person in Quebec, and an anglo- In a corner of the photo studio, a phone—” Except he’s not. Anglo- clown sits at a table, twisting balloons phone, that is. His parents moved into a crown for the king. When the from to Canada in the late 1960s, clown heard this gig was for Sammy, and the Montreal-born Sammy grew he was giddy for days. Air hisses from up speaking Punjabi at home. (It’s still a canister. Balloons squeak. Some pop. what he speaks with his parents.) Eng- The crown has to be perfect. Discards lish came second and then, as part of pile up on the floor, to be peddled Quebec’s first Bill 101 generation (the later in Old Montreal. What may not law dictating that French be the pri- be good enough for Sammy can still mary language of instruction), Sammy fetch five bucks from a tourist. learned French beginning in kinder- Finally, success. The balloon crown garten. He picked up Hindi, too. All looks magnificent hovering over four languages have found their way Sammy’s head, held aloft by a hidden into his act. assistant. But things go wrong when “Yeah, okay, I’m an allophone.” He Sammy tries to actually wear it. It shrugs. “Those things aren’t an issue takes two assistants to squeak the en- for me, so they shouldn’t be an issue twined balloons over his head. The for anyone else.” Growing up in Mont- crown gets stuck, distorted beyond all real’s immigrant-heavy Côte-des- recognition. Sammy’s perfect hair is Neiges neighbourhood, where done no favours. The clown looks everyone spoke a minimum of three 75 languages, Sammy heard fran- sammy may not be ammy says stand-up will always into—and how they make their glais, and more, every day. Sbe his great love, but he’s not friendship work despite their differ- “Race, language and colour the new russell immune to acting’s siren call. After ences on every level: political, social were never an issue,” he re- studying with Jacqueline McClin- and economic.” members, “except whenever peters. he may not tock, the late acting coach who also I’d leave the neighbourhood. In worked with Mad Men’s Jessica Paré, ammy has been building up to the rest of Quebec, I felt like an be the new brent Sammy temporarily moved to Holly- Ssomething, deepening his fan outsider.” It was that feeling wood in the springs of 2009 and 2010 base in Quebec while widening it that drew him toward the edgy butt. he may be to take part in every wannabe star’s around the world. He’s shortlisted stand-up comedy of Eddie rite of passage: pilot season. Sammy for the Canadian Comedy Awards’ Murphy, , Martin something bigger. read for six sitcom pilots a day and Person of the Year, which will be an- Lawrence and . even scored a few callbacks. Nothing nounced on October 6. If he wins, “I felt those struggles. Not at came of it. The experience made him he’ll join the ranks of CCA-winning the same level as being African-Amer- house without watching a Sugar realize if he wanted to land a TV role stand-ups like Russell Peters and ican, but I felt it. I could identify with Sammy video, no matter who you that really fit who he was, he’d have Brent Butt, two next-level Canadian it, and I think my quote-unquote ‘mar- are”) and he loves them. “I spend a lot to write it himself. comedy stars whose careers could ginal’ point of view has been a breath of time with my parents,” he says Sammy will flex his acting muscle serve as a peek into Sammy’s future. of fresh air.” proudly, “more than 99.9 per cent of in a new, as-yet-untitled half-hour Even though he’s playing theatres This is what fresh air sounds like men my age. It’s not a cultural thing. comedy TV series set to air on Que- and not huge arenas like Peters, when it blows over the ashes of the I’m just very attached to them. I’m bec’s V network in February. The Sammy’s selling comparable num- 1995 Quebec separatism referendum: blessed.” They’ve unwittingly sup- show is being filmed in French; bers of tickets. Sammy’s the same age “For me, there are two types of Que- plied him with a lot of material (and, Sammy’s hoping to also get it picked Butt was when he parlayed his own becers: the ones who are educated, he says, love showing up in his act) up by an English broadcaster. “It’s stage act into the career-altering cultured and well raised—and then and even helped him rewrite jokes for single-camera, no laugh track, no stu- prairie sitcom Corner Gas. And yet, there are those who voted ‘yes.’” his 2010 and 2013 India tours. Sammy dio audience,” he says, citing pseudo- Sammy may not be the new Russell even insists that, of his parents, reality British comedies The Office Peters. He may not be the new Brent ammy stifles a yawn as the cam- brother and sister, he’s the least funny. and Extras as influences. “And writ- Butt. Because Sammy may be some- Sera shutter clicks. He admits that “I’m just the only one crazy enough to ten my way.” Well, written his way thing bigger. a big part of keeping his boyish looks get on stage.” and the ways of his co-star, comedic With apologies to Justin, Sugar is getting eight hours of sleep every Life with mom and dad is reward- actor Simon-Olivier Fecteau, and the Sammy may very well be the new night. “But it’s not easy,” says Sammy, ing. It’s just not conducive to Sammy young-adult novelist India Desjar- Pierre Trudeau. who still “does and doesn’t” live with getting his precious eight hours. dins. The two comics play fictional- But, like, of comedy. his parents. (He recently rented a “My parents watch cricket and Bol- ized versions of themselves, an odd Consider the evidence. Like the condo but uses it more as an office lywood so loud—and argue about couple made up of “one white, pure former PM, Sammy is charismatic and rehearsal space.) their Indian soap operas—that it laine Québécois and an Anglo from and good-looking. He’s bilingual. His parents love what he does wakes me up in the morning. I have an immigrant family. It’s about all the He’s got a strong support base in

(“There’s no way you’re leaving their to get my rest on the road.” ISTOCKPHOTO trouble these two single guys get Quebec (not counting separatists).

76 rd.ca 10/13 77 He’s got ambitions that vault over the one is expected to hoard post-mortem borders of his home province. And, moulting. The stylist, who procured like Trudeau, he’s got a devil-may- the prop, assures Sammy that of the care cheeky streak. three available beavers, “this one was Sammy dismisses the idea of en- the least rat-like.” The other two bea- tering politics. (“Bad idea. Bad. vers must have been rats. Idea.”) But he doesn’t hesitate to put The shutter clicks. Sammy cradles Canada’s most successful political the beaver. He holds the beaver aloft playbook to work in the comedy while posing heroically on one foot. arena: first you take Quebec, then He sniffs the beaver and makes a sour you take the Rest of Canada. Al- face. Sammy cycles through the though Quebec has a fine tradition of poses: nurture, elevate, denigrate, stand-up comedians, it has yet to ex- nurture, elevate, denigrate. Each time port the comedy equivalent of a he smells the beaver, his lip curls a Cirque du Soleil or a Céline Dion. little more, his eyebrow arches just a There is a hole waiting to be filled. touch higher. When Sammy shared an awards- “This isn’t good,” he says. “It’s show stage with Pauline Marois in decomposing.” 2010, he irreverently volunteered his The photographer feigns shock. services as her English translator. “Sam! Ça, c’est un symbole du Can- What better dry run for pirouetting ada!” Sammy draws a line: he refuses behind the Queen? With Sammy now to grant this particular specimen booking his biggest Canada-wide metaphorical heft. tour ever, for 2015—more cities, more “We’ve got it really good here,” he dates, larger venues—the prophecy says. “Canada is still one of the best foretold in that most sacred of texts, countries to live in, and I see that by the Hollywood Reporter, could come travelling all over the world. Ob- true: Sugarmania may be nigh. viously there’s room to improve and we can’t let things slip, but there’s ammy clutches a taxidermic much more to celebrate than to com- Sbeaver. It is small. Its tail is split. plain about.” Its teeth are unspectacular nubs. He casts a sideways glare at the Death was merely the first indignity. foul beaver. The sad corpse is accompanied by a “Canada smells good!” he counters. small plastic bag of loose fur; it is un- “I’ve been to Asia, so I know.” clear whether these scraps are meant Another glare. to be applied as touch-ups, or whether “And we’re not losing fur.” ●

78 rd.ca 10/13