Meet Sam Harter | Stand up comedian, podcast host & streamer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sam Harter and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I was in my 20’s watching the desire to live life disappear from the eyes of all my older co-workers.

At some point most my co-workers had bigger dreams and goals than working in a kitchen but they stopped pursuing them because they worked in a kitchen.

Working in a kitchen is a job so physically and mentally draining that it will make you give up on your life’s goals, after clocking out of a shift at a restaurant all any employee wants to do is go home(or to a bar), sit, and relax until they have to go to sleep and wake up and do it all again the next day.

I watched people decades older than me do that for years and realized that the job we had was partially the reason why no one on staff had any extra ambition or energy after the day was over.

It sounds basic or borderline stupid but if you put all your time and energy into doing something you do not care about then you will have no time to do the stuff you actually want to do.

I looked at the despair in the eyes of my coworker Travis, a musician., who had spent 20+ years driving himself insane working shifts in hot kitchens for barely any money and saw myself in 2 decades miserable and angry at life, and I did not want to be in that position.

Also I’m a natural performer always been the guy to go for laughs and make people smile but it was mostly the fear of becoming stuck in the service industry that drove me this direction.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a stand up comedian. I have been a stand up comedian for the past 11 years.

The biggest difference between my comedy and others is that my comedy is real, not saying other comics are fake, but I am not very creative so everything I talk about is based off of something that has happened in real life.

I started comedy at 25 years old, which is considered late, but because of that I had many experiences that I would have never had if I would have started comedy at 18 years old. Was I a high school drop out? Yeah. Did I become a heroin addict? Definitely. Did any of that help me do comedy? Maybe??? at least it has given me a story to tell that is very different than most stand up comedians.

Doing anything, let alone comedy, this way was not easy, I am a stubborn idiot who likes to learn lessons the hard way. I should have stayed in school and gone to college and got a degree in writing to help with my future. I should have not become a drug addict. But in a strange way both those things added to my value and perspective as a comedian. Most people who drop out of high school to do drugs end up in prison or dead and that did not happen with me. The majority of comedians I am around finished school and didn’t get into abusing drugs and they made a good decision but they will never be able to tell a story about doing heroin and hanging out with felons like I can.

Also I have epilepsy which sucks but also gives me a unique perspective as a comic.

I want people to know that even if they are a screw up by the standards of society and have a bad medical condition they can still participate in the art form of stand up comedy.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Places to eat: I live smack dab in between Thai town and Korea town so I would suggest we hit up Pa Ord Noodle or Chicken Day and eat like glutinous pigs. I would also insist they try one of the many 5 star taco trucks or burger stands that exist all around the city.

Places to visit:

Malibu, I love to take people places they have heard about in pop culture. They may have no clue what Malibu is, or even think it’s in Hawaii, but I can promise they have heard of Malibu before. The beaches are pretty plus you get an excuse to drive down PCH 1 which feels like a nice touristy drive.

Hollywood Blvd, you gotta show them the lie they have been told about Hollywood Blvd being a cool chill place and show them a tweaker dressed as Princess Leia vomiting on the Donald Trump star.

Hollywood forever cemetery, celeb graves and just because walking around in a cemetery is the type of cool vibe I’m looking to put off.

Sporting events, pretty sure we have a team for every major sports league in America. going to see a Clippers or Sparks game is always a good time to me.

Griffith observatory, easy and free, plus you get to pretend like you understand stars and planets 😎

Skid row, honestly worth it just to see how bad the American government can fail.

Things to do:

Smoke legal California weed, it will never stop being interesting to watch some out of towner smoke the top tier weed in LA. They cannot believe how good it is an inevitably end up getting too high and falling asleep or freaking out and that’s fun to watch.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shout out to Jay Whitecotton and Lashonda Lester(RIP) and Lane Krarup in Austin for telling me that I could probably make money doing comedy which helped me to move to Los Angeles.

Shout out to my parents and to my doctors and neurologists, specifically Dr Kuo, for helping me through my major medical issues and keeping me alive, I couldn’t have done it without you.

Shout out to my girlfriend Christy who helps me do so much stuff.

Shout out to Rivers Langley for bringing me in as a host on The Goods From The Woods podcast, LA’s longest running independently produced podcast

Shout out to Ronald Vara for letting me sleep on his couch for a month when I first moved to LA.

Shout out to any person who has ever given me a ride to or home from a comedy show.

And a big shout out to Cooper Lyden my biggest fake-friend and hater.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samharter666?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

Twitter: https://x.com/SlamHarter

Youtube: https://youtube.com/@thegoodspod?si=MZ5K8PsOkYxuz72v