Meet Sam De Surra

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sam De Surra.

So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was raised in Pasadena but my story starts in Los Angeles where my Grandfather lived. His house is where some of my most formative memories took place!

Having grown up in a huge extended family of opera singers, actors, dancers, musicians, inherently gifted speakers with booming voices, you’d think it’d come naturally to me to want to perform. On the contrary, as a child, when it was my turn to perform for the family at gatherings (a long-standing tradition while my Grandfather was alive), I’d pretend to be asleep. “Where’s Sammy? Get Sammy up here – it’s her turn! What? She’s sleeping? Why? Alright.” I was just too shy and already riddled with self-doubt to want to play the piano or sing or act in front of my family – they were all so talented! I mean, come on! My Grandfather was a professional opera singer, for crying out loud! What was I good at? Collecting used gum and singing the Scooby Dooby Doo theme song. It was hard at that age to face the possibility of potentially being the least talented person in my family, so I never really actively participated, except for a simple piano version of Ode to Joy to satiate my parents.

I may not have thought I was talented, but I knew I was funny. At least funny looking, I was too tall in elementary school, scrawny with a severe overbite, glasses, retainer, headgear, neck gear, rolling backpack. I actually thought I looked cool until I started drooling all over my desk in class not realizing the head and neck gear was keeping my mouth agape. Aside from my unfortunate physical appearance, I knew how to make my friends laugh constantly. Thank you to my comedy inspirations at that point: Lucille Ball, Jim Carrey, Chris Farley, and Robin Williams. “Do it again, Sam!” They’d laugh all through lunch at the same physical movement I was mimicking from an Ace Ventura movie. I’d just keep slamming my face into the bench over and over again until their faces hurt from laughter. My face (literally) hurt as well.

I try not to live my life in regret and have done well by that for the most part, but one thing I do regret is never jumping on the opportunity to really perform for my Grandfather the way so many of my cousins and of course, his 11 children, did. I was eight when my Grandfather passed away, but this feeling is what pushed me in high school to audition for choir and theater. I came gradually out of my shell but when college happened, I opted to study Cinema Production at San Francisco State University. Film is another passion of mine that allows me to express myself and tell the stories I want to tell. Namely stories about women going through something, I’m drawn to coming of age stories and stories of kids having to grow up too fast. Studying film in college still allowed me, for the most part, to hide behind a camera and scripts, which was a-okay! It was fantastic and I was truly having the best time of my life…

…and then I graduated. I moved back in with my parents in Pasadena, had no job, no money, no prospects, and ended up working in a warehouse deep in the San Gabriel Valley mostly by myself. My boss at the time, the only other person besides me, would be gone during the day handling business and I’d be at the warehouse with no internet, creating invoices, and daydreaming out the one window we had in the office. It was a really creative time for me to be alone in my head thinking, writing short stories, journaling, But then it sunk in one day staring out that one window… what am I doing? What do I want? It was with the help of my friend, Stacy, who had to have a serious talk with me. “What makes you happy?” she asked. Ah, this question! It seems so easy to answer now, but it was so hard in that moment. I had to be honest with myself about what really brought me joy. I told her watching Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph perform makes me cry-laugh. “Is that what you want to do?” she asked.

And there it was. I had to confront the facts which were, yes. That’s what I did indeed wanted to do. But how the hell do you even do something like that?! Stacy did some research (if you haven’t figured it out already, Stacy’s a GREAT friend!) and found out that Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph came from The Groundlings, an improv and sketch comedy theatre and school based in Los Angeles. I had never heard of it before then. In the summer of 2012, I went to my first Groundlings Show, Sunday Company show to be precise, and the rest is history. Knowing nothing about improv, I started with a workshop class there and ended up going through a challenging, intense, and fun program. In the summer of 2018, I found myself joining the Groundlings Sunday Company. It’s surreal to write it now and think of how my life has truly changed as a result, but there are two very important things I’ve taken away from my comedy experience so far:

1) My attitude toward myself has changed. That shy girl with crippling self-doubt? Well, she’s still there, but I’ve learned to love her and embrace her flaws. I put them on display for all to laugh at with me.

2) The learned self-confidence and self-forgiveness performing comedy has taught me. It took a long time, but we’re here now. Learning to forgive myself when I don’t do so well is a huge personal accomplishment. Self-confidence? Well, I sang for my Dad on his 60th birthday in front of much of my family and if that’s not being self-confident than I don’t know what is!

Perhaps the biggest reward in doing comedy is that Groundlings has allowed me the opportunity to share myself and perform on stage in front of family, friends, and strangers over and over again, every Sunday for a year and a half. And when I do it, I do it for my Grandfather and knowing that he’s there with me.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ha! If it were a smooth road, I’d feel like I wouldn’t have learned anything. I’ve always learned better by doing and failing and man, have I always been good at failing! Contrary to popular belief, I didn’t do very well academically. I think my glasses give people the impression I’m smarter than I am. I truly wish I was better at academia. Truly. But my older brother always shone brightly in that department and I’ve always felt proud of him for accomplishing so much academically. I always tried very hard to do well in class but was never able to get above a B-average. It could have been that I didn’t have tutors or that I was too afraid to ask questions and seem stupid in class, but I think I just had my sights set on something different. Where I failed academically, I made up for ten times over in extra-curricular activities. My god, I was involved in everything. Even a club called Science Outreach and I didn’t even ~get~ science. It gave me a reason to not be home because at home, well, let’s just say that one parent is a bleeding liberal and one is a bleeding conservative and I dreaded coming home to heated political debates and arguing. So I just stayed at school.

Recently, I’ve had to make a pretty major life change and quit a job which provided me stability. No, not my warehouse job, I quit that shortly after starting at Groundlings. I won’t knock that warehouse job, though, because dammit, it paid off all my student loans! THANK YOU, WAREHOUSE JOB! After spending 3.5 years in a warehouse, I moved further west, to Los Feliz, to a little place known as the American Film Institute. It was there that I was able to support myself financially, have benefits and make lifelong friends. I was even given the opportunity, by my boss there, to manage a program called Young Women in Film, an 8-week intensive that taught young women from high schools in the Los Angeles area how to make films. That experience was truly one of the most rewarding of my life.

And then I quit. Yes, I know. My mom was upset too. She’s still upset. She’s upset even reading this right now. She’s shaking her head probably, saying, “Why, Sam? Why give up stability for something that may never happen?” That’s a valid point and I don’t blame her for feeling that way. My mom is one of the hardest workers I know. She was at a desk job for almost 30 years, and that desk job has afforded her a life of retirement she can now finally enjoy. My only explanation to her is I didn’t want to look back at my life when I’m 70 and think, “I wish I pursued my dreams.” That would be the biggest regret of my life and like I said, I’m not into living my life in regret! I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least try. So that’s what I’m focused on.

So, much to my mother’s dismay, I take odd jobs here and there to support my living, I’ve moved back in with my parents (THANK YOU) and I apply for flexible jobs on the daily to support the dream. I’m in it now with a lot of other folks who’ve been doing it a lot longer than me. Has it been smooth? No. Am I grateful for the uphill battles? Yes. Because, honey, we all come out stronger in the end!

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I write and perform sketch comedy. The goal is to create a comedy series and make a horror movie (a longtime desire of mine) so I can work with and cast all of my hilarious, sweet, and beautiful friends I’ve met in the comedy world.

I’m most proud of my physical comedy and try to incorporate it into everything I do. I’m very out of my body which is insane to even say out loud because I’ve always been so self-conscious about it. Who isn’t though? I never thought in a million years I’d be on the Groundlings stage playing a version of myself in high school with my stomach hanging out. I look at people like Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett whose physical comedy has always connected to me and I try to do the same and hopefully connect with others!

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
For me, it’s been a quality I’ve had to learn by failing a lot starting at a young age. It’s having a strong belief in myself and not getting caught up in the negative voices in my head. It’s not sitting in my failure and allowing it to deter me. If I didn’t just sit back and laugh at myself, I’d cry. A lot. I try not to let the pressure of external factors affect my goals or expectations I have for myself.

In high school, my college counselor once asked me where I was looking to apply for college. I said a school that was definitely a reach for me. He laughed and told me to be real. He knew my GPA and test scores were not up to those standards. He was right. But I told him then and I’ve been telling myself since, that my own expectations of myself are more important to me than what he or anyone else’s expectations of me are. So I suppose, in short, my strong belief in myself is what is most critical to my success! Ah, thank goodness for getting older!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.samdesurra.com/
• Email: [email protected]

Image Credit:
Carlos Parada https://www.paradacarlos.com/

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