Brooklyn’s 50 Funniest People: Sam Taggart
Sam Taggart
The Brooklyn comedy scene has blessedly become less bro-centric and straight dude-focused, and Sam Taggart is one of the guys directly responsible for it. Along with Bowen Yang, Taggart conceived and produced the Sex and the City-inspired Live on Broadgay and the gay teen “drama” series Lake Homo High (with more of an emphasis on melodrama played for the utmost campiest effect). Sure, the titles might not evoke sophisticated, highbrow affairs—Oscar Wilde it’s not. But like the most deliciously decadent items in Wilde’s oeuvre, Taggart’s comic endeavors are unapologetically, and hilariously, gay. And there’s something to be said for the weirder side of the queer experience as opposed to the average, cookie-cutter Hells Kitchen variety. It’s a nice, and necessary, antidote to the sort of gay-themed cultural properties that’s mostly intended for straight female eyeballs.
When was the first time you remember making someone laugh? What happened?
I saw a crawfish in a creek and screamed. My cousins laughed at me. I don’t know if that counts.
What is the toughest part about being on the comedy scene in Brooklyn today? What is the best?
The best part is that everyone’s pretty supportive of new and inventive comedy. People sometimes talk about The Old Days when you had to have a tough skin to survive in the scene among the other rough n tough comedians. That sounds so bad to me. Comedy is fun. And should be supportive. And the best comedy comes out of people’s ideas being supported. And that’s where we are now. Wow. I’m running in circles.
Toughest part??? Hmmmm. There’s a lot of people. And some of those people aren’t that good at comedy and their names are—Wow could you imagine if I did that for real? Just started trash talking people in print. Especially right after saying how important it is to be supportive. Wow. That would be truly insane. But really there is just a lot going on and a lot of it is really, really good so you constantly feel like you missed the best show of your life.