Sugar Sammy - Early Life

Early Life

Sammy was born February 29, 1976 and raised in the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec. As a young and impressionable kid, his comedic inspirations came from watching Eddie Murphy’s "Delirious." He was only 8-years-old when he got his first exposure to Murphy’s racy material. He persuaded his mom to rent "Delirious," one of Murphy’s stand-up comedy specials from an Indian movie store. Sammy credits Eddie Murphy’s 1983 comedy special as being a defining moment in his life. From then on, he knew what he wanted to do. Also influenced by other Black-American stand-up comedians, Sammy names Martin Lawrence, Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle as some of his other comedic influences. Even though Sammy knew from a young age that he wanted to pursue a career in comedy, it wasn’t until the age of 17 when he got his first taste of the limelight. While some of his friends organized a high school fundraiser for the black student association they asked that the young class clown be the night's entertainment. Soon after high school, Sammy earned a degree at Marianopolis College while occasionally performing at open-mic nights at the Comedy Works and the Comedy Zone. Although Sammy struggled for almost a decade to gain recognition on the comedy circuit, he later continued his studies at McGill University in cultural studies while working as a night club promoter in Montreal. Here he received what would later become his stage name after letting many of the women into the parties for free.