Slammin’ Sammy Swank
With 1.7 million followers on Tik-Tok, Sammy Swank has established a significant audience broadcasting comedic skits in which he plays all, and a wide variety of, the actors. …He may just be the next Will Ferrell. …And he grew up in Bedford
Photos: Dutch Doscher
Front Tennis Photo: Bill Kallenberg
“From the time I was 5, in Bedford Village Elementary and then at Rippowam Cisqua in 5th and 6th grade, it was always tennis, tennis, tennis,” 28-year old Sam Swank says about his childhood. “I played on the Fox Lane High School Tennis Team when I was at Fox Lane Junior High. I stopped playing other sports when I was about 12. I couldn’t play on the Team when I was at Fox Lane High School because I was too busy training and competing at a higher level. Senior year, I went to online school so I could make the daily trip to the United States Tennis Association Training Center in Queens, New York, to train with some of the best Juniors in the nation. …And, all along, my dream was always to play pro tennis! The pictures in my head were of me winning at Wimbledon and the US Open!”
“I went to the University of South Carolina and played all four years with the top-tier NCAA Division I ‘Gamecocks’. I played in some professional tournaments. …And then…I remember it distinctly…during the Summer between my Junior and Senior years in college, I was in the middle of a match on a red clay court in St. Malo, France…and it hit me…‘I don’t know if I want to do this anymore!’ I’d been taking some L’s, I’d come to the realization I wasn’t going to make the Tour no less start winning Tour events…and I’d just lost the passion. I called my parents and told them, for the first time, that my life was going to be about something other than tennis. It was devastating for me, really. I looked at it as a failure, and still feel it’s a chip on my shoulder,” Sam reveals.
“I played my Senior year to finish it out, but I had to search deep inside to figure out who or what I wanted to be,” Sam reveals. “When I thought about it, the most fun I’d ever had in school was in 9th grade, in a class called Integrated Arts, with Mr. Steele, who was just a great teacher. I’d convinced five of my troublemaker friends to sign-up for this acting class thinking it would be a total goof…but, as the class progressed, I realized I enjoyed acting! It was the first thing I’d really liked other than tennis! I even wrote a screenplay about the whole experience called ‘Integrated Arts’. …I took a whole bunch of creative writing classes in college. And in my Junior year at South Carolina, right before my on-court epiphany in France that Summer, I’d helped to M.C. the Gamecocks Gala Dinner, which is a really huge annual event with a few thousand people in attendance - and I was remarkably comfortable being up in front of a large audience, having to make-it or break-it all on my own…kind of like tennis! …So Senior year I took on the lead role as M.C. at the Gala, I did an Oscar’s-style monologue…and I killed it! It felt awesome - like I was at home! …I knew I wanted to do standup comedy!”
“After college I moved to Manhattan and, with a day job at Workhouse NYC - which is run by Debra Larsen, who’s also from Bedford - I started to do standup. Out from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., performing almost every night at places like the Black Cat on the Lower East Side, and finding some time somehow to be writing every day. Comedy is the profession of writing, and as Seinfield - one of my idols - said, ‘If you don’t learn how to write, you’re going to die in this ecosystem!’,” Sam recalls his professional start. “And then, in 2018, my mom passed. She was my champion and my hero. I moved home to Bedford to be with her before she died…and I took a break from comedy for a while. Then Covid hit, and I was still in Bedford, staying with my dad, and TikTok was just starting to get big. I read an article that said there were already one billion people signed-up on the app and figured I might as well give it a go. I made one video - a silly sketch about high school football recruiting - and when I got back on TikTok to check on it a few days later…it had over 1,000,000 views! Viral! Do you know how many nights of standup I’d have to do to have a million people see me?! I’d have to be Dave Chappelle! …So I started ripping content…and, in the beginning of 2022, I moved to L.A.”
“I’m incredibly grateful,” Sam says. “TikTok opens a lot of doors for me. I got hooked up with great management at LBI. People actually recognize me on the street, and ask to take pictures with me! …And I’m making a full living through brand deals with crazy cool brands like KFC, Vitamin Water, SONY, Peacock, and Major League Soccer, among others. I have 1.7 million followers and a lot more than that who are seeing my stuff! Even a bad video gets 30,000 ‘likes’! …I take it all as a validation…that I’m funny! A kind of proof of concept for my work, and encouragement that I’m doing something right! Hey, I was mentally prepared to be teaching tennis for a living when I moved out here, and now I’m making a living as a Comedian!”
“I’m actually writing a lot and working really hard,” Sam continues. “Being creative all the time is very difficult. You can’t care what people think…and at the same time, the audience is always correct. …Aside from working every day on developing, writing, re-writing, and performing my content for TikTok, I’m back at doing standup! I love it! It’s like a sport, only it’s you against the crowd. The feedback is awesome. There’s nothing more humbling. I think it’s the hardest form of entertainment. Tested night after night. As I get better and better at it, I’ve gotten more comfortable with handling silence. …I’m also writing a tennis movie right now. I’ve always been a big fan of the great sports comedies, like all the Will Ferrell movies and Talladega Nights, but there’s never really been a great tennis comedy - and I’ve lived the life! My idols, like Ferrell and Adam Sandler, have all written, produced, and performed their own material. I like to write for myself. I know the characters I can play. …And I audition for a ton of movies and TV, including the annual SNL auditions. I’d like to land a role like Ted Lasso, but the whole Hollywood thing is kind of random.”
“I have no uncertainty about the path I’ve chosen, even if there’s really no path at all,” Sam reflects. “I’m a process guy, and I believe that if I just keep writing and performing it will all happen for me. I dream big, but I stay grounded. Ultimately, I want to be a Comedic Actor. Instead of winning Wimbledon, I now want the Oscar for Writing, Producing, and being the Lead Actor in the Funniest Film…although, you know, I haven’t checked to see if there really even is an Oscar for Funniest …?!”
