I started comedy whilst at Cardiff University. I wanted to join a society but didn’t fancy any sports. I went to a local comedy where the MC started MCing me from the stage. He asked me about Pokémon Go, I said I didn’t know what that was, then another audience member shouted in disbelief, ‘How do you not know what Pokémon Go is?’ and I just said, ‘I have friends.’ It got a laugh. I liked the way it felt. I joined Cardiff University’s comedy society, where the blind lead the blind.
Uni days
For my first gig, I entered the Chortle Student Comedy Award 2017. The video is still online. My performance has been compared to a Linkin Park tribute act because of the way I was squeezing the mic; I was shaking like a shitting dog.
I thought I was funny around my mates, so I could be funny in front of an audience. I didn’t practise. I didn’t have a set. My first joke was about how you don’t see many stray dogs these days. Got nothing. Wanted to get off stage. I began to spiral and ended up talking about taking a poo in a rave. Stayed on stage, did my time. Didn’t get through. Rightfully so. Started working on an actual routine.
Sam Frank Wood
Valley gigs
The Welsh comedy scene isn’t the biggest. I started putting on nights throughout the valleys, often to an audience who didn’t want to watch, whilst sleeping in my brother’s attic and working in a pasty shop.
I remember being part of a gig in Skewen, a small village outside Swansea whose high street had no library but did have a firework shop. The gig took place in a pub filled with men either about to go and work on the railway line or who had just come back. None of them were there for comedy. They were there for the football match on the telly. So, every comedian performed to the backs of these high-vis-wearing men’s heads.
Covid Lidl
I had to move back in with my parents and got a job in Lidl. I stopped comedy until everything opened back up. Restocking chicken at 6am whilst a 37-year-old father of two explains a new chokehold he learnt from a Dutch underground martial arts video last night has you rethinking all your life choices.
I would often meet up with my friend Slug after work and buy a big millionaire’s cheesecake and complain about our lives. Slug would say, “Hey man, sometimes you’ve gotta eat the shit sandwich.” He wasn’t trying to be a comedian; he just worked in Sainsbury’s.
Sam Frank Wood
Bristol
When I moved to Bristol with my now-ex, I started getting more regular gigs, usually in places that weren’t built for comedy, mainly coffee shops and back rooms of pubs.
The audience were made up of young professionals, students and middle-class folks and seemed to enjoy it sometimes. The scene was less volatile compared to the Welsh valleys.
When I broke up with my ex, I moved into an HMO with another comedian, Joe Riley. The longest streak where we’ve forgotten to take the bins out has been three weeks. Scarlet, the singer who lives above us, hates us.
Success
In 2024, I won the BBC New Comedian Award and started getting booked for nicer gigs. Every time the audience didn’t like my jokes, I would remind them that I was an award-winning comedian. I’ve run a few gigs into the ground.
I’m currently juggling a day job as a teaching assistant while driving around the UK doing gigs anywhere they’ll let me.
I'm debuting at the Edinburgh Fringe with my show ‘Grogg’ between 3-30 August, 10:40pm at Monkey Barrel Studio. Get your tickets here.
