Tim Sample

Sample was born in Fort Fairfield, Maine, and raised in Boothbay Harbor, where he attended local schools.{{Cite web |title=Tim Sample reflects on a life with Maine humor |url=https://www.boothbayregister.com/node/85333 |access-date=2023-02-09 |website=Boothbay Register |language=en}} He briefly attended Hebron Academy and in 2004 was given an honorary degree from the Academy.{{Cite web |title=October surprise |url=https://www.boothbayregister.com/node/43246 |access-date=2023-02-23 |website=Boothbay Register |language=en}} As a child in the 1960s, Sample was influenced by the comedy albums of Marshall Dodge and Robert Bryan of Bert and I. After dropping out of high school, Sample attended art school and joined various local bands in the Portland area. It was singer-songwriter Noel Paul Stookey who encouraged Sample to try his hand at comedy. "You know, we’ve got an awful lot of white males singing songs," Sample recalls Stookey telling him, "You do this thing where you can get people laughing, you’ve got this storytelling thing."

Sample's first album of Downeast humor was recorded in 1979. Between 1982 and 2012, Sample collaborated with Bryan on a number of projects including several TV specials and comedy albums, including How to Talk Yankee (1982), Bert and I Rebooted (2012),{{cite news|url= https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YecpAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GGgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1760,3437796|accessdate= 2011-02-16

|title= Ayuh! Maine's four favorite funnymen to gather|date= October 17, 1985|page= 20|work=Lewiston Daily Sun}} and the TV specials Out of Season and Maine Humor Behind the Barn. He has also written and illustrated several books, including How to Talk Yankee and Saturday Night at Moody's Diner.{{cite magazine |last=Kevin |first=Brian |date=January 1, 2020 |title=Last Raconteur Standing? |url=https://downeast.com/arts-leisure/tim-sample/ |magazine=Down East |location= |publisher= |access-date=March 14, 2023}} Sample has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America and in the summer of 1993, Sample served as a correspondent for Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt.{{cite news |title= Tim Sample now a regular essayist on 'CBS Sunday Morning'|date= October 26, 1993|first= Dale|last= McGarrigle|work= Bangor Daily News}} The segment “Postcard from Maine” lasted 11 years.

Sample has narrated several audiobooks, including Robert McCloskey’s Burt Dow: Deep-Water Man, Stephen King’s The Sun Dog and the documentary From Stump to Ship for Northeast Historic Films.{{cite news|url= https://news.google.com/newspapersid=nSRfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-04NAAAAIBAJ&pg=1897,2624225|accessdate= 2011-02-16|title= 1,200 see logging film at UMO|page= 7|date= September 24, 1985|work= Bangor Daily News}} In 2015, he was an Audie Award finalist for his narration of Stephen King’s humor novella Drunken Fireworks.[https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/audies/2015/ 2015 Audie Award Finalists and Winners] Audio File Magazine, Audie Awards, Audio Publishers Association, 2015. Sample appeared in several pandemic safety PSAs funded and produced by the state of Maine; as well as TV, radio and online ads funded and produced by End Citizens United targeting US Senator Susan Collins.[https://mainebeacon.com/maines-humorist-laureate-tim-sample-cuts-ad-ripping-collins-for-big-pharma-wall-street-ties/ Maine’s ‘humorist laureate’ Tim Sample cuts ad ripping Collins for Big Pharma, Wall Street ties] Dan Neumann, Beacon, Maine People's Alliance, June 17, 2020.

Sample and his wife live in Portland, Maine, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.{{cite news |last=Routhier |first=Ray |date=September 20, 2024 |title=Maine humorist Tim Sample is stepping off the stage |work=Portland Press Herald |url=https://www.pressherald.com/2024/09/20/maine-humorist-tim-sample-is-stepping-off-the-stage/}}

• {{cite book|last=Sample|first=Tim|date=January 1, 1985|title=Saturday Night at Moody's Diner Other Stories |publisher=Harpswell Press |isbn= 978-0884480365}}
• {{cite book|last=Sample|first=Tim|date=August 11, 2014|title=How to Talk Yankee |publisher=North Country Press |isbn= 978-0945980070}}
• {{cite book|last=Sample|first=Tim|date=May 3, 2011|title=Maine Curiosities |publisher=Globe Pequot Press |isbn= 978-0762761142}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://timsample.com/ Official Website]
• {{IMDb name|0760115|Tim Sample}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sample, Tim}}

Category:1951 births

Category:Living people

Category:American humorists

Category:People from Fort Fairfield, Maine

Category:People from Boothbay Harbor, Maine

Category:20th-century American comedians

Category:21st-century American comedians

Category:Hebron Academy alumni

{{US-comedian-stub}}