Sam Reich went from high school dropout to one of the heads of his creative class. Now the president of digital production company Big Breakfast, Reich was president of original content for CollegeHumor, a struggling improv actor, a telemarketer, a precocious theater director, and a village idiot. He is currently executive producer of TruTV’s “Adam Ruins Everything,” the second season of which is currently airing.
How did you spend the first few years after dropping out of high school?
I lied about my age and directed a couple of pieces of theater. My parents sent me away when I was 16 to Oxford, England, to this program that takes troubled teenagers who aren’t fitting into the typical high school experience. I went into the local student theater and said, “I have a production of ‘Waiting for Godot’ that I’d love to put up.” And they assumed I was an Oxford University student. I was 15 and I told them I was 19. Then when I came back to Boston, I was 16 and told everyone I was 26, and I directed “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.” Then, when I was 19 years old I became a performer at the New York Renaissance Festival through an audition in Backstage.
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What did you learn from being the Renaissance Faire village idiot?
You learn that every creative task has its own language, its own discipline. The faire was such a unique culture, and the type of humor that was successful in that format was so unique—that combination of Renaissance language and historical context. And just relating to people as, fundamentally, a street performer. You’re catching people off guard, and you’re doing that all day. I still think that there are performers at the Renaissance Faire who are some of the best creative minds I’ve ever met in my life. I also learned how to sleep in a tent!
After being a theater director wunderkind, why did you get into comedy?
I got into comedy originally because I was in an acting class with a teacher who said, “You should act based on the first impression you give when you walk into a room. For instance, Sam is short, so he should do comedy.”
What’s your advice to other potential former high school dropouts trying to make a living as creatives?
Try a lot of things. Do a lot of things. Get into every nook and cranny and corner of this world that you’re allowed into because you just never know how A is going to lead to B or B is going to lead to C. Do a lot. Hit your head against that wall enough times and something will break.
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