PORTLAND, Maine — Tim Sample first began entertaining audiences in Maine as a singer and songwriter. But right from the start he was a little different from other performers.
“I would tell stories in between songs, because I didn’t know that many songs,” he said.
It was the 1970s, and Sample was 25 years old. He was a former student at the Portland School of Art (now the Maine College of Art & Design) and one of several musicians opening for Noel Paul Stookey in a series of shows around New England. Stookey—better known as Paul from the immensely successful folk group Peter, Paul, and Mary—took Sample aside one day.
“I’m going to say something. This may be upsetting to you,” Stookey told him.
“We’ve got all these Caucasian singer-songwriters with acoustic guitars right in a row, and it’s a bit top heavy that way. But you’ve got this other skill. You can make people laugh, sort of keep things moving. I think it would be a better program if you left your guitar behind, came out, introduced us, did five or ten minutes of humor, introduced the next act, and [so on].”
Sample was a bit miffed, he admits. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized Stookey was probably right.
It turned out to be a conversation that changed Sample’s life. He soon rebooted his live performances and became a Maine humorist and storyteller, the most successful one of his generation.
The stories and characters he was exposed to growing up in Boothbay Harbor gave him not just material but a distinctive voice and sensibility that have fueled hundreds and hundreds of performances in Maine and beyond, often in places where people knew nothing about down east humor. It didn’t matter—Sample made them laugh.
Now, at 73, he said he's ready for another major change. Sample has announced that he’s retiring from live performances.
His final show in June of 2025 will be at the Boothbay Opera House in his hometown. It marks the start of a new chapter, but he doesn’t want people to make too much of it, and he certainly doesn’t want anyone to start writing his obituary.
“I’m not disappearing, and I’m not going to do the endless Tim Sample [farewell] tour,” he said. “But I am saying what a wonderful 50 years, and what a great time we had.”